Six days before the Passover Jesus
came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There
they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the
table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed
Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who
was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three
hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (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.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought
it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor
with you, but you do not always have me.”
An offering from Jamie Ebersole
This passage disarms me. Mary’s passionate gesture
of annointing Jesus’ feet with her hair and Jesus’ subsequent chiding of Judas’
complaint make for a stark contrast.
I can’t help but notice that it’s one of Jesus’
disciples, one of those who is supposed to know him best, who misses the point
of Mary’s gesture and the signs of Jesus’ impending death. While it may be easy
for us to dismiss the seemingly corrupt Judas or see this as a foreshadowing of
his later betrayal of his friend, he’s not the only disciple to be near-sighted
and literal in his interpretations of events. So it’s left to society’s
outcast, Mary, to be open to be sensitive to Jesus’ situation. She understands
much more fully the import of Jesus’ teaching and responds with the sort of
loving gesture appropriate to the moment.
More than anything, this passage reminds me that
our reactions to events can sometimes be sanctimonious and judgmental when
compassion and open-mindedness are needed.
Prayer
Lord, give us the strength to show compassion
rather than leap to judgment, to be open to the truth and to the divine
wherever and whenever and however it manifests itself.
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