What Is Important?
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
September 13,
2015
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
John 12: 1-8
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the
home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave
a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with
him. 3 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. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his
disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was
this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the
poor?” 6 (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.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might
keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with
you, but you do not always have me.” [1]
We learned many things in Seminary
about the Bible and Biblical Scholarship, that most people rarely think about,
and perhaps for good reason, because in a sense it misses the point, but it can
be fascinating and it many times does appeal to our general curiousity. One
example is the quest to find the so called "historical" Jesus. For
the last hundred years or so, Biblical Criticism has come into vogue. It seems
that somewhere in the late 19th and well into the 20th century the mystique
came off the Bible, and seeking the answers to questions became much less
taboo. One of the areas that people have delved into is the quest to find what
they call the "historical" Jesus. . . the Jesus who lived, beyond the
missing pieces, into the cracks in the story, deep into the discrepancies
within the record, especially the gospel record, because there are many
discrepancies, especially when you include John's gospel, in comparison to the
other three. . . as we have seen throughout John's gospel, there is something
more going on here than simply trying to tell a definitive historical narrative
record of Jesus' life and ministry headed to the cross. Now I don't bring this
up because I put much stock in their quest, except I want to let you in on some
of their criteria as a way to introduce the story from this morning because it
gives us a lens.
Part of their work is they are
trying to determine which parts of the story are what they call authentic, in
other words that they really happened, and which are made up or altered, or shortened,
or summarized somehow for some desired effect. There are two main criteria that
they say give more credibility to an episode or a quotation. One is called
multiple attestation. . . which means that the episode is recounted in more
than one of the gospels. . . this points to greater authenticity, especially
when John's Gospel also includes it. . . and that should make logical sense. .
. if you have more than one witness a given testimony has more weight in a
courtroom, this is based on that same principle. . . and the other they say is,
if the statement doesn't fit the general accepted norms, then it is likely to
be Jesus, that if the statement Jesus makes is somehow embarrassing, or
troubling to the movement. . . that the disciples or the gospel writers would
have preferred to have left it out, but they seemed to have to include it
because Jesus must have really said it. You see it seems really basic. . . why
it matters is a whole different story. . . but here in this story we have both.
The woman anointing Jesus' feet with
the expensive perfume that has nard in it is found here in chapter 12 of John's
gospel, but the story is also told in Matthew 26 and in Mark 14, but in those
tellings the so called, woman, is unnamed, but here we have Mary, the sister of
Lazarus. . . and if you add that great apocryphal telling from Andrew Lloyd
Webber it's Mary Magdelene, which in a way can show how details can be shifted
and changed to form some desired effect, in the case of Jesus Christ Superstar,
it is for simplicity of the plot. . . but this story is accounted with much
vivid, though divergent details in three of the four gospels, and you could
make the case that we also have shades of the Mary and Martha story from Luke,
here, because we are told that Mary is perfuming feet, while Martha is serving,
very similar to the Mary at Jesus' feet while Martha does all the work from
Luke 10. In both the Matthew and Mark
account it all takes place just as it does here, in the town of Bethany, but
they add the detail that it takes place in the house of Simon the Leper. . .
some have taken this to suggest that Simon the Leper is in fact the father of
Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. . . another interesting twist on the story. . .
and I have to admit, I can see why a faithful person might be interested in
trying to figure out how these small episodes, that we get in such brevity in
the gospels, how they actually fit together, because there may be more to come
to know from such as study. We do, as we talked about a few weeks ago, have a
great thirst to know more about the people Jesus comes into contact with. . . we
want to know more about them because we just want to know more about Jesus,
what it is like to be in contact with Jesus, with the divine on that life
changing level, because it is all so curious. . . especially, when you start to
wonder why would Matthew and Mark leave her nameless when John names her Mary.
. . why would they not connect her to Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the
dead. These questions call out to our curious bones. . . but what may be the
most important here, because it is what we are given, despite are curiosity, is
what Jesus actually says, because it fits the category of multiple attestation,
being the same here, and in Matthew, and in Mark, and it just doesn't quite
seem to fit the movement. . .
"Leave her alone. . . you will
always have the poor with you."
Because care for the poor is very
basic, and fundamental, and foundational to the movement Jesus is building, and
it is very fundamental and foundational within Judaism. Paula read in Jeremiah
direct words about care for the poor:
Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbors work for nothing,
and does not give them their wages;
14 who
says, “I will build myself a spacious house
with large upper rooms,”
and who cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar,
and painting it with vermilion.
15 Are
you a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
16 He
judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.
17 But
your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence
Could it not say, woe to him whose feet are anointed with
perfume, especially perfume with Nard, when people are hungry, starving, and
impoverished. . . Despite the character change, Andrew Lloyd Webber does
capture the scene quite well musically. . . With Mary singing:
Try not to get worried try not to
turn onto problems that upset you, O don't you know everything's alright yes
everything's fine. . . .
