Dear Friends,
In this time of self-isolation and stay-at-home orders, many of us are likely to be watching more television. Maybe we’re streaming entire series and binge-watching them over just a few days. Many such series were probably originally meant to be watched from week to week, and each new episode often begins with a deep-voiced announcer intoning, “Previously on. . . ,” followed by a few short, crucial scenes from earlier shows to get us up to speed. I find my mind wandering all too often in these pandemic days, and even if I’ve just watched the previous episode, I really appreciate that short summary. Our reading for this Monday of Holy Week is John 12:1-11. Let me step into the role of that deep-voiced announcer and recap what was happening in Chapter 11, which we read eight days ago, for the Fifth Sunday in Lent.
“Previously on…” Lazarus has died. Jesus travels with the disciples to Bethany and raises him from the dead. Mary and Martha, Lazarus’s sisters, were sitting shiva, the seven-day period of mourning, and many neighbors and friends had come to be with them and console them.
And now, let me fill you in with a short summary of the rest of chapter 11 in John. (I can only assume it ended up on the cutting-room floor when that episode was filmed!) Everyone at the house knew Jesus had raised Lazarus, and reports of this miracle (the seventh of John’s signs) spread rapidly, including to the Pharisees and the ruling council of the Jews. “What are we to do?” they asked in fear and anxiety. “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.” (John 11:47) They feared that the miracles Jesus was performing would coalesce and focus the growing unrest in the Jewish community, and that their Roman oppressors would perceive it as outright revolt and destroy them all. Jesus’s life had already been threatened by the Jewish council, whose role it was to placate their people. “Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with his disciples.” (John 11:54) He remained there until the opening of Chapter 12.
“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.” (John 12:1) Here is the man who but a few days earlier had saved Lazarus and then disappeared into the wilderness. How would you receive such a man? How would you ever be able to express the depth of your gratitude? The three siblings – Lazarus, Mary, and Martha – did what many of us would do: they fed him; they threw a party for him. As we would expect from earlier descriptions of the relationship between Mary and Martha, Martha took on the bulk of responsibility for the meal, including serving it. That couldn’t have been easy; Jesus presumably had his disciples with him as well, so it was far more than a simple meal; it was actually a feast, shared by a lot of people.
But for Mary, even a banquet wasn’t quite enough. “Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.” (John 12:3) Please see a medieval artist’s painting of the banquet at the end of this email, and notice Mary washing Jesus’s feet. The value of that rare perfume called “nard” was equal to nearly a year’s wages for a laborer. Knowing this, the disciple Judas Iscariot angrily asked, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (John 12: 5) (Judas’s motives, outlined in verse 6, are questionable and worthy of greater examination. We’ll consider Judas later during this Holy Week.)
It’s entirely reasonable that the family would go to extremes to welcome Jesus back into their home after his time in Ephraim. Both the feast and Mary’s act display their unfathomable appreciation for their brother’s miraculous return to life. For the gospel writer and the church, however, Mary’s act stands out and has taken on much more meaning.
Symbolically, Mary’s anointing of Jesus echoes the anointing of prophets, priests, and kings of old. But those were anointings of the head, not the feet, which were nearly always dirty and dusty from the roads. Feet were regarded as disgusting and repellent. In the culture of the time, when a guest arrived at someone’s home, a servant would greet the visitor and wash their feet. Washing the feet of a visitor was never left to the householder. It was an act of respect to ask one’s servant to do it for a visitor; it surely kept houses cleaner, and it would have made visitors much more comfortable. Such washing of the feet normally involved a simple basin of soap and water, certainly not costly perfumes.
Mary was far from a servant; she was one of the heads of the household. Hers was a radical act of deep gratitude that transcended almost all cultural norms, but even more, with this action, she humbled herself and exposed herself to condemnation. This was a culture that did not allow women to let down their hair in the company of men outside of their family, but Mary dares not only to let down her hair, but to wipe Jesus’s feet with it. And she does so with costly perfume. Her act is a powerful witness to Jesus, and it is the epitome of servanthood, discipleship, sacrifice, and love. In the midst of social, political, and religious discord; despite cultural norms; and in the face of violent threats from the Pharisees, Mary affirms her faith in the one who she recognizes has came in the name of the Lord.
Does her act anticipate Jesus’s own death in a few short days? Is this action a symbolic embalming?
The story is moving quickly now. In coming episodes, we’ll see Jesus in an upper room in Jerusalem washing the feet of his disciples; we’ll witness the Son of God taking on the role of a humble servant. Just like Mary, but much more so, when Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, he is showing profound humility and servanthood. Even as he acts so humbly, though, he demonstrates his power, his dedication to all of humanity.
The two verses that follow our reading for today, verses 12 and 13, tell us, “The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna!’” And the story continues…
During this Holy Week, I invite you to commit to praying every day. If you already do that, add another spiritual exercise this week. Begin each morning by tracing the cross on the back of your hand. Use prayer or that simple exercise to focus on this holiest of weeks. Even in times of pandemic and isolation, indeed, maybe especially in these times, it’s essential to keep our spiritual muscles in the best possible shape.
And so, for today’s prayer, join with all your sisters and brothers; let us pray together,
Creator of the universe, you made the world in beauty, and you restore all things in glory through the victory of Jesus Christ. May we be as humble as he was when he washed his disciples’ feet, and may we be as grateful as Mary when she humbled herself and bathed his feet in costly oil. We thank you for your extravagant love. We pray that, wherever your divine image is disfigured by rampant poverty, global sickness, selfishness, war, and greed, the new creation in Jesus Christ may appear in healing, justice, love, and peace, to the glory of your name. Amen.