Lent 5
Philippians 3.3-14
John 12.1-8
©Suzanne Grimmett
Martin Luther has said that “faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace”.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians begins with a list of what should qualify him for religious superiority but then points to the meaninglessness of anything that would give status or security outside of knowing Christ and his death and resurrection. Paul aspires to forget all that he has achieved that lies behind and strains forward to what is ahead in Christ with an absolute wholehearted giving of his all.
And then we have this Gospel. A bit of background- a story like this appears in all four Gospel accounts, but you can be forgiven for being confused about whether this is Mary Magdalene or Mary, Martha’s sister, whether the women involved were cast as saints or sinners or if there are multiple different women washing or anointing Jesus’ feet. In this account in John, Mary is identified as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus. In Matthew and Mark this is also indicated because even though the woman is not named, the text says Jesus was in Bethany. In Luke’s Gospel, the woman is described as local woman and a sinner; no further details here, but it is likely this account which church tradition, without any textual evidence, has associated with the apostle, Mary Magdalene. There is also no suggestion in Luke’s account that her alabaster jar of ointment is preparing Jesus for burial. Rather, her anointing is from her overflowing gratitude at God’s freely offered forgiveness.
But let us return to John’s story. In the face of the disapproval about expenditure from Judas, Mary is showing a daring confidence in Jesus, something Judas in his legalistic or opportunistic objections lacks. I always have the sense here that Judas is trying to run the Jesus’ campaign in a direction that has no room for a Messiah who would throw away everything, even life itself, for love, mercy and the promise of a new creation. This scene where Mary throws herself at Jesus’ feet, lets her hair down and explodes open a jar of expensive oil would have been equally incomprehensible to him. We must acknowledge it would also have been terribly uncomfortable for anyone sitting around at that meal! You cannot but see this as a deeply intimate and sensual act, but also deeply present and human. It is the act of a woman who trusts deeply and loves abundantly, showing the daring confidence that flows from that surrender.
But there is even more to this act which Jesus identifies. We might well wonder how much conscious intention Mary had in choosing the oil associated with anointing the dead- the word used suggests it is myrrh. Since Jesus had been speaking of his death, maybe she was reading the signs and did indeed sense where this was all heading for him. Maybe she was willing to do what Judas could not and surrender in trust- a daring confidence in God that there is meaning in the path Jesus would choose in laying down his life. In the timeline of John’s Gospel we are just days away from Jesus’ passion. This occurs six days before the Passover meal and just after the raising of Mary’s brother Lazarus; the event in John’s Gospel which sets everything in motion for Jesus’ arrest. Possibly in the beautiful aroma that would have filled the room Judas smells only death- the death of his plans and manoeuvres, perhaps of his hopes for an uprising against Roman control.
Yet maybe the fragrance of life often smells a lot like death.
I am always amused by those who think of Christianity as a crutch for weak people. Maybe they haven’t really read words in Paul describing his aspiration to share in Christ’s sufferings by becoming like him in his death. Jesus, too, talks about sharing in his cup of suffering. We mostly, at least for now, are not facing such hardships, but the fragrance of life can still smell like death where we sense the challenge to our belief that we can create, control and direct
our lives. Or maybe we sense the little deaths that come when we admit to ourselves that the ways we have known in the past are no longer viable, whether societal systems of economics, industry or agriculture or communal ways of being church or our own ways of seeing or believing.
We may have found comfort or security in past structures or ways of being in the world. Maybe we have confidence in past achievements or experience or qualifications. But faith is always a leap of trust beyond what we know- always a living, daring confidence in God’s grace for present and future.
What faith is not, is believing the right things. I know I have said this many times before, but it is so important to hear this in a tradition where every week we repeat in the creed what sounds like a set of doctrinal propositions. In the letter to the Philippians, we hear Paul say that any righteousness he has is found only through faith in Christ. It would be absurd to think that Paul is saying that he lays claim to righteousness through believing the right things or believing in correct ways. Rather, we can say that Paul, through a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, can claim to participate in the goodness of God. Paul entrusts his whole being to Christ and has been transformed by this radical trust.
I think our culture struggles to have such trust in anything beyond our own imaginations and will. There is a huge amount of faith in technology and in the idea of progress. The arc of history is not bending upward towards unending progress and human peace and prosperity- the world wars last century broke that myth forever, but we keep trying to believe it. Technology offers a utopian future but doesn’t and will not save us, despite its claims. For some, technology has replaced religious faith. You can hear it in statements like this from the magazine, Wired in 2005;
Behold, we are entering a new world, powered not by God’s grace but by the web’s electricity of participation. It will be a paradise of our own making….
Or this from venture capitalist, Marc Andreessen in 2014;
For the first time in history, humankind, liberated by computers and robots from physical constraints, will be able to express its full and true nature. We will be whoever we want to be…
Or this in 2021 from Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook/Meta
The defining quality of the Metaverse will be a feeling of presence- like you are right there with another person in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology.
(quotes from Who do we choose to be by Margaret Wheatley, 2023, p 50-51)
These dreams are godlike, proclaiming full humanity, true presence and a new world of our own creation. Despite the claims, we need only look at the consequences to discern whether we are living into our full humanity and best dreams for ourselves. We can make ourselves prosperous at the same time as we impoverish all of our relationships, including our relationships with earth and all its creatures. Sometimes when Christ lays hold of us, a whole lot of our secure certainties are given up, along with our ignorance and the areas where we are avoiding responsibility. It is a work of discerning what we need to let die in order that new life and fresh courage can follow.
But faith – that living, daring confidence in God’s grace- also is what carries the aroma of real love. This is the kind of love that does not need to control but only abides where there is freedom. The kind of love that sets us free from self-interest and fear, and longs to be shared. I know I catch the fragrance of love around here in the new clothing smell when delivery boxes are unpacked, or as I stack packages of breakfast cereal and fruit into our parish pantry or in the baking smells of morning tea treats and the aroma of a freshly mown parish lawn. Through these and so many other actions, our community is leaving a legacy of love.
Oils like myrrh have a fragrance that lasts. I wonder if that act of both faith and love hung around too, as Jesus stumbled and fell under the weight of a cross, I wonder if he caught again the aroma of that fragrant oil – the oil that was preparing him for his death. I would like to think that Mary’s vulnerable human act of love helped to sustain him.
But of course, Mary’s act came from that same living, daring confidence in God’s grace. It is such faith that leaves the enduring fragrance of love. May we have that same daring confidence in the grace of God revealed in Jesus the Christ that we may be transformed daily into the likeness of love and live into our full humanity.
+Amen