“Mary … anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair”

(John 12:3)

There are times in our lives when conflicting emotions occur at the same time. Joy, despair, grief, can all be mixed together in our lives. My father died three weeks after my first son was born. I was torn between emotions of elation over the birth of my child and excitement over new life and grief over my father’s dying and death.

Today, I imagine Mary finding herself in a place of mixed emotions.

In John’s gospel, this story takes place the night before the procession of palms in Jerusalem. It is also the night after the Sanhedrin has pronounced a death sentence on Jesus. Lazarus has been raised from the stench of death only a week ago.

Imagine the scene: Lazarus alive again for about a week. Jesus stops by for supper and a visit with his good friends, Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. He is on his way to Jerusalem where he will be killed. Mary has sat by his feet and listened many times to his words. What a tumult of emotion she must have had within her: from grief over Lazarus’ death, to joy in his healing, into fear for Jesus’ life, all within a week. Somehow her intuition, her knowledge of Jesus and the way he is acting let her know that his death was coming. And she had to find a way to respond.

None of us are strangers to grief and tragedy either. Whether in our own families, among friends, or as we witness tragedies of wars, natural disasters, or terrorism in our world, we all will experience times in our lives when someone we love suffers.

How do we respond to these events when they occur? What kind of choices can we make? What goodness may be drawn from us that we don’t even know we have within us?

Sometimes we will have conflicting emotions such as Mary had. Just as Mary was experiencing joy at Lazarus’ life and fear for Jesus’ life, just as my dying father and newborn son competed for my emotions, you also will experience or have experienced such times.

It is just part of the complexity of life. Those who provide ministry in the church, in health care services, or social services may be called more frequently to the bedside of the dying, to the sick, to the hungry or homeless as part of your job description. But all of us will be called at some time to respond to another person in distress. How can we be present to those in need? Can Mary’s actions in the story be a clue to show us how we can minister?

Mary, still rejoicing that her brother Lazarus has risen from the dead must know in her heart that Jesus is going to die. Although it is customary to offer guests a bowl in which to wash the dust off their feet and perhaps to give them oil to soften their feet after a day spent outside in the dusty paths, Mary far exceeds this custom with her outrageous behavior.

Perhaps others beside Judas are embarrassed by her actions. For a woman to let down her hair was disgraceful. For anyone other than a servant to wash a guest’s feet was out of bounds. To use expensive and fragrant nard, nearly a whole year’s wage for a laborer, just to clean someone’s feet is pretty excessive. Isn’t it?

But Mary knows. She knows what Jesus needs. She knows he is troubled, and she anoints him in preparation for his death and burial. Mary is more concerned with Jesus’ needs than with propriety, or with sensible decisions about money. She gives from her heart, sensing that Jesus needs this anointing now. She may not know how the events of the coming week will unfold, but she does know that Jesus needs to be ministered to right now. Because he is her friend, because he has raised her brother from the dead, because she cares, she does what seems right to her, whatever others may say.

Soon the house is filled with the fragrance of perfume. The antithesis of what she expected to find when Lazarus’ tomb was opened the previous week. I imagine the scent was healing for all in the household who had so nearly been touched by death of a loved one. I imagine it was just what Jesus needed too.

How often family and friends are moved to gift and to bless a loved one who is approaching death, with anointing, with touch, with softly whispered words of love and of forgiveness. How in tune Mary is to the present moment, the present need of Jesus.

This can be our clue or direction for ministry too. When someone is needy, hurting, embarrassed, shamed, dying, weeping, and in pain, we can learn from Mary that it is not the time to follow normal social conventions of politeness and distance. Perhaps, just as Mary washed Jesus’ feet and just as Jesus washed his disciples feet at the last supper, we too can learn to attend to the present moment of encounter with someone in need.

May we learn from Mary’s actions, how to be avenues of God’s grace to those in need and to each other, may we learn to show God’s love and mercy to one another with extravagant attention and care to those who are hurting, to those who are dying, to those who need to know the love of God. Amen.

Lent 5 Year C 2007

March 25, 2007

The Rev. Kristen Dobyns