From the Daily Lectionary Friday/Saturday March 26-27, 2021
John 12:1-10
12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well.
“Mary of Bethany, the Second-to-Last Supper”
Mary of Bethany along with Jesus are the main characters in this reading. You might ask “Which Mary is this?” There are a lot of women named Mary in scripture, and it can be hard to know which is which. There is Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the mother of James, Mary the colleague of Paul who worked among the Romans, Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and of course Mary Magdalene. Most people did not have last names in first century Palestine, so the gospel writers assigned them another name to identity them, for instance Mary of Bethany. In addition to that, these different Marys had different roles in the synoptic gospels and John’s gospel. Consider the several variations of anointing by women in the gospel accounts. In today’s reading in John the woman who anoints Jesus is Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. In Mark (14:3-9), Luke (7:36-50), and Matthew (26:6-13) the woman who anoints Jesus with ointment from the alabaster jar is identified only as a “woman,” and in Luke’s version further as a “sinner,” an uninvited intruder. In John and Mark and Matthew the anointing takes place just prior to Jesus’ Passion, but in Luke it is earlier. Was the woman in these scenes Mary, and if so which one? We don’t know. It is important to the Fourth Gospelist and his community that the woman who anoints Jesus is given a name, and the very important name Mary. And what about the Marys at the tomb on Sunday morning? In Mark and in Matthew it was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (which James? We don’t know). In Luke it was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Joanna. In John it is only Mary Magdalene. It can be confusing.
But let’s switch gears. In today’s text we are getting close to Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on “Palm Sunday.” Here is the context: Jesus has just recently raised Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, from death. This miracle—the last sign of Jesus—greatly disturbs the chief priests and Pharisees, who call a council to devise a plan to deal with Jesus, whose expanding throng of followers is a threat to their control over the people, and a potential cause for the occupying Romans to destroy their temple and their “whole nation.” The high priest Caiaphas basically condemns Jesus to death, saying “You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Jesus then goes with his disciples to the town of Ephraim near the wilderness because he could “no longer walk about openly among the Jews.”
In today’s text Jesus has returned to Bethany, the home of his beloved friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Here Mary hosts the “second-to-last” supper for Jesus. In many ways it reflects like a mirror image the last supper Jesus will host for his disciples a few nights later when he washes their feet. The supper, the serving, the wiping, the presence of Judas, are features in common with both. In this supper in Bethany Mary enacts what Jesus was to command at the last supper, actions of love and self-sacrifice. She plays the role of Jesus, kneeling, wiping, pouring out substance of great value. Mary is the servant tonight, as Jesus will be at the last supper. Her anointing links this supper with the washing of feet by Jesus at the last supper. What Jesus does as servant then and his commandment to the disciples to “love one another” Mary has already done for him. She is the model of discipleship, and in this story she knows how to respond to Jesus without being told. She has fulfilled his commandment before he even teaches it. If discipleship is defined as acts of love and responding to Jesus, then Mary is revealing true discipleship at this second-to-last supper. It is also instructive that it is a woman who embodies this love that Jesus will command to the disciples. Compare her actions to those of Judas, and to Peter when he first refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet. She gets it. Discipleship in John differs from that in the synoptic gospels. With rare exception (John 6:67) there is little emphasis on the twelve men as a fixed group of disciples. Jesus’ disciples are rather all people like Mary who love him and live out of that love.
Rev. Bob Donnell
Prayer For Peace (BCP p. 815)
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.
2021-03-26
