Text: John 12:1-8

A spendthrift lover is the Lord
Who never counts the cost
Or asks if heaven can afford
To woo a world that's lost.
Our lover tosses coins of gold
Across the midnight skies
And stokes the sun against the cold
To warm us when we rise.

So begins a moving hymn by Thomas Troeger that leads us toward today’s challenging text. It is important, in considering this ancient story of extravagant love, that we understand it as grounded in God, whose very nature is such love. We see this love personified in Jesus as he pours out his life in faithfulness, and we see it in Mary’s extravagant gesture of anointing.

In John’s gospel this story comes not long after the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It also comes in the context of the plan of the religious authorities to have Jesus arrested and executed during the coming Passover. (See John 11:45-57) As all the gospel writers indicate, Jesus has set his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem and this particular Passover celebration at which he anticipates his own execution. Despite the best efforts of those around him to dissuade him, he moves inexorably toward the social and political consequences of his life and ministry. He knows that by speaking truth to power and aligning himself, in compassion, with the poor and outcast, he has angered, even enraged, the authorities, those self-appointed keepers of the status quo, and he knows there will be hell to pay. He does not “count the cost or ask if heaven can afford to woo [in love, this] world that’s lost.”

In a powerful and emotional sequence of events, Jesus has raised his friend, Lazarus, from the dead. Then, in the threatening turmoil that follows, a turmoil in which the religious authorities see this action of Jesus as the last straw, he retreats for a few days before his final push into Jerusalem. That is, after the raising of Lazarus, the writer of John says that “Some of them went to the [religious authorities] and told them what he had done.” These same authorities called a council meeting, in which this question was laid before them, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” It doesn’t matter that he is performing signs on behalf of God, that he is healing broken bodies, casting out demons and raising the dead in the name of God, that he is ministering to the poor and outcast in anticipation of the coming culture of God, his ministry is a threat to the status quo, their status quo. It is their temple, now totally corrupted by self serving practices; it is their dirty little deals with the Romans that are threatened; it is their personal power and wealth that is challenged by Jesus; and these must be preserved at all costs. Oh yes, they do count the cost and believe they can ill afford to woo a world that’s lost, a rag-tag bunch of sinners and ne’er-do-wells, the very bottom of the barrel. No place in their privileged world for such as these.

So, they hatch their plot. Wily old Caiphas, the leader of the pack, convinces them that it’s “better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Of course, we have never heard any of our leaders utter words like this. The politics of expediency couldn’t possibly dominate our political scene. When Representative John Lewis (a Baptist brother, by the way, and, like Martin Luther King, Jr., to whom he refers, a recipient of the Dahlberg Peace Prize, the highest honor our denomination can bestow,) stood in the House of Representatives last week and said, as a man of faith,

If [Martin Luther King, Jr.] could speak today, he would say this Nation needs a revolution of values that exposes the truth that war does not work. If he could speak today, he would say that war is obsolete as a tool of our foreign policy.

He would say there is nothing keeping us from changing our national priority so that the pursuit of peace can take precedence over the pursuit of war.

He would say we must remove the causes of chaos, injustice, poverty and insecurity that are breeding grounds for terrorism. This is the way towards peace.

As a Nation, can we hear the words of Gandhi, so simple, so true, that it is either nonviolence or nonexistence? Can we hear the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., saying that we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish as fools?

Tonight I must make it plain and clear that as a human being, as a citizen of the world, as a citizen of America, as a Member of Congress, as an individual committed to a world at peace with itself, I will not and I cannot in good conscience vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war…

when Representative Lewis spoke like this, every committed Christian in Congress and every dedicated child of God agreed. They said amen to this powerful witness; the vote to end the war in Iraq was unanimous. Wasn’t it?

But I digress, the writer of John’s gospel says that “from that day on they planned to put him to death” and primarily because he just kept promoting too much life. So, he no longer walked about openly – remember timing was everything and his time had not quite come. In fact, he retreated to the little town of “Ephraim in the region near the wilderness” to wait for his moment. Interestingly enough, John tells us that, as the Passover drew near, the buzz was about whether he would show or not. “They were looking for [him] and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” Still, just in case, the authorities put out the word that “anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know so they could arrest him.”

Troeger’s hymn goes on

Still more is spent in blood and tears
To win the human heart.
To overcome the violent fears
That drive the world apart.
Behold the bruised and thorn-crowned face
Of one who bears our scars
And empties out the wealth of grace
That's hinted by the stars.

So we find Jesus, quietly dining in the home of his friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha, at the Sabbath meal the week before the Passover festival. Not only has he come out of retreat but he has placed himself exactly back in the spot of great controversy and drama from which he had just retreated. We know the authorities were also scheming to execute Lazarus in order to squelch his testimony to the miracle of his resurrection. They must have had his house staked out, and here is Jesus, calmly breaking bread at Lazarus table. Lazarus is among those reclining at the table with Jesus and the disciples. Martha is typically engaged in serving the meal, when out of nowhere Mary bursts on the scene carrying a good size container, the contents of which she pours on Jesus feet. As the scent of those precious contents fills the whole house, she impulsively loosens her long hair and uses it to keep the costly perfume from dripping to the floor. She uses her hair to wipe up the excess and to massage the ointment into Jesus skin.

For a moment you could hear a pin drop; then all hell breaks loose. Lazarus and Martha must be mortified by Mary’s scandalous behavior. Here they are hosting a lovely, intimate dinner part and Mary disrupts it with this totally scandalous behavior. No respectable woman would let her hair down in public. And the perfume! It was worth a year’s wages. How could she throw it away so shamelessly and needlessly? But before anyone else can speak, Judas weighs in, speaking words that are on the minds of most gathered there, and perhaps many of us gathered here today. “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”

It seems to serve John’s purpose to make Judas the villain here. The writer of the gospel knows that Judas will eventually be the one who turn Jesus over to the authorities. How can he explain Judas’s betrayal? He will set him up as an evil character from the beginning. I must confess discomfort with this easy demonization of Judas. I wonder if his wasn’t really the practical voice of Jesus’ followers who wanted him, not only to ease the lot of the poor and outcast, but also to throw out the Romans and those religious authorities who oppressed the people and kept them in bondage. Such an extravagant gesture would be incomprehensible for such a practical character.
In his commentary, Paul Nuechterlein says, “Here, Judas represents the world's way. He says what everyone was thinking. Jesus had been spending his time with the outcasts of society, the marginalized. He has demonstrated a special empathy for those who are excluded. So it was natural for everyone to see Mary's act as extravagance. It's as though we gave a party in honor of Mother Theresa and brought out an $800 bottle of wine. How embarrassing! Judas was just saying what everyone was thinking” (Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Lent 5, March 25, 2007.) And I must admit, Judas’s question sits comfortably on my own tongue when I read it over. As a good Christian, child of the Protestant work ethic, such a grand gesture does not mesh easily with my religious understanding and practice.
Mary seems a little like a wild woman. It’s like dealing with some of those crazy mystics of the Christian tradition with their ecstatically erotic utterances and their excessive devotional practices. A little too out there for us? What would it mean to give our religion all we’ve got, to throw ourselves into it body and soul? After all, she is clearly a committed disciple of Jesus, an ardent follower, one who sits at his feet and drinks in every word. And, wonder of wonders, he has just raised her beloved brother from the dead. Maybe a little scandalous ecstasy is called for. Maybe extravagant love is exactly what is needed here. Jesus seems to think so. “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Mary gets it; she understands; she sees the big picture in a very deep sense. We do not know if her intention is symbolically to prepare Jesus’ body for coming burial, but she knows she owes him everything. Nuechterlein, again, says, “She bestows on Jesus a gesture of lavish, unreserved devotion, throwing aside all caution and practicality. It was an outrageous social act to perform. This gospel presents her as one who got it right…Mary gives everything. John is giving this as a symbol of having no reservations at all, which is precisely what is called for” (Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Lent 5, March 25, 2007.) And be assured that Jesus is not saying the poor should remain poor. The mandate to care for the poor is our ongoing work; this opportunity to anoint Jesus is an “in this moment” necessity. Here is a once in a lifetime opportunity to encounter the “Christ who invites the spreading of perfume over the world, the entry into and the connection with a sacred beauty as well as money for the poor” (Ian Price, Words for Worship, 2001,quoted in Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life, Lent/Easter 2007, p. 53.)

As we come to the conclusion of these reflections, we come full circle to the question of what it is like to serve a God of extravagant love, to follow one who pours out his life in service of such love. The final verse of Troeger’s hymn captures it this way:

How shall we love this heart-strong God
Who gives us everything,
Whose ways to us are strange and odd,
What can we give or bring?
Acceptance of the matchless gift
Is gift enough to give.
The very act will shake and shift
The way we love and live. Amen.