B, Midweek Lent 1 - Mark 14:1-21 "Not Passed Over"

Mark 14:1–21 (ESV)  It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him,  for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”  And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.  There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that?  For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her.  But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.  For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.  She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.  And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”  

Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.  And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.  And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him,  and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.”  And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.  And when it was evening, he came with the twelve.  And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”  They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?”  He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me.  For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

Coming up to the Passover, Jesus was not passed over!  The chief priests and the scribes, not usually conversant with each other, have joined forces plotting to kill Jesus.  The two parts of the Mark narrative we have heard tonight, begin and end with the coming reality of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, and death at the hands of the Jewish leaders.

Housed within the desires of the Jewish leaders and Jesus’ proclamation of his betrayal, are two very different pictures of belief and unbelief. 

First, Jesus and his apostles are in the home of Simon the Leper at Bethany.  A woman presents herself with expensive oil and proceeds to pour it on Jesus’ head.  The oil was pure nard, from the spikenard plant, and most likely came from traders to the east.  Nard grows in the Himalayan region, so this oil was not common or cheap. 

Those present who witness the event, literally snort with anger at the woman, claiming the ointment could have been sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor.  With no understanding, Jesus’ apostles seek to shame the woman for doing what she had done.

Three hundred denarii are three hundred days wages, almost an annual income.  Would you tip your yearly wage on someone’s head?  At face value it makes no sense to pour out all this perfume on someone’s head.

That is not unless you knew why you were pouring the perfumed oil on the person, who that person is,  and what they were about to do! 

Today, knowing that Jesus is our Saviour, most of us would still consider passing over Jesus, believing pouring a year’s wage over his head, a waste!

Arguably, this woman is demonstrating the greatest faith of anyone Jesus ever met, in his ministry or march to the cross.   It might seem one would have to be ludicrous to do such a thing with such reckless abandon.  Waste not want not, seems to have given way to wanting to waste!  But there was no waste here!

This woman believed what Jesus had said about himself, that he was the Messiah, but that he was also going to die to be the Messiah.  Her seemingly wasteful actions, reveals a faith, second to none.  The Holy Spirit has taken a hold of this woman to value Jesus’ life and death, more valuable than the expensive nard, with which she honours him and pours on his head.  Jesus affirms her Holy Spirited faith and action, saying to those who snort in anger, “she is working a good work on me”.

The woman did not pass over Jesus.  What is Jesus, worth to you?  Is he worth passing over, in a bid to waste not, want not!  We, like this woman, are called to see the worth of what Jesus has done for us.  To not pass over Jesus.  To allow the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds.  So, looking into the core of our being, we hand over to Jesus what is wasting us away.  Like the woman, we pour all our sin on Jesus with reckless abandon, giving him the full debt of our sin!

To God the Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirit, this is the sweetest most fragrant offering we can pour onto our Saviour, justifying God the Father working a good work through Jesus Christ, having been led to the cross by the Holy Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit working a good work in us as we pour our sin in confession on the Son of our salvation.

In having Jesus in this way, in pouring our sin on him, in emptying ourselves of the idols of our hearts, allows us to truly serve the poor.  Having seen the poverty of our hearts through trusting in these idol (idle) riches, allows God to use us in seeing and serving the poor, as Jesus serves us, in his death and resurrection.  In not passing over Jesus, the Holy Spirit will work a good work in us, allowing us to pour Jesus on the poor with the reckless abandon of God’s love!

The second picture,  is that of Judas Iscariot, selling Jesus for thirty shekels of silver.   We find out the amount from Matthew’s Gospel account in chapter twenty-six.  A shekel is two denarii, two days wages.  So, Judas betrays Jesus for sixty days wages.  

In contradiction to the apostles snorting with anger over the woman’s costly faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the chief priests are glad to pour riches on Judas.  But these riches, are a loss of faith in Jesus as the Messiah.  Judas, one of the twelve, having been sent as an apostle, no longer trusts Jesus. 

We see the depth of Judas’ poverty here!  We do not know the reason for Judas betrayal, but we know he passes over Jesus, no longer pouring his trust on him.  What Judas “expected” was something far different to what the woman hoped in Jesus.  She trusted Jesus unto death, but Judas handed him over to death, no longer having faith in him as the Messiah.  If Judas had believed Jesus’ word of promised resurrection, he would not have solved a short-term problem with the eternal remedy of the hopelessness of his human spirit.

