Selfless Love
Psalm 126 and John 12:1-8
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Today’s scripture could make a wonderful theatrical performance. I see the scene so clearly. Can you imagine it with me?
The stage opens with many seated, or maybe reclined as was common in the day, around a long table. Lazarus, just being raised from death and freed from the tomb of darkness sits with them. Family and disciples are among them.
Martha rushing around preparing the food and the table, making sure that everything is perfect for this joyous occasion.
Also, the star of the show, Jesus, the miracle worker is there, along with Mary, Lazarus’ and Martha’s sister, and Judas, one of the disciples.
Mary approaches Jesus with a jar filled with a very expensive perfume that fills the room with a beautiful, rich aroma.
Mary doesn’t say anything as she approaches Jesus, kneels and begins to gently wipe Jesus’ feet with the expensive perfume. However, this is not just your ordinary spa treatment. This is Mary anointing Jesus’ feet, and when she is finished, she wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair.
I see this scene so vividly that I can smell the perfume. I can hear the silence in the room as all eyes focus on Mary as she approaches Jesus. This act alone was most likely out of character of the time and would have silenced the room.
Mary becomes the focus as she anoints Jesus. This beautiful, selfless act of love in celebration for the one that raised her brother from death to life, but Mary recognizes that Jesus will also save her life and all those who believe that Jesus is truly the Son of Man, the Savior sent by God.
Mary tenderly honors Jesus by anointing him with this expensive perfume, while at the same time acknowledging him as the one sent by God.
All of this she does in silence so that the focus remains on Jesus as she performs the act of her faithful discipleship in action and not with any words of distraction.
Let’s hold this scene for a moment in silence. (Pause for silence).
Silence makes us uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Some more than others, perhaps. Silence takes the focus off of ourselves, and in a society that promotes self-focus, it is hard to be silent and to find a quiet place. Mary was able to do this in a room filled with people.
Just as it is for us, so it was for Judas who breaks the silence. The silence is not broken with tears of joy, or tears of love. It was not broken with words of gratitude, rather Judas breaks the silence with what seems to be anger and resentment. Maybe even jealousy.
“Why has this expensive perfume not been sold to receive the money to give to the poor?” Judas questions Jesus.
Judas does not question the act because he is really concerned for the poor, but because he is concerned for his own pocket, and for what he can gain in wealth by stealing from the purse.
Judas has a love for money and power, not for Jesus or for his brothers and sisters gathered there in Lazarus’ home.
In the next words spoken by Jesus, we have not the end of this story, but the beginning of what is about to take place in Jesus’ last days.
Jesus sets the scene for the next chapter, the final chapter in his life here on earth, and the walk to Passover will now begin.
“Leave her alone.” Jesus says, “She bought this expensive perfume so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Ironically, the one who will betray Jesus, is the one who questions his anointing. This scripture is for us a revealing of the character of Judas Iscariot.
In these few short verses, we learn that Mary is a faithful disciple and witness who is preparing for Jesus death, even as she is ridiculed in this selfless act of love.
Judas, on the other hand, is the example of the unfaithful disciple who steals and betrays.
Both of these characters are important to the story John writes of Jesus’ death. It’s easy for us to love Mary and her actions while despising Judas for his, yet as one of my commentaries points out, the inclusion of these two characters gives us the true meaning of the cross and the inclusive nature of God’s grace.
Mary, like John the Baptist at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, serves as a model for Christian discipleship. While John the Baptist, as a faithful disciple, declared with words that Jesus was the Lamb of God who was sent to take away the sin of the world Mary’s act in silence was no less faithful.
John anoints Jesus in his baptism while speaking to the crowd, and Mary anoints Jesus with her expensive perfume in silence. Both are faithful witnesses. An example that we can show God’s love and be witnesses with words and by our actions in silence.
So where does this leave us with Judas? Judas, who I must remind you was a chosen disciple by Jesus. Judas who was a follower of Jesus’ life. He was someone who also saw Jesus’ actions, his miracles, his love for the people that he met along the journey with Jesus and the other disciples. So what do we do with Judas Iscariot?
Do we really think that Jesus made a mistake in choosing Judas as one of his apostles?
