WITH PURPOSE

March 21, 2010
Lent 5
Isaiah 43:16-21
John 12:1-8

Mary Anoints Jesus (Jesus Christ Superstar – You Tube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvhbRxXltf4
(prayer)
It was one of the most important stories about Jesus’ life that people talked about in the earliest years of the early Christian church. A woman causes controversy by anointing Jesus.
This story was shared and told widely – it was often closely tied to the earliest stories of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
There are very few events that were so universally important to the early church that, each gospel writer included them in their writings. The Good Samaritan: one gospel; “Turn the other cheek”, only in Matthew and Luke; Christmas stories are only in two gospels and they have some significant differences; “Father, forgive them they know not what they do” – only in Luke. Even the Last Supper meal only made it into three gospels.
But Jesus’ anointing joins a select group of recollections making its way into Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Now, the story bears the mark of being told over and over again in different places by a variety of storytellers. By the time the gospels were written (40 to 70 years after the events they describe) – at least three versions of the story, with some varied details were out there.
Luke contains the most unique version:
· First of all, Luke is different in that that gospel places the story in the middle of the narrative – in amongst other teaching, preaking and healing stories from the middle time of Jesus’ ministry.
· It takes place in an un-named city, where Jesus was a dinner guest of a local Pharisee named, Simon. The woman was a party-crasher – a woman of notorious reputation in the city. The story goes that the woman sobbed as she anointed Jesus’ head and feet. She seems to have embarrassingly tried to use her hair to wipe away the tears.
· Simon started to question Jesus’ authority: if he were really a prophet, he’d know that this woman was a sinner and he wouldn’t let her touch him.
· Jesus then told a story about forgiveness; and declared that the woman’s sins were forgiven!
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Mark and Matthew are pretty close to each other, but markedly different that Luke:
· For these two gospels, the anointing took place in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem and it was just a day or two before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
· Coincidently, the host was named Simon, though he was not described as a Pharisee, but as a leper. That creates a different context right off the bat. In Luke, things took place in a respectable home and an outcast crashed the party. In Matthew and Mark, the host was a societal outcast.
· In Luke, it was both Jesus’ head and feet that were anointed; in Matthew and Mark, it is just his head - minor discrepancy.
· The woman in this second version does not appear to be an outsider, but someone who was already there in the house. The shock seems not to be about the woman’s character, but that the ointment is quite expensive (not an issue at all in Luke). There was concern that it was wasteful to use it instead of selling it and then using the proceeds for charitable activities. Neither gospel writer names the critic, other than to imply that several people were upset. [It’s always easy to complain after the fact, that things were not done perfectly.]
· Why even bring that up, after the ointment is poured, seems to be Jesus’ reaction. Don’t trouble her. It’s not like one jar of ointment was going to bring an end to poverty.
· Both of these gospels, compare this anointing to the burial ritual of anointing a body after death. Given the placement of the story near the end of Jesus’ life, it also serves as a foreshadowing what was still to come.
· Perhaps the key line in this version of the story is that Jesus proclaims the great value of the woman’s generosity: Wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. And that certainly was born out to be true – this story did endure. As I said, it made its way into all of our Biblical gospels. Ironically, although her actions were remembered, her name was not. The first three gospels simply refer to her as “a woman”.
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Finally, we come to John, which was read from today.
· Like Matthew and Mark, John places the story in Bethany. And it is only a few days earlier, just before Palm Sunday. As well, John contains an explicit overtone of burial preparation. What is unique in John’s version is a familiar location: the home of Lazarus and his sister Mary and Martha. They had appeared earlier in John’s gospel. In fact, John says that it was this Mary who did the anointing.
· John’s gospel was most certainly the last of the Biblical gospels to be written, perhaps as late as the 80s or 90s of that first century, a decade or two after the other three gospels were written and began to circulate. Given that, in John, we can see some melding of the traditions expressed in the other versions. Like Luke, in John, it’s Jesus’ feet that are anointed and they are wiped by the woman’s hair. Like Matthew/Mark, there is a strong concern expressed about the missed opportunity to sell the expensive ointment and give the money to the poor. For other reasons that seem obvious to me, John names the critic as Judas, the one who would betray Jesus to the authorities only a few days later (obvious - in that if it makes sense for any of the disciples to be opposed to something involving Jesus, it would be Judas). And, as mentioned earlier, John gave the woman a name, likely more out of literary convenience that literal history - but as they say: poetic licence.
As we saw in the video clip earlier, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice took even more poetic licence having “Mary Magdalene” anoint Jesus (a different Mary from Lazarus’ sister). I guess they didn’t want to introduce a new character either.
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And I don’t mean poetic licence stuff that glibly. Yes, there are differences between these gospel accounts. And it is important to try and interpret that fact. But it is not a big concern for me. I have no problem when the Biblical writers took a little poetic license from time to time. That is a product of the human component to the biblical storytelling.
If I am limited only to a literal historical (off-the-very-pen-of-God) view of Biblical interpretation, then I would be forced to conclude that Jesus must have been anointed at least three times, by three different women, in three different homes (coincidently two of which were both in Bethany). “Jesus” having this special, outrageous experience on three separate, independent occasions? That just doesn’t make sense for me – which is why I am not a Biblical Literalist.
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I believe that God has given me a rational, logical mind for the purpose of using it. I think that Jesus was almost certainly only anointed once, by a woman. And that it was a highly memorable moment, which was the stuff of good gossip for years. It had deep meaning in the time that followed Jesus’ death and resurrection. So popular and meaningful was this event that it was told over and over by countless storytellers – some of whom embellished a bit or added details to enhance the telling (every good story teller does that). When the gospel writers took the time to attempt an orderly written account of the impact of Jesus, this story may have seen some final tweaking to fit it into a particular gospel’s context.
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Through all of that variety, I see a marvellous consistency: this woman offers a valuable gift to Jesus – I don’t mean valuable in terms of monetary cost (which it might have been), but ... valuable in terms of need and impact. I don’t imagine her doing this for Jesus, thinking, he’s worth the expense. I’ve been saving this up for somebody special.
Instead, I believe her purpose was (primarily) to see that an aching, tired body was soothed: the body of one whom she loved more deeply than she could express with words.
And the side benefits were that a room full of travellers’ sweat was perfumed; and assumptions and presumptions about what is right, who is worthy, became the topics of conversation. She did a good thing, as Jesus said.
Thank you to this woman for what she has done. It is good for us to remember her! For she reminds us to be mindful of what we do and the purpose that our actions can serve.
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Sadly, some Christians have interpreted this passage as Jesus discounting a ministry to the poor in favour of 24-7 life of active praise and adoration. I don’t think we are let off the hook that easily. Clearly the totality of Jesus’ ministry and the major themes found in both the Old and New Testaments point to almost a requirement to uplift the poor so that they are no longer on the edge, but fully part of the community and have what is needed for life and living.
In fact, in a back-handed way, I believe that Jesus’ comment was really saying – Don’t think that one gift (no matter how generous) will solve the problems caused by the unfair distribution of society’s wealth and resources. Until we broaden our collective consciousness, unfortunately, you will have far too many opportunities to uplift the poor: both in the wallet and in the spirit. This woman’s actions didn’t change that. And don’t you forget it!
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Too narrow of a ministry-focus can never be adequate. Praise and celebration needs to exist alongside service and outreach; alongside ministries of care and learning and hospitality. The pie is bigger that we sometimes want to admit.
Now, not one of us can each do it all – but as a community, we need to tend to the needs of the collective body, mind and spirit. We can know and share the love of God in many ways – and when we do, we should be doing this mindful of our purpose!
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I hope that those of you who were able to come to worship here last week (when we were joined and lead by the participants of the Jr High Youth Rally) felt the value of the energy and excitement of that gathering. For some of you, the music and the style of the service may have been a new thing. Celebrate the new opportunities which God gives you to nourish and grow your spirits. As the prophet said this morning: 4319I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
As Isaiah spoke to the Hebrew exiles living as forced refugees in Babylon, God doing a “new thing” might have been words of hope that their exile would soon be over, that they would soon be able to travel through the wilderness back to Judah.
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Each Generation, in fact, should be able to hear these words speaking to their time. God is eternally dynamic, always creating and re-creating.
· What paths lay before you?
· Where is the growing edge in your life?
· Where are the growing edges of our world and society that God might be calling us to discover?
· Where is our place in this movement where the boundaries of exclusion are torn down?
· What purpose can we serve to show and allow others to experience the soothing love and hope embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus?
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As our dwindling candles remind us we are nearing the end of our Lenten journey for 2010. Our Spring has come – the time of new life is upon us. And new things can be both opportunities for excitement and challenge.
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Next week, as we continue in the Biblical narrative, things get complicated.
As Jesus’ journey takes him to Jerusalem, adoring shouts of praise and hosanna, quickly give way to whispers of concern and calls for violence.
There is a tough road ahead for us. But it is a road that we do not traverse alone. The God who spoke through Isaiah is with us - doing new things. We are not alone, as we venture into the familiar and the unknown.
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This is a good thing. This is good news.
Thanks be to God.

Let us pray:
Help us listen to the voices that remind us where we have been and the guiding spirit that moves us through the here and now. God, give us a sense of holy purpose to follow Jesus’ Way. Amen.
Special Music: Rueben