Year C

John 12:1-8

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

An Extravagant Costly Love

Just one week before Palm Sunday, our Lenten readings have brought us face to face with what this season is really about as we are attempting, with some discipline, to prepare ourselves for Good Friday and Easter. At the start of Lent, with the story of Jesus’ testing in the wilderness, we see him accepting his calling with all that will be involved in that. Now at last, in the passage today from John’s gospel, some of those around Jesus are beginning to understand where the road to Jerusalem is leading.

John sets the story of the anointing of Jesus’ feet in the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. You might expect that they will be the last people to anticipate the cross. They, more than any, know the power of Jesus. Just a few days earlier, Mary and Martha meet Jesus after the funeral of their brother Lazarus. Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Martha says to Jesus “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.” As we know the story, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

Martha and Mary are both grateful that their brother is back alive and with them. The gospel today is Mary’s response. She too was grateful and brought out what could have been a nest egg for the family, maybe their life savings, and anointed the feet of the one to whom she owed everything. Did she overdo her gratefulness? Judas certainly thought she did. He asked the question “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” Given that Judas may have been a thief and an informant, and probably didn’t care a bit for the poor, it’s not a bad question. Couldn’t the pound of expensive perfume used to anoint Jesus’ feet have been used for a better purpose possibly to buy food for a starving family?

Just how much did Mary’s generous act cost anyway? Judas suggests that the perfume could have been sold for 300 denarii. A denarius was “a day’s wage” for most people. We can do the math. Figure a six-day work week with the Sabbath off and you’re basically looking at close to a year’s salary. Translate that to today’s economy and conservatively, we’re talking about $30,000 poured on to Jesus’ feet. Why did Mary do such a thing? Jesus suggests that the perfume has something to do with his upcoming burial. But Mary couldn’t have known that.

Yet, a year’s salary could have helped a lot of needy people. That’s Judas’ point! But Jesus says, “Leave her alone.” And then he says something that sounds a bit confusing, if not downright callous. He says, “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” Now what does Jesus mean by that? What does he mean by these words?  The scriptures are clear that Jesus was a friend of the poor. There were many occasions when he taught the importance of caring for the poor. His words in this story were a quotation from Deuteronomy whose message is unmistakable: “For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand…to the needy and to the poor, in the land.”

In his words today, he is not justifying complacence toward the needs of the poor, the poor he is actually referring to is himself. It is to the poor-himself-that all extravagance is to be given. Mary’s anointing expresses what cannot be put into words and makes the next five days before his execution on the cross, extraordinary. Theologian Paul Tillich called such extravagance as Mary shows as “Holy Waste.” Our “wasteful” response to God is because of God’s wasteful gift of grace toward us. God seeks the lost who are as valuable as the one coin in ten, the one sheep in 100, or the one son of two. Either we love as generously, or we do not.

Judas criticized Jesus for allowing Mary to show such extravagant love, but he was about to betray Jesus and steal the money destined for the poor. We should exercise reasonableness and ethical efficiency when using our physical resources. Yet, our faith must also express itself in an extravagance that seems wasteful. God’s gracious concern for us through the gift of Jesus should result in a life of grateful service that can appear wasteful to those yet untouched by God’s costly love.

Paul says it this way, “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul reminds us the goal has not yet been reached. Therefore, we cannot be complacent but press on toward the goal of letting the Holy Spirit work on us and in us in order to remold us into the image of an extravagant God. As Mary’s gift of anointing was costly and extravagant and it is interesting to note that in the very next chapter of John’s gospel Jesus is washing the feet of his disciples, an action that clearly shows extravagant love and service to the world.

Did Mary overdue it? Probably; but how could Jesus have done anything except receive the gifts of two grateful sisters. How do you say thank you to someone who has saved your brother’s life? Indeed, saved your own life? True love does not calculate the cost. It gives more and more and regrets not having more to give. Mary took the most precious thing she had and gave it all. It is the fragrance of love, devotion, and gratitude for one who has loved her and loves us so lavishly. Jesus showed that kind of love one Friday afternoon on a cross when he offered his own costly and extravagant gift. Love at its best is always lavish and extravagant beyond what is practical. Can we do less? Pray that we will not “underdo” it as we seek to honor him not only this Lent but in our whole lives.