Sermon – March 21, 2010

Year C – The Year of Luke – Lent 5

We are beginning quickly to approach Palm Sunday and Holy Week. As we do so, we are given this Gospel, which stands as a kind of moment to ponder God's gift of generosity and what that generosity means in our lives with Him and one another.

Since Ash Wednesday, we have Lent with its focus on sin, confession, and our need for a Savior. Then, just as we begin to peek over towards Palm Sunday and Holy Week, we have this story about Mary and within it, something about generosity.

We start by looking at the family of Mary and Martha of Bethany, with their brother Lazarus. Jesus came to their home and they gave a dinner for him. This house is filled with hospitality, and it becomes a little bit of a "way station" for people coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. They would stop by the house to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, and to see Jesus. So many people went to visit the Bethany household and partake of their hospitality that the Jerusalem authorities became suspicious. Since they were hunting for Jesus, they decided to find and arrest Lazarus too, since, “It was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.”

The generosity of Jesus' friends at Bethany towards those who were coming to Jerusalem had unintended consequences. More than any other gospel, the Gospel of John is crafted to show how very unwelcome Jesus was among his own neighbors, and how he became the focus of suspicion and growing hostility on the part of a small but powerful segment of the Jerusalem leadership. The story today of the dinner at Bethany points us toward the events of Holy Week that will result in Jesus' crucifixion right in the heart of the annual Passover celebration.

In the midst of this meal, Mary of Bethany comes into the dining area with a bottle of expensive perfume, the kind that among other things could be used to anoint the dead before burial. She pours it lavishly over Jesus' feet and then dries his feet with her hair. It is a costly gift, a generous gift, one that comes from her head, heart, and soul – quite unasked for, and quite unexpected. She comes to the feet of Jesus the Lord of Life, who had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead only weeks before, and Mary pours out upon him - the Lord of Life - the one valuable gift she has.

We do not know how anyone in the house interpreted this extravagant gesture except for Judas. Judas asked the money question: would it not have been better to spend all that money on the poor and needy?

Maybe it is just me, but the question Judas asks has a familiar ring to it. The question in some way reminds me of when the snake said to Eve, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The question is designed to raise suspicion. In this case, Mary's generosity, Mary's contrition, her heartfelt gratitude and love is cast in a bad light because suspicion is raised about the cost of the perfume.

Jesus responds to Judas. He tells Judas to let Mary be; she had bought the oil for the day of Jesus' burial. Jesus' death comes into view on the horizon as he continues, "You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." His words are a foretaste, a sign, and an inkling of what will soon happen in Jerusalem.

In the house at Bethany, a contrast is made. Mary’s extravagant and expensive gift of anointing is given to one for whom there was no room at the inn at his birth, for whom there was precious little hospitality given during his lifetime, and for whom, in the end, there will be a borrowed tomb.

As has been said, Lent is a time to look at our sin, shortcomings, and mortality so that we might see the work done on the cross. However, on this Sunday, we are asked to look for a moment at the meaning of generosity. The text shows us Christ and Mary’s generosity. It is as if we are asked, “What does their generosity mean for us?”

The God who appears in Isaiah today is the generous God who gives life to the world. He is the God of the Exodus. He is the extraordinary God whom we see across the whole span of scripture. As Isaiah says, this God is about to do a new thing. Christ, who was rejected so often and by so many, he will soon perform an extraordinary act of generosity in Jerusalem. On Good Friday as Jesus was placed on the cross he said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

It is upon that act of generosity that we ground our lives toward others and even ourselves. Every Sunday we make confession of our sins against our neighbor. We all know about this sin and our need to acknowledge and confess it. However, there is one sin we rarely confess or even notice - that is the sin we commit against ourselves. The truth is that most of us are often more brutal to ourselves than we would ever be to another person. The judgments and condemnations we make against ourselves are often harsher, bolder, and crueler than any we receive from the outside. We lack generosity towards ourselves. We lack the kind of generosity Jesus showed us from the cross. We condemn ourselves where Christ forgives. We attack ourselves where Christ would comfort us. We are the voice of Judas to ourselves raising doubt and suspicion where Christ is the voice that sees grace upon us.

As we begin to peek over to the approach of Palm Sunday and Holy Week, we are given this story today of the generous household in Bethany. We hear of a God who is doing a new thing in Christ. He is the Lord of Life not in an abstract way, but in one that embraces us with forgiveness when we are unable to forgive ourselves. Amen.