I consider myself to be a logical person. I like to think I make decisions that make
sense. I like to collect objectively
verifiable data, analyze the data, reach a reasonable conclusion, and then act
on it. For the most part it serves me
well.
As a pastor in this day and age I find
I’m also having to defend Christian faith as logically as possible too. I can’t count the number of times people have
said something like, “So how can you not believe in evolution?” It is their automatic conclusion based on
what they think a Christian leader believes.
It is as if to be committed to Christian faith one must believe in myths
and fairy tales. Fortunately Christian
theology and history are filled with excellent scholarship and sophisticated
doctrines; even if people these days aren’t interested in learning them and
would prefer to dismiss Christianity as a leftover of the ignorant past.
The problem is that logic and rational
thinking can’t reveal everything about our faith. Look at the woman who anoints Jesus that we
read about in the gospel. There were
plenty of people around who, like me, applied good logic to the situation. “Why was this ointment wasted in this
way? For this ointment could have been
sold for more than 300 denarii, and the money given to the poor.” Mark tells us that the people scolded her. I’m all too ready to agree with them.
Let’s pause a moment to really focus
on what Mark tells us, and what he does not.
I think we’re most familiar with a woman anointing Jesus from Luke’s
gospel. Luke tells this story with some
different details. Luke portrays this
story as if it happened early on in Jesus ministry, not two days before he dies
as in Mark and Matthew. In Luke, Jesus
is at something like a public banquet and a woman of the city who is called a
“sinner” comes up and anoints Jesus’ feet and then wipes them with her
hair. The whole thing makes us blush
with its sexual overtones.
But any number of biblical
interpreters say we can’t combine the stories.
They say that when reading Mark just stick to just what Mark says and
only what Mark says. Commentator Pheme
Perkins notes that as Mark portrays it this woman was probably a woman of the
household. Maybe it was Simon’s wife or
his sister or maybe a daughter. There’s
no reason to suggest she has a sordid past.
And there’s also no reason so suggest she was poor. Perkins suggests it is likely she actually
had enough money available to her that she could afford some nice luxuries in
her life – like a bottle of expensive perfume.
Let’s keep this picture of her in our
minds as we consider what she did. It’s
impossible to know how much she actually knew about Jesus. I imagine she was around hearing the
conversation between Jesus, the disciples, Simon and other guests. If she heard how the events of the last days
went she had every reason to believe he was in trouble: overturning the tables
of the money changers on Monday, then a whole day of argument and conflict with
the religious leaders on Tuesday. We
aren’t told what happened earlier in the day on Wednesday, but I bet it wasn’t
good. Now it’s Wednesday evening and
tensions are running high. Something big
is about to happen, and it will be scary.
Whether she sensed this and this was
the case or not, she brings out a jar of expensive ointment. The contents are said to be worth 300
denarii. A denarii was a day’s wages for
a laborer, so that’s about a year’s salary.
The economy was different and it’s impossible to give a real value in
today’s dollars, so let’s just say it was excellent stuff that was worth a lot
of money. We do know the nature of this
ointment. Spikenard the plant grew in
the Himalayas. It could be processed
into ointment and it was shipped in alabaster boxes. Ointment of this kind would be used
sparingly, and then only for special occasions.
Yet here this woman breaks the container and pours it all on Jesus.
Her gift is lavish beyond lavish. A logical person like me is offended. So were others at the table. And yet she anointed the Savior of the world
for his burial. That smell was certainly
with Jesus the next day during the Last Supper.
It was with him when he was praying on the Mount of Olives and then
arrested. It was with him throughout his
trial, mocking, and beating. That smell
would have been with him through the torturous hours on the cross, and right up
to the moment of his death.
This anointing is the only act of human kindness that lingered
with Jesus through it all. The
disciples, male and female, didn’t stand up for him. He was abandoned and forsaken by all –
alone. And yet the smell of the anointing
was with him. This was humanity’s only
expression to God of appreciation for who Jesus was and his willingness to die
for all our sins.
We should be deeply grateful for this
woman’s act of service. It was lavish,
yes, but it still falls far short of the appreciation we humans should have
shown to the one who saves us.
That she dumps it all out, all of it,
unreservedly is deeply important. She
did not make a calculated decision of what would be an appropriate amount to
dispense upon an honored guest. She did
not pour out a few drops of this valuable stuff and think to herself, “Well, I
guess that ought to be enough for this occasion.” This was completely and totally without logic
or stategy. It was the most complete way
this woman could unreservedly give to Jesus.
This was self-emptying love in about as pure a form as it could be.
I love these words from theologian
Halford Luccock, “The verdict of these shocked onlookers reappears in the
feeling of many that worship is waste… [Worship] builds no barns, yields no
compound interest… To this type of mind the sacrifice of life for a faith is
waste. We hear that judgment daily
passed on one who chooses a vocation of obscure service to God and man in
preference to what is called… ‘making good.’
Francis of Assisi wasted his life.
He might have been a lord of the manor instead of a beggar… So was John
Wesley’s. What a major general or
parliamentary whip he would have made with all that executive capacity!” Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume 7, Pg.
869
This woman loved so much that she gave
everything to show love, and respect, and thanks to him.
That still leaves people like me in a
sticky situation. What about all that
money that could have helped poor people?
But that is the problem of my logical mind – a mind interested in value,
calculation, and measurable effect.
We need to have those qualities, but not
exclusively. Some things are beyond
dollars and cents.
When we talk about giving everything
to God that is not a calculated response.
I think many people unknowingly live as if they are executing a strategic
plan for eternal life. They think they
have to be good now and behave themselves so that they can get to heaven,
because, they think, God doesn’t like bad people.
I think, “Do you really want to spend
eternity in heaven being forced into good behavior?!?” They’ve got it all wrong. The unnamed woman had it right.
Don’t be a good and kind and generous person
as a strategy. And don’t force yourself
to be genuinely good and kind and generous because that’s the attitude you
think God wants from you. Those life
plans lead to anger and misery. Know
that God loves you – God loves you so much that God takes the brokenness of the
world upon himself so that you don’t have to.
In fact, God loves you so much that he took the brokenness of the world
upon himself without you having to even ask him to do it. God just did.
Pure gift to you – and totally lavish.
If you have to focus on anything to be
a righteous person focus on that. When
you can realize you are loved so much then goodness and kindness and generosity
flow out of you without you even having to try.
They become a part of who you are, right to the core.
I’ll never forget being at the one
Penn State vs. Miami football game while I was in college. Miami was beating us, and it was a pretty
sure thing they would win. But there was
still some hope Penn State could win it.
A guy on the bench in front of me starts saying, “God, if we win this
game I’ll go to church tomorrow.”
Um, while God can use anything as a
conversion experience I doubt that God wanted to get this guy in church the
next day so badly that he’d swing the outcome of the game! Plus, if we did win I doubt he would have
gone to church anyway!
The guy was being stupid, but it was
still calculating. The woman with the
ointment may have been stupid too – but there was no calculation involved at
all, and in so doing she gave God one of the greatest gifts a human ever has.
Know that you are loved by God. Certainly keep a logical brain in your head,
but let God’s love guide you through life.
Then you will know the joys and freedom Jesus gave you from the cross.
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