True Service

Reading: John 12.1-8
Most things we do, we need a plan - whether it is written down or kept "up here". It is not only important to do all the right things, but to do them in the right order. Have you ever embarked on a project, got well-advanced, but then had to back-track because you had left out some important step?

In my youth in Warwick, we had a very active Intermediate Christian Endeavour. Every so often, we had a "ship-wreck" meeting. The leader worked out the usual programme for our weekly devotional meeting, then cut it up and put the pieces in a bag. We then did things in the order they were pulled out of the bag - with all kinds of surprises!

That was fine for an occasional bit of fun. But mostly in life, we need to get first things first.

God First

Some churches are almost divided between the "spiritual" and the "practical". That's not a good division at all. How do you see the way Jesus summed up the law? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Mt. 22.37-40).

Which is the most important? loving God? or loving your neighbour? It's significant that Jesus kept the two together. We have separated them so that some have gone in for Bible studies and prayer meetings, while others bake cakes for street stalls or care for sick neighbours.

It isn't meant to be that way. Jesus was insisting quite strongly that love for God comes first. God must be first - otherwise he isn't God! Jesus also strongly maintained - and illustrated in his own life - the importance of loving our neighbour. The claim to love God is a mockery if it doesn't result in loving our neighbour.

He made that point rather forcefully in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10.30ff). Who were the ones who "passed by on the other side"? The priest and the Levite (a kind of Temple helper) - people who surely loved God. The "expert in the law" who asked Jesus "Who is my neighbour?" no doubt thought the "loving God" part is easy and obvious. But those with the best credentials as "God-lovers" clearly hadn't "got it all together" at all. There was a flaw in their love of God which became visible in their failure to show practical love this beaten and wounded neighbour.

Mary and Judas

Now take a look at today's reading.

Mary is overwhelmed with thankfulness, not only for Jesus' friendship with their family in Bethany, but, most recently, his raising of their brother Lazarus to life. She takes "about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume" - imported from the Himalayas and opened on special occasions. She pours it on Jesus' feet - the whole pint. No wonder "the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

Such anointing was reserved for special guests on special occasions. Does Mary sense Jesus' impending death? Bethany is very close to Jerusalem. The Bethany folk can hardly be unaware of the mounting opposition to Jesus. For whatever reason, Mary sees this as the right time to honour Jesus.

Judas reacts, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages" (v. 5). John adds the comment, "He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it." (v. 6). In Mark's account, the objection is raised by "some of those present" (Mk 14.4-5). Perhaps Judas isn't the only disciple to react negatively? Later on they will understand Judas' motives - when he betrays Jesus for money.

But, just at this point, don't you feel some sympathy for Judas' point of view? If we are to love our neighbour as ourself, why this waste? Some today would go so far as to call Mary's action "immoral"!

This isn't the first time we have taken issue with Mary. Remember the meal Martha was preparing, and Mary "sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said" (Luke 10.38-42)? We read that story and think, "Martha was right! It was so unjust, so unfair!" And there, as in the present incident, we hear Jesus sticking up for Mary - saying she has chosen the right thing to do!

The Spring of Love

Like Judas, we can be so convinced about what others should do to make the world a more caring place. We end up in despair of governments and their budget priorities. We blame the economic rationalism that wants a balanced budget. Yet somehow, all of our programmes and ideologies end up with a world that is still patently selfish and seriously deficient in real love.

Don't misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. He isn't minimising the need for positive action (including political action) to correct social injustices and to overcome the problem of poverty. What he is saying is that only by what would happen in his dying on the cross would the spring of love be released into the world.

Don't try to cut off this extravagant expression of love. Mary is perceiving something important that is about to happen.

The problem of human poverty can't be solved at this point by giving the proceeds of this perfume to the poor. On the other hand, responding to Jesus' death and burial - and his rising again - has the potential to release in us the love towards neighbour which can take positive action on poverty.

Historically, many who have been deeply motivated by the gospel have taken key roles in practical human love. William Wilberforce (late eighteenth and early nineteenth century) and Mother Teresa (twentieth century) are just two notable examples that come to mind.

Yes, Judas, a lot needs to be done for the poor. But you won't do it! It's not on your agenda at all! Your part in the death of Jesus will be marked by betrayal and greed! You will end it all in hopelessness and despair.

Jesus came because we all need God's love and forgiveness. The mending of that broken relationship has to come first. That's the brokenness that leads to all the other brokenness. That's the mending that begins all the other mendings.

Once again Good Friday and Easter are close at hand - with all the memories of what happened nearly two millennia ago. We remember because it was for us he died and rose again. We remember because what happened then brings solid hope and help into our world. We remember so that God's love and grace to us can well up within us as a spring of grace and hope into the world about us. We remember because our love soon "dries up" if we don't constantly come back to the source of love.

So - first things first! Receive his grace. Then reach out in love to others in true service.


© Peter J. Blackburn, Home Hill and Ayr Uniting Churches, 1 April 2001
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible Society, 1984.

Back to Sermons