I’ll quote my commentary and Karl Barth to perhaps help us understand and put things into perspective:
‘Judas, the betrayer, the one who rejects Jesus, although he may not know it, “is still an elect and called apostle of Jesus Christ.” In his betrayal and handing over of Jesus to those who would kill him, Judas, no less than any of the other disciples, serves God’s great purpose of saving the lost. “Can it be,” therefore, “that the ‘loving unto the end’ of Jesus does not reach him [Judas], the very one who in his person and act simply makes manifest the fact and extent that without His death Jesus had not yet loved His own unto the end?” In other words, if Jesus came to save the lost, surely there is no one in the gospel story who is more lost than the one who betrays Jesus, even if that is what Judas is called by God to do. If the Good Shepherd can and does go to any length to save a lost sheep, is Judas beyond the saving grasp of the Good Shepherd? Are there those Jesus is not able to love and save? Is there a limit to the reach of Jesus’ saving arm? Barth admits the New Testament does not give us a clear answer. However, Judas is not simply the man who rejects Jesus. Judas shows us who the elect are in the New Testament. “The rejected as such has no independent existence in the presence of God. He is not determined by God merely to be rejected. He is determined to hear and say that he is a rejected man elected.”’
Judas, like Mary, plays just as an important role in John’s story of Christ’s death, and in both of these characters. Judas is very human, as are we. Mary, in contrast is filled with a selfless love that chooses to honor others, as do we.
The grace of Jesus Christ includes both these characteristics, faithful and unfaithful, and both are included within the transforming light of the cross as it casts a shadow on a dark world.
There is no greater, selfless love, than that of Jesus who came to save all sinners, and a God who extends a grace to all.
(Silent Reflection)
HYMN
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
God our Provider, out of your fullness you cause life to spring up in barren lands; you have power to control troubled waters, making a path of safety; you hear our cries and receive our tears; you restore us to joy and laughter. You have done great things for us, O God, and are continually making all things new. We give you thanks for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, whose life and ministry has guided us through this Lenten season and guides us in every season of life. In his suffering and death, he knows full well the troubles and pains we face in this earthly life. In his resurrection is the hope of our own. Surrounded by your overflowing love, we are not alone. We pray for people in difficult places. For those who are suffering and those at life’s end; for people struggling financially; for those estranged from loved ones; for those trapped in the grip of addiction; for people enduring emotional or spiritual turmoil, and for all those who have asked for our prayers we pause now to remember:
Because you are able to make a way in the wilderness, we thank you O God, and lift these prayers to you as we say together the words Jesus taught us to pray: Our Father, who art in Heaven…….
OFFERING:
God has given us the greatest gift of selfless love, let us return to him our gifts of thanksgiving.
Plate, Mail, Online.
Now in a moment of silence, let us remember our blessings and those we have to share.
DOXOLOGY
DEDICATION PRAYER
Abundant God: You cause water to flow in desert places. You healed the sick, fed the five thousand, and continue to astound us with your generous abundance that humbles us as we return a portion of our gifts to you. Bless these our gifts as you lead us. May we use them with wisdom and courage to bless others for the sake of the world you came to save. We pray in your holy name. Amen.
HYMN
COMMUNION
Invitation to the Table
Just as God sent Jesus to be with us, he also sent him to prepare this feast before us.
So that we would neither hunger or thirst any longer.
This is not a Presbyterian table, it is Christ’s table, and he invites all who long to be filled to come taste and see that the Lord is good.
THE LORD BE WITH YOU
(And also with you)
LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS
(We lift them to the Lord)
LET US GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD OUR GOD
(It is truly right and our greatest joy)
Let us pray:
Creator God, you have formed us as your own, so whether we are weeping or laughing, dreaming or shouting for joy, we are always coming home to you. For all this and more we give you thanks and praise for your Son, Jesus Christ, who prepared this feast of which we partake, and for which we gratefully accept the blessings born in this bread and cup to share with others who long to know your selfless love and be inspired by the Holy Spirit to proclaim you as their one true God. We rejoice and praise you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
BREAD AND CUP…on the night of his arrest, Jesus took bread…..
PRAYER OF COMMITMENT
God of Grace, in this bread and cup, we have received the body of Christ and the love of the new covenant so that in the world we may continue to proclaim your Word boldly. Lead us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to witness your truth, for we remember and proclaim that death does not have the last word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
BENEDICTION
We continue the journey to the cross as we consider our own life of discipleship.
May the God of Grace guide you,
The selfless love of Christ surround you,
And the Holy Spirit fill us with faith overflowing.