The story of Judas’ poverty stands as a warning to us, to not pass over Jesus!  We are called to put our expectations of Jesus under the magnification of God’s Word, leading us to repentance.  In this Lenten season the exposure of (idle) idol expectations of Jesus, can occur within.  Not to pass over Jesus, but to pass onto Jesus our confession of sin.

Two pictures of faith!  Faith in Jesus, and unbelief in Jesus.  Human spirited faith in the self, and Holy Spirited faith in someone greater than the self.  The woman did not pass over Jesus, but Judas passed over Jesus!  The woman poured her trust onto Jesus with reckless abandon, but Judas poured his trust onto other things and abandoned Jesus as his Messiah.

In this Lenten season, it’s an easy temptation to pass over what Jesus did for us, and why he did it.  It’s easy to forget about Lent and go straight to the sweetness of the Easter eggs that have been furnishing the shelves of shops for about the past sixty days. 

But the forty days of Lent give us time to stop, reflect in God’s Word, the work of God, the work done for you and me, where God did not pass over Jesus, but stopped with him,  causing him to be our Passover Lamb, who covers the poverty of our hearts with his holy and most precious blood.  Amen.

C, Easter 4 - Psalm 23:1-2 "A Shepherd without Want"

Psalm 23:1–2 (ESV) The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters. 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  How many times have we heard this first line of Psalm Twenty-three?  We have all heard it and said it many times, in Sunday services, at funerals, and we’ve sung it to different well-loved tunes.  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want!

But how many times have we told ourselves when the desire to get something is strong, “I shall not want because God is my shepherd”? 

So often, the grass seems to be greener on the other side of the fence, so I sidestep the Lord, and stray off seeking what I want.

Want is desire, something sought, what a person seeks or is looking for.  What one wants is what usually pleases someone!  Want is interchangeable with the word, love. 

Wanting can be coveting or worshipping.  So the question goes begging, what gods shepherd one’s life?

Are my finances my shepherd?  When I’ve got money, does that satisfy my want? 

Are my friends or my family my shepherds?  As long as I’ve got them am I content? 

The thing that shepherds us is your god and my god, and this god is what you and I want.  The problem is, the gods we want most of the time, are idols that deceive us as we seek them.

In the twenty-third psalm it’s as if the Psalmist is proclaiming to his own heart, “Yahweh is my shepherd, because I have got him there is nothing that I want!”

Rooted beneath this much-loved line from Psalm Twenty-three, is the First Commandment, “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have any other gods.”  What does this mean?  Luther rightly teaches, “We are to fear, love, and trust God above anything else.”

Another good description of what a loving shepherd looks like, is what we believe God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, is and does, as our provider and protector.  The Small Catechism again teaches…

“I believe that God has created me and all that exists.  He has given me and still preserves my body and soul with all their powers.  He provides me with food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day.  God also protects me in time of danger and guards me from every evil.  All this he does out of fatherly and divine goodness and mercy, though I do not deserve it.  Therefore, I surely ought to thank and praise, serve, and obey him.”

Like King David telling his heart to not want because the Lord is his shepherd, we confess to ourselves and each other that God has created me and all that exists, etc.

However, the only person to ever not want, is Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who truly looked to the Lord as his shepherd. 

Although King David wrote Psalm twenty-three or authorised someone to write it, the writer was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down the word of God, which has its origin in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.

Jesus says of himself to the Jews who were looking for a preconceived Messiah for themselves, “The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,  but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25b–30 ESV) 

The Jews were looking for a Messiah like King David, and not to he who inspired King David to write the Psalms and lead Israel, all while submitting to he who was truly shepherding Israel through the shepherd boy anointed as King.

They did not want Jesus, the Lamb of God, to be their Messiah.  They wanted a zealot king to toss out the Romans, they wanted what  pleased them.  They wanted to be saved from everything else, but they did not want to be saved from themselves or their slavish wants.  Nor did they want the Romans to be saved.

The grass was greener on the other side of the fence, in oh so many ways!

The Jews did not realise the grass on their side of the fence was dead, because of what they had bound themselves to, what they wanted they had got in the past, and it had fenced them into a dead corner.  Now a shepherd had arrived to bring them and all nations to greener pastures and calm waters.  

Where was the grass greener?  Where they were, or where they wanted to be, or where this Messiah was seeking to lead them?

In the same way we confuse ourselves with what we want!  We double face ourselves, turning back on our tracks like a fox avoiding the spotlight, after devouring the landowner’s lambs.

