John 12:1-8 Sermon BMPC 3.17.13 by Rev. Berry French The smell of abundance Now a weekend with weather like this one gets me thinking about how much I love spring! It might be my favorite season. There is SO much to enjoy about the spring! With the arrival of spring new life just begins bursting forth! After a bleak winter season, the red buds, the crocuses, and the daffodils seem like such a joyous accompaniment to the song birds and the warm breezes of the weekend and the coming spring! But one of the things I most love about spring is the smell of it. Spring smells so good, there is such a pleasant aroma to spring. Did you smell it yesterday? We got hints of it yesterday. There s just a freshness to the air. I am already looking forward to the fullness of the sweet smell of spring when she comes into full bloom. They say smell is one of the senses that brings back memories the quickest something about how the sense of smell is directly connected to the part of your brain that stores memories. Now growing up in eastern North Carolina, I always thought it was perfect how Easter coincided with the new birth of the natural world represented in the smells and beauty of budding trees and blooming flowers, and sounds of bugs and birds and frogs that arouse in the spring. It all just seemed to fit together so well God creating new life in the natural world every time the season of Easter came around. I have fond memories of the azaleas in full bloom on Easter morning and the daffodils dancing in the breeze that was filled with the sweet smell of the new life that spring brought. So what are your favorite smells of spring? Which ones are you really looking forward to? I d say mine are probably fresh cut grass and wild honey suckle. Now unfortunately, the sense of smell is not something that we often think about when we come to church or study Scripture, but I think bringing all of our self and all of our senses to encounter God is what we are called to do, it s how God created us after all. 1
And friends, let me tell you the sense of smell permeates this strange story that Melzer just told. John tells us that Mary didn t just sprinkle a little ointment on Jesus, she emptied out an entire pound of sweet-smelling pure nard. She poured a senseless amount of this precious, powerfully fragrant ointment all over Jesus feet and the aroma filled the entire room. No one present, except maybe Jesus and Mary had any idea what just happened, but everyone present smelled the sweet fragrance that filled the air, that filled their nostrils, and that permeated the entire house with its sweet aroma. And everyone present remembered that smell for the rest of their life. This was not common ordinary ointment, this was pure nard. Nard made from flowers of a plant that only grows on the slopes of the Himalayan Mountains, far from Bethany. And you can bet that anytime anyone who was there that night caught a scent of pure nard on the warm breezes in the market they remembered that dinner party and they remembered Mary s action. I wonder how long Mary had been planning this. And where in the world did she get a whole pound of pure nard? We do not know, but I wonder. Was the ointment that now fills the whole house with its fragrance left over from Lazarus burial no longer needed once Jesus raised him from the tomb? We don t know, but we do know that Mary got the idea in her head from somewhere, call it a Holy Spirit moment that prophets are known for. And once the idea of this extravagant act got in her head, she couldn t let it go and she had to follow through, no matter the consequence. Mary had to follow through with this weird deed, this bold deed that broke all the social rules of the day. But Jesus is pleased with the gift and he lets it be known. Jesus has just raised her brother from the dead. And John make sure there is no doubt that Lazarus was dead - He d been dead in the tomb 4 days when Jesus arrives and Martha warns Jesus before the stone is rolled away: But Lord, already there is a stench! (John 11:39) And now, just 15 verses later, there is no stench of death, there is only the overwhelming smell of this perfume made of pure nard that is now all over Jesus feet, all over Mary s long hair, all over the floor, all over everything, and the rich aroma is wafting all over the whole house. 2
John takes us from the tomb of dead Lazarus who is beginning to stink from decaying, to a meal table where both Jesus and the now-alive Lazarus are eating together, to this prophetic act of devotion with the beautiful, strong sweet smell of ointment that ultimately points to Jesus own impending death. For you see in those 15 verses between Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and this dinner party, John makes it clear that the authorities are out for Jesus. The stories of Jesus raising a man from the dead is too much of a threat there is no choice now to but to kill Jesus. Lazarus restored life means Jesus s death. For remember, the first verse sets the scene we are just six days before the Passover as this dinner party take place. And very intentionally, John tells us the meal is in honor of Jesus and is at the home of Lazarus. And in case you have forgotten, John reminds us with the first verse Jesus came to Bethany, to the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the DEAD! So not only is Jesus