John 12:1-8 Commentary

The little family of Martha, Mary and Lazarus are the prime example of disciples who were not the disciples (the twelve). They are front and center of some of Jesus’s most intimate moments as well as perhaps his most spectacular miracle. And though this scene is one of many positive encounters Jesus has with women, it’s one of the few (with either sex) where Jesus is given a gift, blessed by someone’s love and generosity.

Two lectionary cycles ago, Karoline Lewis wrote about this text and the way that Mary is loving Jesus into his future by anointing him in the manner 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 be 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.’”

Even the God who is Love can use some love. As we are quick to think of serving God, worshipping God, being and doing good for God, or speak of loving God, how often do we ask what loving God looks like? All God does is love us into our future, but do we love in the same way?

If we take Jesus’s anointing as a paradigm, loving God smells like a fragrant perfume, looks like humility as a woman washes his feet with her hair; it seems like a real waste of resources. Well, only to the selfishly minded does the ‘waste’ become a matter of concern… but more on that later.

To God, love looks like encouraging someone with acts that attest to their dignity and worth. To love them into a future that flourishes. I can’t help but wonder what prompted Mary to make this bold public display of love at this particular meal. Is it because their household has felt first-hand the pressure of opposition close in around them? (In the verses immediately after our text we’re told that the chief priests have decided that Lazarus is too powerful a witness to Jesus and therefore he too needs to be “taken care of.”) How long has Mary been saving this expensive perfume? Was this a replacement bottle for the one used when Lazarus died and was buried?

It seems as though she knows that Jesus will suffer an untimely death, but does she understand the magnificence of the reasons why? And in the face of that knowledge, does she feel helpless? By giving him this generous gift while Jesus is alive, she is able to encourage and bless Jesus, wash him in love.

Is it love if it is not costly? Is it love if it does not require a humbling or sacrifice of one’s self for the good of another? Is it love if it does not build up the dignity and personhood of another?

Judas tries to seem loving, complaining about the extravagance of Mary’s offering. “That money,” he says, “could have served the poor!” And yes, it could have, but as John tells us, that’s not what Judas was going to do with it. Or maybe Judas is feeling the scald of shame, seeing Mary do something so loving while knowing that he’s been thieving from the disciples’ collective account. Whereas she acts with such selflessness, he’s been outright selfish and is made uncomfortable with seeing this intimate moment of what could have been, should have been. In other words, perhaps Mary’s love feels like condemnation and an exposure of his own lack, and so he lashes out.

Jesus does not stand for it. With his own act of love, Jesus speaks up for Mary, defending her dignity and worth against the hypocrite’s accusation: “Leave her alone.” He does not strip Judas down or give a long speech about Judas’s sinful disposition. Instead—and as we will see over the course of events of Holy Week—Jesus keeps acting with love toward Judas, loving him into the future as well.

Back to Karoline Lewis’s insights. As she reflects on this gift that Mary gave to Jesus alongside Judas’s objection, she finds his response common enough. “But we also know those who object to this kind of love. Who find it unnecessary, a little over-the-top, in fact. Those who dismiss such love as wasteful, who think people are better off fending for themselves; that real strength means relying on individual fortitude rather than the faithfulness of others…” and thus, because we refuse to love and be generous towards others, we make it so that there will always be the poor among us. All the while, we become the ones poorer for not knowing true, beautiful, fragrant love.

Filling the room that day was not just the fragrant perfume that Mary poured onto Jesus’s feet. Also filling the space was the knowledge of death and life and Jesus as their master. Mary knows this to be true and loves Jesus all the more for it, anoints him to it. She loves him into his future.

Textual Point

Dale Bruner helped me see that Martha, Mary and Lazarus are portrayed in similar ways to the other meal at their home: Martha is serving, Mary is at Jesus’s feet, and Lazarus is part of the group of disciples being fed. We are who we are, and that’s not always a bad thing.

[Note: In addition to these weekly sermon commentaries on the CEP website, we also have a resource page for Lent and Easter with more preaching and worship ideas as well as sample sermons on the Year C Lectionary texts.]

Illustration Idea

Karoline Lewis used a personal example of loving into the future: “Over the weekend I said goodbye (again) to my oldest son who had been home from college for spring break. It is amazing to have adult children. We spent about four hours together on Saturday night. I made him dinner. We face-timed with his girlfriend because she wanted to ‘meet’ me. We talked about why he loved his anthropology class. Sunday, we went to the art museum with my dad, his grandfather, of course. When he gets back on the plane to head back to school, I think he will know what it feels like to be loved into his future.”