Holy Week each year gives us the opportunity to engage more closely
that which is at the heart of our faith.
When we bring ourselves here to participate in these liturgies this week,
we are opening ourselves in invitation to the Holy Spirit
to enlighten our eyes, to give us deeper experiential knowledge
of just what it is that God has down for us, for all humankind,
for all creation,
in the comprehensive action of the Cross.
Yesterday we participated in the commemoration of the events of Palm Sunday,
and then took part in the reading the whole of Mark’s Passion,
plunging us immediately into the entire story.
Now each day of this Holy Week
we will go into depth in each segment of the story,
beginning today, Holy Monday, with the story of the anointing of Jesus.
Yesterday with the reading of the Passion account according to Mark
we heard the story of a woman anointing Jesus.
Tonight we hear John’s account of this event
with some factual variants, to be sure,
but essentially the same story.
There are also accounts of a woman anointing Jesus in Matthew and Luke.
Interesting …
Apparently what Jesus said in Mark’s version was taken seriously:
“…wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world,
what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
When I was in India I witnessed several times a beautiful act of devotion.
When a holy person, a guru, a great spiritual teacher arrives,
there is a ceremonial washing and anointing of the feet.
The ritual is done with several substances:
milk, honey, oil, perfume, flower petals.
In being granted an audience with this holy person and approaching
you bow down and touch the feet to receive a blessing.
Then you touch your head and your heart in transmission of the blessing.
Or you touch your head to the spiritual master’s feet
to indicate that you are placing yourself under the guru’s lordship,
which means also under the master’s care and protection.
These rituals are very ancient, thousands of years old.
We hear an echo of them in the Gospels
each time they record someone coming up to Jesus
and prostrating themselves.
Today Jesus is reclining at table.
And it is Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus,
the one who would sit at his feet for his teachings
rather than observing the duties of hospitality
that were her proper place and responsibility,
who approaches Jesus with the very best that can be offered
to anoint his feet, an act of great devotion.
But more than that,
she touches her head to his feet
and wipes some of the nard from his feet onto her head.
Her actions go over the top.
Now a reaction comes, and in John’s Gospel telling of this story
it is Judas who expresses the objections.
Now the ritual of devotion is viewed as a waste of resources
that could have been directed elsewhere, ostensibly for the poor –
for the nard has a monetary value equivalent
to what the average worker would earn in an entire year.
That was worth three times more than
the 30 pieces of silver Judas would get for betraying his Teacher.
But Jesus stands up for her.
She was anticipating his burial, he says, his death and burial,
anointing him beforehand,
an act of devotion and love.
And more –
by wiping some of the nard from his feet onto her head with her hair
she is taking on herself his death.
It is a way of expressing her willingness to die with him,
to be included with him in death,
and to receive the benefits of his death.
Mary recognized the situation for what it was, an immanent catastrophe;
she recognized this before all the rest of the disciples.
This is a living parable about agaph love,
agaph love, that which is the highest expression of love
in the Greek language of the New Testament,
Godly love, love which signifies union with God,
the love that represents the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
within the Holy Trinity,
the love that expresses God’s love for us:
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…
This is the relational aspect of agaph love
that can be expressed as “I in you and you in me.”
Here in this parable of love being expressed
there is giving and receive.
Mary gives to Jesus in this devotional act of anointing
and Jesus receives her loving expression
as what his body will need after the crucifixion.
And Jesus gives to Mary as she wipes his feet with her hair,
he will give her the benefits of his death,
he will give her resurrection life in him.
This takes us into the story on the personal, intimate level.
Now that we are brought into such an intimate and personal relationship,
where are we this week in relationship with Jesus?
Those of us here this evening
are expressing a willingness to be present
to these awful events of Holy Week.
This is an expression of devotion.
And may this transform and flow over into
our relationships with those we love and care about,
and with all those others we encounter as we go through the day.
May that same sensitivity that Mary had
in which she recognized what the other disciples had missed,
may that same sensitivity and care now also be expressed toward others
who, after all, are declared by our Lord to also be himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment