The gospel story that we have just heard read, of Jesus being anointed Mary at Bethany, is a very familiar one. So what's it all about?
There are
slightly different versions of the story in each of the four gospels,
which reflects the fact that those who made the gospels wrote down
what was said and taught in their particular fellowships, and from
their particular collections of "The sayings of Jesus", or
whatever unofficial manuscripts were floating around their
church.
Matthew's and Mark's stories are the most similar.
They set the episode in Bethany, at the house of Simon the Leper. A
woman wanders in off the street, pours the ointment over Jesus' head
and, for all we know, wanders straight out again. Tradition has it
that she was Mary Magdalen, but we don’t know that. The disciples
and others gathered there go: "Oh, what a waste! If she didn't
want it we could have sold it and given the money to the poor."
Jesus tells them to be quiet, because the woman was anointing his
body for burial and what she did would be remembered for ever. As,
indeed, it has been.
John's gospel, the version we just
heard read, however, stays in Bethany, but John says that Jesus was
staying with his friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and that it was
Mary who upended the ointment all over him. Some people have used
this to reckon that Martha was married to Simon the Leper, or indeed,
to reckon that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalen were the same
person. Again, possible, but we don’t know that.
Luke
might possibly be talking about a different episode, because his
version takes place in a Pharisee's house, and the woman is
definitely a hooker, and she pours the stuff all over his feet, not
his head, and Jesus said that only goes to show how much she knows
God has forgiven her.
Anyway, that's the basic story, one
way or another. But what's it about, and what has it got to say to us
today?
First, then, what is the story about? Well, I think
it's about extravagance. Those alabaster jars were incredibly
precious. If you were lucky enough to have one, it was your most
precious thing and you guarded it with your life, practically. It
could only be opened by breaking it, so it couldn't ever be used
again. You didn't go pouring the contents all over the head of
passing prophets, no matter how charismatic.
So when the
disciples said, "What a waste!" they seriously meant it.
The jar was broken, it was no use any more. The ointment was poured
out, and that in itself was costly enough. Mary had given her most
precious thing to Jesus, and from everyone else's point of view, it
looked like a terrible waste. They couldn't even make use of the gift
by selling it and giving the money to charity. It was all gone. What
a waste.
You know, the more I read this story, the more it
reminds me of God. You see, Mary was frantically extravagant and
wasteful. But so often, God's like that.
Think of the story of
the wedding at Cana, right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. When
they ran out of wine, towards the end of the festivities, Jesus
provided some more. But he provided far more wine than anyone could
drink. I worked it out once that the six stone jars he had filled
would hold about eight hundred bottles of wine. You'd need a white
van to bring that lot back from Calais, and I should think the
Customs would be taking an intelligent interest in you! And even the
host at the party almost said “Serving the best wine now, when
we’ve all had more than enough? What a waste!”
Or
think of the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Actually, one
of the gospels, Matthew, I think, says that the five thousand was
only the men, and didn't count the women and children, which would
have made it more like thirty-five thousand. Anyway, when Jesus
provided lunch for them, and he certainly did count the women and
children, even if nobody else bothered, it wasn't as though there was
only just enough to go round; there were twelve huge basketsful left
over. Enough for each disciple to take one home to Mum. So perhaps
that wasn’t a waste....
Or what about our natural world?
How many different species of flowers are there? Scientists know that
they don't know. And animals, too, come to that. I read in the paper
a few years ago that they have just discovered about three totally
new species of antelope in the jungles of somewhere like Vietnam;
somewhere in south-east Asia, anyway. And nobody knew they were there
except God. What a waste!
Think of reproduction, too. All
the waste that goes on. The millions of baby fish that are hatched,
so that a few may survive to adulthood. Birds nest every year, but I
read somewhere that only about two of all the offspring a bird
hatches in the course of its life reach an age to reproduce. That's
sad, of course, but not if you think of those birds that do reproduce
as exceptions and the normal life-span of a bird is from hatching to
fledging. What a waste, though.
The millions of sperm male
mammals produce so that one, just one, can fertilise an egg. All this
fuss they're making about male infertility, these days, but most men
are still producing about 60 million sperm each time - and they don't
think that's quite enough!
On a larger scale, think of all
the stars in the night sky, or those pictures of distant galaxies you
sometimes see from the Hubble telescope when it comes on "The
Sky at Night" or Horizon. I wonder how many of those stars have
planets on them like ours, and how many of those planets have life on
them, and how much of that life is intelligent and knows its Creator.
