March 25 sermon Mary and Judas

March 25 Sermon Mary and Judas

John 12: 1-8

Our scripture from the Lectionary today is a comparison of Mary and Judas. Now everybody knows who Judas is. He is the guy who basically stabbed Jesus and the disciples in the back for money…30 pieces of silver to be exact. Judas was a pretty sad character. I think he would be the 1^st to be voted off the Survivor Island. But I don’t want to totally focus on Judas and his glaring flaws. I want to look at Mary today.

We have two weeks before Easter. Easter is a joyous celebration of devotion to our Lord and savior for his unbelievable act of forgiveness. But right now we are still in Lent. Our scripture has bookends of murderous plots. Before it is a plot to kill Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead, and many people are starting to follow him.

After it, is the plot to kill Lazarus because the people were believing in Jesus even more and following him. The first couple verses of our scripture today are setting. It was a week before Passover, and Jesus and the disciples go to the house of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus for dinner.

Mary and Martha were basically throwing a dinner to thank Jesus for what he did. As I said, in the chapter before, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Martha served him from her heart.

She had the spiritual gift of hospitality. And she thought of others. And then Mary. She decided to show us exactly what a disciple of Jesus looks like.

In verse 3, Mary took a pound of perfume, anointed Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. It’s not believed Mary was a person of any means. She was not someone who could give a lot of money as a tithe or gift to Jesus. But Mary took a pound of special perfume and anointed his feet. Why would she do that?

There’s just something about Mary. She got it. She understood Jesus was going to die soon. She understood who the Passover lamb truly was. Mary’s action was in gratitude for bringing her brother back to life. But then there is more. John has this account right before the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as a King. We will read about that next week during Palm Sunday. Mary was anointing her king and savior.

Generally people washed their own feet. In Genesis, Abraham said “let some water be brought out to wash your feet and you can recline under the tree.” The other option was to have slaves wash your feet…if the house you’re in was rich enough to have slaves. But Martha and Mary were not rich. So Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with a significant amount of perfume.

And then what? She wiped his feet with her hair. This is significant because long, well kept hair was a sign of dignity in the ancient world. Women took pride in their hair. Showing her hair in public or any sign of damage to her hair was considered degrading.

YET MARY USES HER HAIR….this is the amazing. Nice hair is the only thing a woman had. They did not have jobs outside the house. They were not speakers or preachers anywhere. Their main goal was to be good mothers and good wives.

But Mary lets her hair down…a big no-no.

Then she wipes the feet of a man with her hair. By using her hair, Mary lessened herself even more in regard to Jesus. To become a disciple, you have to lessen yourself in comparison to Jesus and to those around you. Mary is the model disciple. In fact, so much so, Jesus models her in the beginning of chapter 13 when he bows down to the 12 disciples and washes their feet.

If Mary is modeled as the perfect disciple, then Judas is presented as the counterexample. Mary is ACTION and Judas is all TALK. Mary takes a year’s worth of perfume and WORSHIPS Jesus. She gets down on her hands and knees. Luke has her crying in gratitude also.

She gets down on her hands and knees, pours the oil over his feet, takes her hair down….her hair…… the one thing that is precious to any woman then and wipes his feet. Complete devotion. Complete submission. Honest worship. Mary’s actions model the life of love that should characterize all of the church.

Judas on the other hand is all talk. Judas was the treasurer of the group and he was skimming off the top. “That could have been sold and given to the poor.” We know he did not care about the poor, but only about money.

It’s been said the 30 pieces of silver Judas gets for betraying Jesus could have been the amount he skimmed from the selling of this oil. That’s an interesting thought. What is amazing is Mary and Judas were doing the EXACT SAME THING. Both were getting Jesus ready for burial. Her by the anointing and him by the betrayal.

Jesus yells out at Judas. “Leave her alone.” Mary has her priorities in the right place. She bought this specifically for my burial. You will always have the poor with you but I will soon be gone. Mary knows what is important…giving her best with all her heart, in ACTION of selfless giving, to her Lord.

Easter…the time of ultimate forgiveness, is just around the corner. We have two examples in front of us now…one of love and action, one of lies and deceit. Which one will you follow?

Without reservation, are you going to pour yourself out to God in devotion? Are you holding back anything you should be given? Mary’s extreme action in her time, challenges us today in our time. Do you hear her? Are you ready to follow?

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. ³Mary 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.

⁴But 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.) ⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”