But the Shepherd who desires us to trust him as our true shepherd, makes us lie down in the green pastures he wants us to lie in.  He leads us by his sustaining waters of peace.  Not to the pastures of our powers or pleasures, nor the surging temptations of seemingly progressive worldly human opinions.

Our Shepherd was the Lamb of God, who takes your sin away, when he took away the sin of the world on the cross.  But now this Lamb of God, is the Shepherd of God, who will guide to springs of living water that flows from the eternal throne of heaven.

Until we stand before that throne in heaven, our Shepherd causes us to lie down in green pastures on this earth.  Where he causes us to lay might not always seem green to us.  In fact, without faith, this pasture will seem dead to the hearts of sheep continually wanting a shepherd to justify what they want.

Here again Luther teaches in the explanation of the fourth petition  “God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all people, though sinful, but we ask in this prayer that he will help us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanks.”

These days the Shepherd of God sends his holy sheep dog to help us.  The Holy Spirit continually rounds us up and seeks to bring us back to our Shepherd.  We need this because we are continually tempted by many dangers.

In fact, we are in the great tribulation, and the great tribulation goes on within each of us, and around us, as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit struggle with your human spirit, and all the idols luring us towards a false salvation that has no hope.

Yet as the battle rages, it has already been won!  In the bloody battle we stand with Jesus Christ in the victory, having been washed in the blood of the Lamb he now shepherds us in robes of his holiness and righteousness.

Look and see not what you want, but what you need and already have!  See your Shepherd on the throne in heaven, see yourself in eternity with him, having received him whom you wanted. 

And as you look forward to the victory feast, see to it that you remain in the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, by confessing your sin, and believing confessed sin is forgiven.

See with the eyes of faith as you hear of your heavenly celebration with the eternal congregation, who… “are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17 ESV)

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; now and forevermore, Amen.

C, Lent 5 - John 12:1-8, "Anointed and Embalmed as King"

 Text     John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”  He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. ”It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

1.         Buried Feet

Why did Mary smear the pure nard over Jesus' feet? The gospel reading we just heard doesn’t tell us why she went to such extremes.  This perfume from the nard plant in India was expensive ointment prepared from the roots and stems of this Himalayan plant.  So when she cracks open the pot of perfume and spreads the entire contents of it over his feet, about half a litre, it makes me wonder what motivated her to do it.  Half a litre is a lot of perfume.  The bible tells us it was worth a year’s wages, 300 denarii, close to thirteen thousand dollars worth, a lot of money in anyone’s language.  Imagine the scent it would leave. Think of aftershave or perfume poured on you feet, not just a drop but a half litre.  Why did Mary do it? Putting a little on sandal sore feet was normal when the host’s guests arrived from some distance.  But Mary buried his feet in so much ointment the pleasant scent would have been smelt just as far away.

2.         Jesus raised Lazarus

Looking back at recent events in John’s gospel sees Mary at Jesus' feet once before.  Both Mary and her sister, Martha, pleaded with Jesus when he arrived after Lazarus’ death, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died!’  Mary fell at his feet weeping, so much so it moved Jesus, and he wept too. 

So Jesus raised Lazarus, he had earlier told Martha he was the resurrection and the life, and that’s exactly what he did, he gave life to Lazarus.  He cleared the stone away and raised Lazarus from the dead, and in the process made himself ritually unclean through his association with the corpse.  Jesus was the cause of Lazarus’ resurrection, it brought glory to God, but it also caused him to be covered with the stench of death.

3.         Jesus didn’t cleanse himself

As these events were occurring the Passover festival was drawing near.  Within a week lambs would be slaughtered so the Jews could commemorate, remember, and teach their children how the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Israelites, sparing the lives of their first born sons, the night before Moses raised the nation of Israel to life from the land of Egypt.  This festival called for the Jews to make their way to Jerusalem to be cleansed and purified for the Passover meal of bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and Passover lamb roasted over the fire, just as God had commanded Moses and the Israelites many years before. 

But Jesus doesn’t go to Jerusalem to be cleansed.  Rather he and his disciples leave Lazarus and withdraw to a region near the desert.   Jewish ritual expected a person to be cleansed, purified, and made holy, so they could stand before the Lord, who is holy, especially those who had come into contact with a dead body.  In chapter eleven just prior to the meal and Mary’s perfume pouring at Bethany, many stood in the temple area waiting for Jesus to appear.  After all he had raised Lazarus from the dead and was unclean.  But Jesus didn’t show, nor did he receive any cleansing.  No!  Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem rather he returned to Bethany.  There is a knock at the door; Lazarus opens it to reveal God standing there with his disciples, still covered with the stigma of his death. 

4.         Mary serves Jesus

If I were to ask you to flick through the pages of John’s gospel and find the Last Supper where Jesus gives us the Words of Institution, you would come up empty.  In fact John doesn’t give us an account of the Last Supper.  Instead he speaks of two meals.  Both meals are linked by the attention given to the feet.  At the first meal Mary washes Jesus’ feet and then at the second meal Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. 

It is true that at both meals foot washing caricatures service.  The very nature of foot washing shows both the humility and greatness of serving.  Mary serves Jesus with faithfulness and sheer gratitude when she smears the pure nard on Jesus' feet.  Probably overwhelmed at Jesus’ resurrecting power over her brother Lazarus, she served him with the same passionate emotional fervour as when she cried tears over his feet when Lazarus was still dead.

Mary’s actions came from deep within.  We know that these actions were great.  So great I find it hard to comprehend!  The perfume’s purity is not lost on John as he reports Judas Iscariot’s disapproval and tells us the nard was worth a year’s wages.  Lazarus, Mary and Martha were not excessively wealthy; after all there are no servants to do the tasks of washing feet or serving the meal, which Martha serves.

Mary’s action was also great from another perspective too.  It would have taken a great deal of courage and faithfulness for this woman to let her hair down in public.  It was not something done by respectable Jewish women.  In her action all honour is taken from her and given to Jesus.  Perhaps the perfume that might have been reserved to cover the stench of Lazarus’ death was now floating around the house as the fragrance of life and love.  Or maybe Mary was still covering the stigma of death; Lazarus’ deathly uncleanness in Christ and the upcoming death that awaited him on the cross?

5.         Jesus Anointed and Embalmed as Messiah and King

So what was happening to Jesus at Lazarus’ house when Mary poured or smeared the pure nard on his feet?  Another word to describe Mary’s action of pouring or smearing is anointing.  Mary anointed Jesus.  In fact she anointed Jesus Christ, Son of God, King of the Jews.

When a king or queen is enthroned into their office, they have a coronation.  In recent times we haven’t seen a coronation; in fact the last was Queen Elizabeth many years ago.  But like any royal event their coronation to the throne involves much royal regalia, long processions through the streets, pomp, ritual and ceremony.   

Jesus was on his way to a coronation too.  He was soon to be glorified on the cross.  A little later on in the gospel Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified… But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (12:23, 32). Jesus took his throne when he was nailed to the cross, on that throne he draws all to himself.

Mary anointed the King, maybe a little prematurely before his coronation, which would begin on the next day as he rode the donkey into Jerusalem over palm branches thrown down by the crowds. Therefore, how could she not anoint the King of Kings with such an expensive perfume?  After all he is the king who draws all people to himself. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But paradoxically in a seemingly contradictory way Mary anoints the body of Jesus just as all bodies are anointed before they are buried.  Jesus even says of Mary’s anointing, ‘it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial’ (12:7).  How can a king’s coronation and his enthronement be the very same thing that kills him?  How can the King of Kings draw all to himself if he is hanging dead on his throne?  Well, this is the mystery of the cross, this is the contradiction of the cross, this is the glory of the cross, this is the victory of the cross, and this is the beauty of the cross, where our Lord was enthroned.

Just before Jesus was crucified he washed his disciples’ feet. When he came to Peter, Peter said no to his feet being washed, but Jesus said, ‘Unless I wash your feet you have no part with me (13:8)’.  Mary may have served Jesus at the first meal, but it was Jesus who served, when he washed the disciples’ feet at that second meal, when by his word he raised Lazarus to life,  and when he took the ugliness of death to the cross for Lazarus and also for you.  Jesus has washed us too, eternal death is no more, we are washed and now have a part with Jesus in eternity.  

6.         Jesus’ Service as our Passover Lamb

When we hear that Mary broke the bottle of thirteen thousand dollar scented oil over Jesus' feet, it makes us sit up and take notice.  Why she did it, we can only speculate.  But this double action anointing, together with the events before and after, tell us of God’s Son who was anointed and embalmed as King of Kings, was sacrificed and enthroned on the cross, was buried in death but at the same time buried eternal death, and who was raised to life is also your resurrection and your life.  Sit up and take notice, Jesus serves you, he has cleansed you!  Smell the sweet scent of life bought at great cost for you by our Passover Lamb.  He is the resurrection and the life!  In this King death has lost its stench, and now the power of death has passed over you and me.  Amen.