We're not going to know this side of heaven, but God knows.
Why
am I tempted to say "The truth is out there!"?.....
But,
seriously, for all we know, beings that are five feet square, one
inch thick, and ripple might be worshipping God right now this minute
in some far-off galaxy. And we fuss about people whose just happen to
come from a different tribe. Ah well.
And if we are the
only life in the cosmos, intelligent or otherwise, what does that say
about God? All those universes and stars and black holes and pulsars
and quasars, just for God, and for us, to enjoy looking at? A
waste?
Even on this earth things are pretty incredible.
Have you ever flown over London in an aeroplane on a clear day? Or
looked at Google maps with the satellite view – all those houses,
all those cities – you can look at all sorts of random places on
Google Maps if you want, places you might never have otherwise known
about – but God always knew. God knows the people in those houses,
walking along those streets, driving those cars.
God is
seriously incredible. And God doesn’t waste things. We, in our
human selves, tend to think “What a waste!” when we see the
massive over-production of Nature, or when people are
extravagant.
But God loved us so extravagantly that all
that love, all that knowledge, all those galaxies were given up and
God came to earth as a human baby. The Truth really was Out There,
but came down to Here.
As Jesus. Needing to learn
everything from scratch. Needing to be fed, and have his nappies
changed. Growing up as an ordinary human being in an ordinary family.
In a provincial town in a colony of one of the greatest empires the
world has ever seen. When God became a human being, it was a thorough
job!
And this human being, who was also God, and who had
the potential to be worshipped by beings who are five feet square,
one inch thick, and ripple, is sitting having dinner with his
friends. If Mary caught a glimpse, the tiniest, tiniest glimpse, of
the wonder and the majesty of God, and had the slightest inkling of
who Jesus is, then no wonder only her most precious possession would
do.
She, of course, is far from being the only person who
ever responded so extravagantly to God. Look at Mary the mother of
Jesus. Her "Yes!" to God was really extravagant – she
risked total ruin, including of her reputation. Supposing Joseph had
repudiated her on the grounds that she was not chaste? He could have
done so, and then where would Mary have ended up? On the streets,
most likely! It didn't happen, but it could have. That's extravagant!
At that, look at
Joseph’s response. He had a hard choice to make – he was seen as
a “man of God”, and properly he should have repudiated Mary. I
don’t think it made it much better that it was God who had
impregnated her, either! But he chose to risk his reputation and his
position in the community by marrying her anyway. That’s
extravagant!
Look at Peter and John when they were first
hauled before the Sanhedrin. Not only did they refuse to stop
preaching the word, but they then went home and prayed for more
boldness to do it more forcefully. That's extravagant! But it was
very far from being a waste.
Or what about St Paul? Think
of how he focuses on all the hardships he has undergone in order to
keep on doing what he does, in other words, preaching the Good News.
That's extravagant! But it was very far from being a waste.
Or
what about all those men and women who have laid down their lives for
the sake of the Gospel. Some of them went to the other side of the
world; others stayed at home. We know some of their names; others are
known only to God.
People like George Muller, who gave up
the life of a rich playboy to look after orphans in Bristol? Or Eric
Liddell, who abandoned being an athlete to go to China for God. Or
Gladys Aylward, who was turned down by the missionary society that
sent Eric Liddell, but who went anyway, independently, and saved the
lives of hundreds of children, and now even has schools named after
her!
Or even Florence Nightingale, who was baulked in her
first ambition to serve God through the church, because in those days
the Anglican church did not allow women to do anything except sit on
their behinds and listen. Anyway, we all know how Florence
Nightingale eventually decided to serve God, and the result.
The
people who have responded in that way down the years are legion. They
heard God, and responded extravagantly. It may be that the world
thought they were wasting their lives, but for them, only the most
extravagant response would do.
Today is called Passion
Sunday, a day on which historically we remember God’s extravagance
in sending Jesus in to this world to die on the Cross for us. And
when we recall, too, through this story of Mary anointing Jesus, some
of humanity’s response to this.
A waste? Perhaps. But
for Mary, only her absolute prize possession would do for the One who
had brought her beloved brother back from the dead. And at that, she
probably felt it was not enough.
What is our response
today to God’s extravagant love? What is my response? What is
yours?
