12 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. 2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. 3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.
4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, 5 “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6 Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.
7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
John 12:1-8
Dear God, before I get into Judas’s part of this story, I think I’ve kind of missed something. Or at least I’d forgotten it. This was Mary, Lazarus’s sister, doing this. She’s the one who sat at Jesus’s feet while Martha did the work and then complained to Jesus that Mary wasn’t helping. She’s the one who was so distraught at Lazarus’s death that it was Martha who went out to greet him and then Jesus talked to Mary later and she said she believed in the resurrection. And now, she’s the one who “wasted” a year’s-wage worth of perfume and poured it on Jesus’s feet, emotionally wiping it with her hair. This woman really led with her feelings. She ws in the moment with very little inhibition on what decorum or the “right” thing to do would be. And I mean all of this in the most complimentary way. I could stand to be a lot more like her.
Then there’s Judas. John gives us Judas’s outside words: chastising Mary for what he describes as waste. But then he also editorializes for us and gives us some insider information. In John’s opinion, Judas didn’t really care for the poor. Then he seems to know that Judas stole from the group for himself. It’s ironic that we are in political season as I type this. There are so many people right now who are saying whatever they think people want to hear in order to get their votes. I’ve voted already. And I made my decisions. I’d like to think it was based on moral convictions and, but I know I’ve also been swayed by disingenuous words. I heard someone say recently of one politician that if you were to do an exit poll of his staff on election night you would find that most of them didn’t vote for him. I guess we are all in danger of being the person who says one thing when he/she really means another.
Jesus’s reply to Judas will actually poke him a little and cause him to cook a little more. Jesus has been talking about his death. He did so to the point where even Peter rebuked him over it (Mark 8). So now he tells Judas as they head into Passover week that this is in preparation for his burial. They won’t always have him with them. This had to have made Judas angry. And it’s almost like Jesus was doing it intentionally. Like Jesus was challenging Judas to reckon with the conflict going on inside of himself. Jesus could have gotten crucified without Judas’s help. And Jesus knew what Judas was thinking. And the next day they were about do to the Triumphant Entry. That would have been a heady time for Judas and all of the disciples. Was Jesus wrong about his impending death? Would this be the time they’ve been waiting for? So much emotion and selfish desire layered over this story. And Jesus is ultimately reminding him, at the end of the day it will be me who is gone and the poor who are still here.
Father, I have all these selfish desires. I know I have things you want to purge from my heart. Help me to see them and eliminate them from my life. Help me to lay them at the food of your cross and lay down the sword I want to carry around with me to wield power and simply submit to you and loving others (and the poor who, indeed, are still with us). Show me the journey you have for me and help me to be prepared to be the man you need me to be to fulfill it.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
