I’m curious
What do you think the other dinner party guests were talking about as they walked home from that dinner party?
This is an extremely sensual…maybe even disturbing, episode
In the context of John’s unfolding narrative
this episode offers us an almost impossible depth of richness
We have a bit of a problem from the get-go
Because we have been reading from the Gospel of Luke
We have talked about Lucan themes and the Lucan Jesus
And PLOP
The lectionary switches to the Gospel of John!
So we need to take a look at where we are
We need to put on our John glasses
Today’s scene follows directly after the Raising of Lazarus story
It might even be considered a continuation of that story
…the stories are meant to go together…they need each other
The Lazarus story begins by foreshadowing what Mary will do:
“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary WAS the one who anointed the Lord with perfume
and wiped his feet with her hair”
So the narrator is identifying Mary by what she hasn’t yet done!
That’s a clue that it is really important…it is DEFINING
When Jesus went to Lazarus’s tomb and said “take away the stone”
Martha warns: “But Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days!”
Looking at the two episodes together
I am struck today by contrasts
Let’s start with Mary and Judas
For Mary, the monetary analysis of her sacrifice never entered her thoughts
For Judas, everything is weighed and calculated…measurability is key
For Mary, extravagance and exuberance erupt naturally in the presence of Jesus
She only has eyes for him…
she is not navigating the concerns of others in the room…
she is utterly free and unencumbered…sitting at the feet of Jesus
Judas is attempting to manipulate the scene
He points a deriding finger at her…look at her…what a waste!
Who could ever condone such behavior!
Judas is corrupt…His motivations are corrosive.
There is nothing likeable about Judas in John’s gospel.
The common purse is for the needs of the poor
He manages the common purse
He is a thief
Mary’s extravagance could have lined his own pocket
Mary does NOW what Jesus will ask his disciples to do in the next chapter
He will wash their feet
And instruct them “Do this in memory of me”
Mary becomes a model disciple NOW…intuitively and without instruction!
Judas corrupts discipleship…
Mary gets discipleship…
Then there is Life and Death
Lazarus is dead…and is resuscitated
He is alive and continues to be present in the story
For John this is what propels the political and religious forces to coalesce against him
Mary’s anointing is in anticipation of Jesus’ death
She senses deeply the mission of Jesus and she responds in the moment
Without reserve
With abandon
She won’t get another chance
And then there is the assault on the senses
Aroma versus Stench
The aroma of Mary’s ointment counters the stench of Lazarus’ tomb…
the stench of death
This detail in the story seeped into my imagination
And it demanded my attention!
I googled “why are smells so evocative?”
The olfactory bulb sends its information directly to the amygdala – the memory bank for emotional experience. There is no extra processing en-route, as there is for our other senses, so smell memories link to emotional memories in a raw state.
I sent out this prompt to 10-15 friends
Describe a smell that floods your mind with an arresting memory—person place or event:
There was a bit of overlap…but here are a few of the responses:
My mother’s perfume---Estee Lauder
My father’s pipe tobacco…it signaled: I’M HOME!
The Peonies that lined the driveway of my family home
The aroma of my mother frying chicken
The smell of coffee being ground…I remember my mother taking me the grocery when I was four or five and her getting a bag of freshly ground coffee
Perfume of a girl I made out with in High School…don’t use my name;)
The smell of lily of the Valley…the crisp fresh jasmine-like scent of a small bouquet I picked on the way to school to give to my favorite teacher Sr. Michelle…I was in the 1st grade
But one shared memory really helped me understand this gospel story in a fresh way.
My friend, Mary…of course it was a Mary…
Responded:
Lilac bushes lined one side and the back edge of our backyard where I grew up. Each Spring, when the lilacs bloomed, my Mother would send us kids out to make cuttings so that she could make bouquets for every room in the house. The bouquets were replenished for as long as the bushes provided. The fragrance filled the house! Lilacs = Spring = Mom. When I was first married and we bought our first house, I brought transplants from my parents' yard to plant in my first home. I just couldn’t imagine spring without Lilacs to cut…without that fragrance in my home!
I began to wonder about Jesus’ Mary
About her rich and fragrant ointment
Mary is rubbing this on Jesus’ feet
She used enough for it to fill the house
And she takes her hair and wipes at the excess
Her hair is saturated
Perhaps Jesus’ Mary…
Like my friend Mary and her essential Lilacs
Perhaps Jesus’ Mary
Wants to take the aroma of Jesus
The scent of Love with her
She saturates her hair
She wants a remnant of his presence
Something to carry with her
And perhaps Jesus takes her---
Her scent of devotion and love
With him to his Passion
It is a scent of love
And Love always goes both ways
Giving and receiving
LOVE always in relationship
This is rich imagery
But it’s true isn’t it?
Love does have a scent
Fear and corruption do too…
There are giveaways in our language:
We say that something “smells fishy”
Or from Shakespeare “There is something rotten in Denmark”
Or when some person or event “leaves a bad taste in our mouth”
On this fifth Sunday of Lent
As we prepare for Palm Sunday and Holy Week
I feel drawn to investigate the smell of my life
What is my life’s ratio of aroma to stench?
What lingers in the wake of my encounters with people and places and events?
If I can see corrosiveness trailing in my wake
Am I keen enough…honest enough… to investigate?
Does my Judas-like outrage against …just against
Overpower
My Mary-Like freely-spent…devotion and love?
What lingers after I pass by?
When I was working in the hospital…during my chaplain days
I was often with dying patients
And its true…death definitely has a stench
And it doesn’t magically go away
But the nurses taught me about an ointment that you could put
Under your nose…above your upper lip
It doesn’t make the smell go away
It just deals with it
We Christians don’t deny death
Holy week will take us through the cross to Easter
Not around it
Or under it or over it
Through it
Of the 10-15 people I polled
And I used the word smell deliberately
so that it could refer to the
pleasant as well as the unpleasant
All the responses were sweet memories
even if tinged with loss and longing
John’s gospel is keen on abundance…a major theme starting with all that WINE (chapter 2)
Abundance
Be assured
there is plenty of fragrant love on offer
It seems to me that our discipleship challenge is to gather it up
The loving and being loved
Gather it up
Grace upon grace
…enough to saturate our hair…
What do we give off as we encounter people, places, and events?
Is it a love that lingers?
A love that leaves a scent?
Is it a love with a measure of momentum?
So that
beyond us…it will take on ever new life?
LET IT BE SO!
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