While Judas jumps in with: People
who are hungry people who are starving, matter more than your feet and hands!
That puts it there front and center doesn't it. If we are
not about helping the poor, what is this all about?
Look at our Psalm, from the Call to Worship, Psalm 41,
Happy are those who consider
the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord
protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land.
You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
The Lord
sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their
infirmities.
You can see where Judas is coming from. . . what are we
doing here? Think about it in today's terms. . . how long would Jesus get to
keep his precious not for profit tax exempt status if he were using possible
group funds for such wasteful luxuries as perfumed foot ointment, with Nard,
for Goodness sakes. . .the IRS, Project Hope, guidestar, and givewell.org would
be all over Jesus for such things. And where is Jesus' compassion, you will
always have the poor with you, but you won't always have me. . . . really???
Now it is interesting how Judas is
thrown under the bus here by the Gospel writer. . . parenthetically of course.
. . .Judas (the one who was going to betray him), or (he said this not because
he cared about the poor, but because he is a thief, and was stealing from the
common funds), wow, they are trying really hard to downplay what Jesus says
here. .. he must only have said it because he knows Judas' heart, knows he's a
thief, otherwise there is no way Jesus would ever have said something so
heartless and hopeless about the poor. But in the other gospels its not even
Judas, in Matthew it is just the disciples, and in Mark, it is just some and
they. . . . some scolded the thoughtless her. Why does John include those
pieces of information about Judas? Is it one of those textual additions that
sometimes happens during the copying of manuscripts? Is it a gloss? someone's
notes, someone pondering how Jesus could have said such things? It could be,
but it seems likely, even according to rules of skeptical scholars, that Jesus
said this. . . what does he mean? What is important? How could anointing feet
be more important than using resources to help the poor? Because if it isn't
caring for the poor, many people would just not be sure about this whole Jesus
thing, or at least you hear that alot. . . when a mega church offers Starbucks
Coffee, or you have a huge ornate gold plated cathedral surrounded by
impoverished slums. . . criticism
abounds. Echoing Jesus in other parts of the gospel. . . you hypocrite!
Why does Jesus support Mary in this
case? I don't think it is because of a lack of compassion for the poor, though
I have heard that sermon. . . .and I don't think Jesus would say it if he
didn't really mean it, because I've heard that sermon, too. Those are the two
extremes. I think it has to do with individual
call. . . and it echoes throughout some of the other stories, too. We
each have our own path, our own place, our own individual nature, talents,
gifts, and we are each called to different things. It is possible that Mary is
called to anoint Jesus' feet because she is preparing him for his death. . .
while Judas has a different place. . . or the disciples, or the some/they. . .
whose place is it to scold someone who is faithfully in the presence of Jesus
doing what she feels called to do? Her center is Jesus, where is Judas' center?
If you take the gospel literally, he is just a greedy money grubber out to
steal from the community coffers, and the bigger the coffers the less likely
people would know that things are missing. . . but even if Judas isn't the
greedy antichrist the glosses present him as, and you take him at his word. . .
that he does care for the poor. . . his center is not necessarily Christ. . .
and the mission doesn't come through Jesus. . . it isn't ordered in that way. .
. and so it is action, it may be selfless, it may be thoughtful, it may be
benevolent, it may be sacrifice, it may seek to do some good, but it will never
be effective because it isn't grounded in Christ, grounded in truth. . . . Now
that is not a popular thing to say. . . it seems many disagree today both in and out of churches,
and would be all over me for saying it, because it can excuse people from doing
things that are good, and charitable. . .
and that is dangerous, especially in churches, where you need to find
volunteers to cover stuff, to keep programs going, to get the good things done.
. . but how quickly can it become about exactly that, focusing on the ends, and
not the means, not only does Jesus get lost in the shuffle, but so too do the individual
people you are supposed to be helping. . . and it is never sustainable. . .
people aren't energized by force, guilt, scolding, not long term, not in
eternal ways, like what Jesus is calling us to. Remember Jesus has just raised
someone from the dead. . . that changes the rules, it changes the landscape, it
turns everything upside down, and the old definitions of material wealth and
poverty, just don't hold water anymore. Poverty has nothing to do with the lack
of nard or silver, but distance from Jesus. Judas, be patient, have faith, come
near to me, and you will see. . .The
brother of the Prodigal son, sees things the same way, so too does Jonah after
Nineveh is saved. . . . how can she, how can he, why should I be doing this,
when they are doing that. . . . Jesus says come to me, to you. . . and to others, not because of what you do or
are doing, what they do or are doing, but because of Jesus. . . can you accept
such things? If Jesus is the Son of God, What is Important? Jesus, it all else
flows from him, else is nothing, even the most compassionate martyr who is out
to save the entire world, without Jesus it would come to nothing. . . but could
a human being be the most compassionate, actually selfless martyr, knowing and
being able to give that kind of love, without Jesus. . . I don't think so. . .
many may disagree. . . and that is fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment