Sermon: What a Waste

By:  Kendall Brown                                    Kendall's Notebook Page 23

Text:  John 12: 1-8

March 25, 2004

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A week ago, I was in Maine to visit with my parents.   As usual when traveling, I took some reading material along.  Last week it was Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code.    The book’s basic premise is that the Western Church has for many centuries relegated women to the back seat.  Today’s thoughts take a cue from my recent reading.

This morning’s lesson is John’s story about Jesus visiting the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany just before Holy Week.  I set forth the thesis that Mary, as presented and known through this story, is one of the Bible’s greatest prophets.

When we think “prophet,” Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nathan, Elisha, Elijah, Jonah, Ezekiel, Daniel and many others come to mind.  Seldom do we quickly consider Mary as being in that company of distinguished prophets – all male.

Prophets engaged in prophetic acts. Samuel is remembered for anointing the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David.  In today’s story, Mary does much more than anoint a couple worldly kings.  She anoints the one who is King of Kings – the Messiah.  Messiah simply means “The anointed one.”  She anointed Jesus just before he entered into his Kingdom, majestically marked by his entrance into Jerusalem, which we will celebrate as Palm Sunday next week.

Mary’s action was filled with all the metaphor of prophets.  Every move in the story foreshadows another move in God’s story.  She anoints Jesus’ feet.  The meaning was clear to Jesus,  if not to all in the room.  Her anointing foreshadowed the death soon to come to the Messiah.

There is a strong Biblical tradition found in the prophetic drama of the prophets.  Ezekiel ate a scroll to show that God’s word was in him.  Jeremiah smashed clay jars to show God’s judgment on Israel.  Isaiah passed through the streets of Jerusalem naked to call attention to his message.  Hosea married a prostitute to symbolize God’s marriage to a harlot nation.

Mary stood in that great tradition of offering dramatic prophetic action when she washed Jesus’ feet with her hair.  Even though Mary anointed the Messiah himself, her story is debunked.   Judas criticized the great waste of expensive oil. The Nard, worth nearly a years wage could have been better used in the service of the poor suggested Judas.

But the waste was not in Mary.  The waste was in Judas – the waste of spirit and commitment that Judas tossed aside.

The story is about giving and extravagant giving.  Judas, as Johns says so clearly, was more interested in taking than in giving.  

Mary offered a lavish, loving prophetic act that Jesus recognized.  She foretold the death of the Messiah. The scene also foreshadows the upper room.  In Mary’s foot washing, Jesus own foot washing is foreshadowed.

As important as Mary’s prophecy was to Jesus, it was debunked immediately by Judas.

The debunking didn’t stop there.  A lack of appreciation for Mary’s role as prophet continued in the retelling of the story as the Gospels took shape in the early church.

The story is found in all four Gospels.  There are some differences in the telling from Gospel to Gospel.  In Matthew and Mark, the time is after Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem.  He returns to Bethany for a rest after the Palm Sunday Parade.  In Matthew and Mark, Jesus is a guest in the Bethany home of Simon the Leper.  In these two Gospels, the woman who washes his feet is left unnamed.  These two Gospels include the criticism that the money would be better spent on the poor, but the identity of the criticizer is left unnamed.  

In Luke, the story is found early in the Gospel – a long time before any of the events of Holy Week.  In Luke, the event takes place in the home of Simon the Pharisee. The woman is identified as an unnamed sinner.  Luke has Jesus criticizing his host by pointing out that the sinful woman has more hospitality than the host, himself.

In John, the event takes place just before Jesus enters Jerusalem.  The place is identified as Bethany and the hosts are named as Martha, Mary and Lazarus, their brother.  

One thing is clear in all of these stories.  The one clear thing is the amazing lack of clarity and consistency among the Gospel writers as to who the woman is.  This story is one of a handful told by all four Gospel writers.  OF all the shared stories, none are told so many ways with such confusion about who the main character is.

Had the person, who anointed Jesus.  been Samuel or John the Baptist, I doubt that his identity would be so unclear.  The writers would have gotten it straight.  But in Jesus day, women were so marginalized that even when they did contribute to the story in a significant way, it was not important to even get their names straight.

In the history of the church and the retelling of the story over the centuries, Mary’s identity and importance are further debunked.  In the church tradition, Mary is so debunked that she is even replaced.

We sang an old hymn.  In the original version written in 1888, the line is “Master, no offering, costly and sweet, may we like Magdalene lay at thy feet.”  This line reflects a long standing misunderstanding, if not out and out mis-telling, of the story and changing Mary of Bethany to Mary Magdalene.  The church’s retelling of the story with this change, implies that only a prostitute would let her hair down as was done in this story – a further debunking of the great prophetic act found in this story and of the prophet herself who performed that act.

(Of course the idea that Mary Magdalene is a prostitute is another story.  That Mary Magdalene was a respected disciple was a part of the early church’s story telling until approximately the 6th century.  There is no Biblical basis for treating Mary Magdalene as a prostitute.  She was healed of a disease by Jesus, and through that healing came to know and follow him.)

We ourselves also debunk this story.  We do so by shying away because of the discomfort that washing someone else’s feet brings to us.  Only some off-balanced woman would do something like this!

I remember well how long it took in one parish to bring foot washing into our Maundy Thursday service.  We talked about it for about 12 years.  I had my own hesitations and reservations.  How to use the soap?  Will the soap fly off the pulpit?  How to rinse without soaking the whole place?  Will people’s feet smell?  Etc.  Finally we set aside our apprehensions.  Four or five person agreed to have their feet washed in the service.

That service ended up being one of the most moving worship experiences that we had ever had together.  Mary calls us to give of ourselves with loving extravagance.  She calls us to love without pretense.  -  Judas was good at pretending.

There is another debunking in which we can engage.  That is when we share Judas’ criticism, “What a waste.”  Love is never wasted.  Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 15, when he responded to Jerusalem.  That passage says that the poor will always be around.  Deuteronomy also calls us to respond with love to the poor and suggests that if we love lavishly and extravagantly, God will provide us with our needs.  We will not run out of resources by running with our love.  Mary’s story and Judas’ concern are not mutually exclusive.  Real giving needs to come for an extravagant love within the heart.  The cross ahead calls us to this extravagant love.