I have been watching the show Unforgotten on Masterpiece Mystery, which is on WXXI on Sunday nights. Now, I’ve said I’ve been watching it. I didn’t say I like it. I’ve liked previous seasons and so I started watching this one, but so far I’m not all that impressed. I suppose I could say that if nothing else it has given me an illustration to open a sermon today!
Unforgotten is about fictitious murder cases from the past. New evidence comes to light which reopens the investigation. The series start off slowly introducing the audience to what seems like a diverse and unconnected cast of characters. As the investigation goes on the detectives link the characters and their pasts, and ultimately solve the mystery.
That’s the way John’s gospel may have felt as we read it today. A couple weeks ago I said John’s gospel could be seen as having two acts. In the first act we meet Jesus, we experience his signs, and we discover things about God through them. In the second act we have the final week of Jesus’ life, which includes his anointing, the Last Supper, and his arrest and crucifixion. We are still near the beginning of this second act. We have a whole lot of characters whose connections aren’t readily apparent. There’s: Jesus, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the “Jews”, chief priests and Pharisees, Caiaphas the high priest, and last but not least, Judas.
John’s story is complex, and we could take a sermon any number of directions from here. But for the sake of focus, we are going to look at the contrast between two: Mary and Judas.
John has already shown us that traditional racial and gender expectations are not going to be followed in this story. In fact, John will use them as a foil to teach about Jesus. For example, in chapter three we met Nicodemus. He was a solid, theologically educated man in a position of leadership. We expect him to accept and understand Jesus. But he didn’t. Then in chapter four we met an unnamed Samaritan woman. She was an outsider by race, gender, and social acceptability. We expect her to reject Jesus. But she does not. She believes in him, accepts who he is, and spreads the word about him. We’re going to see some broken expectations with Mary and Judas.
It is very helpful for us to read about the anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary only a week after reading about Jesus raising Mary’s brother Lazarus. You’ll remember from last week that Lazarus had died and was buried. Jesus was somewhat far away, and didn’t seem too fused about it when he heard that Lazarus had died. In fact he deliberately stayed put for a couple days. Only after that does he travel to Bethany, which is the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Mary is upset, and for good reason! When Jesus finally gets there Mary says, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus asks to be taken to the tomb. When he gets there he commands it to be open. Mary’s sister Martha points out the obvious, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” But the stone is removed. Jesus cries out, “Lazarus come out!” The dead man came out still wrapped in burial cloths.
This is the foundation for Mary’s gratitude towards Jesus that we read today. Many people have thought her devotion to Jesus was one of sexual desire. But as John tells the story, Mary is overjoyed by what Jesus has done. Her brother is alive again! She is deeply grateful and no social boundaries or norms are going to stop her.
With a foreshadowing of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper some time later, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with a pound of pure nard, and wipes them with her hair. John tells us the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Indeed dumping out a pint of an expensive perfume would fill a house with the smell to the point of being overwhelming! But let’s notice the contrast John has made. The tomb of Lazarus was said to have a stench from his decomposing corpse. Now the home of Lazarus is overwhelmed with the scent of fine perfume. Dr. Richard Carlson, my one seminary professor, said, “Lazarus had stinking life. Mary brings Jesus the sweet smell of death.” When Judas objects to the waste of this perfume Jesus says, “Permit her; it will keep to the day of my burial.”
With the mention of Judas, let’s turn to him.
Judas is an easy character to hate. He sells out Jesus for 30 silver coins, not a lot of money. He does more than sell out Jesus. He sells out all the disciples of Jesus as well.
And yet as we hate Judas for what he does, we can’t help but feel like we’re like him. Is he not being practical, hard-working, and responsible when he says, “Why was this perfume not sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor?”
Good point Judas! If Mary loves Jesus and wants to show her gratitude, that’s fine. If she wants to stretch social boundaries and anoint Jesus’ feet with perfume and wipe them with her hair, well, that may not be totally fine, but it’s an acceptable expression of gratitude for bringing her brother back to life. But to dump out a whole pound of costly perfume!!! That’s ridiculous! It’s pointless. It’s just waste, pure and simple. An ounce would have been more than enough. An ounce would have been extravagant. But a whole pound? I almost want to say in disgust, “Come on Mary, grow up! Learn to have some responsibility!”
But then I’m thinking and speaking like Judas.
Almost as if John knows we’re going to be feeling guilty because we’re thinking exactly like the guy who sells Jesus out John gives us some relief by saying, “He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.”
Okay, that is a bit of relief. We may be thinking like Judas at least somewhat but we are not going to outright steal from others! But there is more to it than that.
Can you remember where else we’ve heard about thieves in John’s gospel? You probably have to think hard. It was back in the Good Shepherd Discourse. There in Chapter 10 Jesus says he is the gate to the sheepfold. But in referring to the religious leaders he says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
Now we’re seeing that Judas as a thief is in the same league as the religious leaders. In what we read today we see that the religious leaders are concerned not so much with God’s work but with their own position and power. Jesus is a threat to it. We aren’t surprised at all then later in the story when Judas shows himself in the same league as the religious leaders when he sells out Jesus to them.
But that’s in the future. There’s something to be learned from the scene as we have it today. John has created a contrast between two people who are very close to Jesus, and in a common community with him.
Mary, deeply grateful to Jesus responds to him without being told. She shows love and appreciation for Jesus without regard for social norms, how it looks to others, or how much it costs. Commentator Gail O’Day notes in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, “[Mary] gives boldly of herself in love to Jesus at this hour, just as Jesus will give boldly of himself in love at his hour.” (Volume 9, Pg. 703)
Judas, a long-time follower of Jesus who has seen quite a bit from Jesus, shows disdain for what he is seeing. He is driven by perceptions, pride, and limitations. Think back over the story. We aren’t told where Judas comes to be a disciple of Jesus. But he certainly had heard about the turning of water into wine; 120 to 180 gallons of excellent wine! And he certainly was there when Jesus took five loaves and two fish and made them be enough to feed thousands of people. So, based on his first-hand experience of Jesus being able to produce abundance and extravagance, Judas has no reason to focus on limits and waste. He should be faithfully enjoying Jesus’ abundance and accepting those who want to abundantly give to him. But he doesn’t.
That’s the contrast that we take away from this text for our own lives. It is not a contrast between propriety and impropriety, or stinginess vs. lavishness. It is the heart of discipleship.
Are we like Judas, seeing our relationship with God like we see life in the world – transactional, strategic, and limited. Do we give to God in order to receive in return? Is God’s promise of eternal life a reward calculated to make us live righteously?
Or, are we like Mary, living a new life as a child of God, embracing God’s endless love and generosity? That is not strategic to get eternal life. It is living fully now because of the promise of eternal life. Obviously we want to be like Mary
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