at the table, there is a man who was dead-in-the-tomb last week who is also at the table with him. Talk about a meal to be present for! Don t you just wonder what the table conversation was that night? But John doesn t indulge our curiosity. There is no record of the dinner conversation, only Mary s action, and then responses to it. With no words to accompany her bold action, Mary enters the room with the sweet fragrance already heightening the men s alertness and as Barbara Brown Taylor says, Mary does four bizarre things in a row: -She loosens her hair in a room full of men, which an honorable woman never does. -Then she pours perfume on Jesus feet, which was certainly not done and was as bizarre to them as it would be to us. -Then she touches him a single woman touching a single man was an assault on the cultural norms of the day, even amongst close friends. -And then she wipes the perfume on Jesus feet with her hair. i This was certainly an odd thing to do, but with her actions, Mary confirms what everyone is wondering: Is Jesus really about to be killed? Yes, Mary silently affirms, for the only man who got his feet anointed was a dead man. ii Mary s act is prophetic. In her selfless act of devotion, Mary is the prophet who pre-anoints Jesus for his short burial, which is now less than a week away. 3
Mary s act is also weird, but then again, prophets do weird things. Ezekiel eats a scroll, Isaiah walks around barefooted and naked as an oracle against the nations. Prophets are weird. iii Mary s act is certainly extravagant. This was nard worth enough that it could possibly have fed a family for an entire year, and now it s spilled all over Jesus and Mary and the floor. There is something to its extravagance, something beautiful about the way Mary honors Jesus with this costly and sweet smelling gift. And specifically for the gospel of John this extravagance is significant. For John s gospel begins with divine extravagance. iv The first sign that Jesus performs is turning water into wine, into a vast quantity of really good wine wasteful amounts of really, really good wine all for a wedding celebration, a big party! John tells us the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, where from a young boy s five barley loafs and two fish, five thousand are fed and the leftovers fill up 12 baskets. Extravagance! Abundance! And now John chooses to end his gospel with another story of extravagance. v Today s story is the last event in John s gospel before Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem. From start to finish, in John s gospel life in Christ is marked by extravagance. vi Jesus says in John 10: I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. Or another translation reads: that they might have life to the full! vii As one commentator puts it these acts of reckless abundance are signs of what life is like with the living God. viii But Mary s act doesn t make sense to us. We, like Judas, are left wondering why this wasteful act? Barbara Brown Taylor suggests: [Mary s] act is so lavish that it suggests another layer to her prophecy. There will be nothing economical about this man's death, just as there has been nothing economical about his life. In [Christ], the extravagance of God's love is made flesh. In him, the excessiveness of God's mercy is made manifest. This bottle will not be held back. This precious substance will not be saved. It will be opened, offered and used, at great price. It will be raised up and poured out for the life of the world, emptied to the last drop. 4
She goes on to say: [But] before that happens, Jesus will gather his friends together one last time. At another banquet, around another supper table, with most of the same people present, Jesus will strip [down], tie a towel around his waist, and wash his disciples' feet. Then he will give them a new commandment: Love one another, as I have loved you. [And a few of the most observant disciples] will watch him working on their feet and remember Mary bending over his feet like that--the prophet Mary-- who knew how to respond to Jesus without being told, the one who acted out his last, new commandment before he ever said it. ix Friends, Mary s act doesn t make sense to us because unfortunately we like Judas operate out of a fixed-some-of-goods notion. Jesus and Mary are operating from the perspective of God s inexhaustible abundance. x Mary s action tells us what Jesus life tells us: whatever the need, there is more than enough to go around. Whatever is spent, there will be plenty left over. There is no reason to fear running out of nard or of life either one for where God is concerned, there is always more than we can ask or [even] imagine. xi May our living reflect this truth. Amen. i Barbara Brown Taylor, The Prophet Mary sermon on March 21, 2010. ii Ibid iii Ibid iv Dan Clendenin, She Did What She Could Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany, essay posted March 11, 2013. v Ibid vi Ibid vii John 10:10 viii Dan Clendenin, She Did What She Could Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany, essay posted March 11, 2013. ix Barbara Brown Taylor, The Prophet Mary sermon on March 21, 2010. x Paul Sundberg, comment on March 11, 2013 on Carol Howard Merritt blog: The Poor Will Always Be With You. xi Barbara Brown Taylor, The Prophet Mary sermon on March 21, 2010. 5