Readings:
Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27: John 12:1-11

Jesus went to Bethany… They gave a dinner for him there, Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was full of the scent of ointment. Then Judas Iscariot-one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him-said, ‘Why wasn’t the ointment sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contributions. So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; she had to keep this scent for the day of my burial. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me’.
John 12-1-8

The most quoted half-sentence from this Gospel passage is, ‘the poor you will have with you always’, used by those who claim that concern with social reform and with justice and peace issues does not belong to the essence of Christian faith. The essence of Christian faith is in this Gospel passage, but it is not in the phrase, ‘the poor you will have with you always.’

This is a scene to be prayed imaginatively. See the room, the guests, the revived Lazarus, the industrious Martha. Mary, who had so annoyed Martha at a previous supper by sitting at Jesus’ feet, is now engaged in activity which still does not help the cook and, as Judas points out, is also very wasteful.

Judas puts a price on everything. He would have been a model citizen of Britain today, where a balanced economy is the central political issue. Health care, housing, education and social welfare are all regulated by the money available. When economic principles are considered to be as absolute as the law of gravity, subjection to these principles are inevitable. The fallacy is in assuming that economic principles are absolute: they are not. Our economic laws and principles are a reflection of our values, and our values come from our hearts. ‘For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’ (Matthew 6:21). If our treasure is in the balance of payments, then our hearts will be there also: all things and all people will finally be controlled by their price. Market forces will rule and, to quote another scripture passage out of context, ‘for the man who has will be given more; from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away’ (Mark 4:25).

Mary, in this Gospel passage, is blissfully unaware of market forces as she pours expensive ointment over Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair, expressing a love beyond price. In Matthew’s account of the anointing, Jesus says, ‘When she poured this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you solemnly, wherever in all the world this Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told also, in remembrance of her.’

We need to ponder this passage and let the beauty of Mary’s gesture touch the depths of our hearts, where love dwells, the same love to which Mary surrendered and then expressed in this gesture. ‘Before the world was, he chose in, chose us in Christ… to live through love in his presence’ (Ephesians 1:4). Mary has found herself, a self which is absorbed in Jesus, so she prepares him for his burial. ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8).

It is easy for any of us to become so absorbed in surviving each day that we live on the outside of life, relating to others and to ourselves in robotic fashion, missing the mystery of love, which is the heart of all life. A successful social welfare programme, which ensured that every adult had a sufficiency of food, drink and shelter, educational and cultural opportunities, and a little over for luxuries, like expensive ointments, but was without love, would create a hell on earth.

‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it… No; set your hears on his kingdom, and these things will be given you as well’ (Luke 12:12,31). The love of God will prompt us to care for one another as we care for ourselves. We shall then discover that there can be very different economic laws and a new understanding of the meaning of balance of payments, laws which spring from our hearts and bring life, instead of the laws which wither our hearts by putting, like Judas, a price on everything. www

Prayer
We thank you. God, for the love which created us and for the love with which you draw us. May the Spirit, which prompted Mary to her extravagant gesture, inform our lives, driving out every form of price-reckoning stinginess. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen