Fifth Sunday of Lent
Text: John 12:1-8
Pastor Jean M. Hansen
“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around. Love is in the air, every sight and every sound.” Does anyone remember that song from 1977 by John Paul Young? I’m not a vintage music buff, but that’s what came to my mind as I read today’s Gospel lesson in which the nearly overwhelming smell of pure nard – a costly perfume – was in the air. It was the aroma of love, but also of death. So it was that both love and death were present simultaneously, which is so often the case.
We read in John 12 that it was just 6 days before the Passover, which meant that the roads were crowded with pilgrims headed to the Holy City, Jerusalem. Mary and Martha, friends of Jesus, were throwing a dinner party in his honor. They were profoundly grateful that Jesus had restored their brother Lazarus to life and would never forget seeing him shuffle out of the tomb, struggling against the strips of cloth that bound him. Lazarus had been dead four days when Jesus called him forth, causing worry about the possible stench when the stone was removed from the tomb at Jesus’ command.
That’s one way death was in the air. But, also, raising Lazarus from death to life had cinched the case against Jesus as far as the religious authorities were concerned. People were flocking to Jesus, having heard about the miracle. “Soon there will be no stopping him,” they conjectured. So, they developed a plot not only to kill Jesus, but also Lazarus – that was a lot of death in the air.
There was love too, though, because Mary and Martha were so thankful that their brother was alive to join the party. He was dead, but now he’s alive! And he was reclining at the table with Jesus.
That’s when the scent of love and death became profound. Mary knelt at Jesus’ feet and anointed them with a fragrant and expensive perfume worth one year’s wages for a laborer. This was extravagant, excessive (prodigal) behavior, and it was intimate too. She uncovered her head and let her hair down to wipe away the excess oil. (That was scandalous in front of non-family men) Why did she do this unprecedented act? How are we to understand it?
The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Mary might have said it was a sign of true affection and gratitude. Maybe you’ve wondered how Mary had the necessary funds to buy this extravagant gift. In the Chosen series about Jesus’ life, when Lazarus died, his business partners let Mary and Martha know that there was enough money to sustain them for a while. It was those “rainy day” funds that Mary used to buy not just any anointing oil, but the best available. Of course, that’s all conjecture; but we do know that it was a lavish purchase.
Other thoughts include those of scholars who write that Mary’s actions prefigured Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, when he commanded them to love and serve others in a similar, humble manner. Therefore, they say Mary is revealed as a model disciple. Others note that the sweet-smelling perfume symbolically countered the stench of Lazarus’ tomb.
Judas indicated that her actions were a deplorable waste of money that could have been used to help others. That complaint might seem valid, except that it is made clear in the text that Judas had no real concern for the poor but was intent on lining his own pocket by stealing from the common funds.
But what about Jesus? What did he have to say about why Mary offered this lavish act of love? “Leave her alone,” he said, “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.” What?? That sentence is difficult to translate out of the Greek, which means that the English does not make much sense. First, we might note, she did not keep it, she poured it out, and second, that day is not the day of Jesus’ burial. So, let’s be less literal.
Remember, both love and death were in the air; Jesus knew this – to him the anointing was a reminder of what would happen in the coming week, his own death, which was rooted in love. He was moved by Mary’s gift. As commentator Karoline Lewis wrote, “Mary is loving Jesus into his future by anointing him in the matter of burial.” She describes Mary’s extravagant love as an encouragement for what Jesus will soon do: “washing the feet of his disciples, handing himself over to arrested in the garden, carrying his own cross, dying, rising and ascending. Mary loves Jesus into his future as the fulfillment of “for God so loved the world.’” (1)
Now that we’ve considered Mary’s, the scholars’ and Jesus’ possible responses to the questions, “Why did Mary do this lavish act of love? How are we to understand it? - what do you think?
There’s no doubt that Mary’s gift was an extravagant one; maybe she suspected that Jesus’ death was imminent. Also, she did not seem to care about the opinions of others regarding her behavior toward Jesus. (What respectable woman would make such a public display?) I think a woman who knew that the Messiah was sitting in her house would do so.
In the story of Lazarus being raised from death to life, both Martha and Mary greeted Jesus with the comment, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” These words probably were a combination of anger that Jesus did not come sooner, when they first let him know that Lazarus was seriously ill, but also of faith that if he had been there, he and they would have been spared his death.
But then, in his conversation with Martha before Lazarus is raised, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who live and believes in me will never die.” Martha then proclaims that she believes that Jesus is the Messiah. I think the anointing was Mary’s proclamation, her confession of faith that the one before her was the one for whom they had been waiting, the “Anointed One”.
It’s often true that in our lives, love and death are linked, which is what makes death so painful. Mary washes Jesus in love, and perhaps also pours out her grief.
Perhaps this is a good time to consider these questions: Is it love if it is not costly? Is it love if it does not require a humbling or sacrifice of oneself for the good of another? Is it love if it does not build up the dignity and personhood of another? (2)
That’s the love which is being presented in this beautiful account, and which will continue to be evident during Holy Week: it’s sacrificial love. We see glimpses of it in our lives and in our world, but Mary and Jesus are the guides for love that is costly, humbling, sacrificial and beneficial to another.
It’s the love that we should strive to imitate; love that is worth giving up our “rainy day” fund, or reputations; it’s love that reorders our priorities and perspectives. When that love is in the air, along with death, so is transformation and new life. AMEN
“Sermon Commentary on John 12:1-8” by Chelsey Harmon, April 6, 2025, www. cepreaching.org
Same as #1