Fifth Sunday in Lent. Year C 3rd April 2022
Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 43 v16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3 v4b-14; John 12 v1-8.
An outpouring of love.
The gospel passage today tells us of an incident at the house of Lazarus, Mary and Martha in the village of Bethany, not far from the city of Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples were eating, when ‘Mary took a very expensive bottle of perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet.’ (John 12 v3a).
Judas objected on the grounds of wasteful extravagance. But Jesus read the situation differently. Jesus affirmed Mary, acknowledging both her loving intention and the symbology of the action.
Jesus was aware of the plots to kill him and that his remaining time on earth was limited. He knew that someone would want to prepare his body for burial when the time came. Jesus interpreted Mary’s actions as just that. Mary was motivated by love for Jesus, her simple act was an ‘agape’ gift, a token of her love for him. She reinforced the message by using her hair to wipe his feet with the perfume. The tenderness of the gesture was not lost on Jesus.
Judas was, John suggests, lying about his concern for the poor, John suspected Judas to helping himself to money from the common purse for his own selfish purposes.
Jesus doesn’t challenge Judas’ judgemental and selfish motives explicitly, but he does suggest that poverty is endemic in society (as it is today) and implies that this is an issue that needs to be addressed by those who have the means to do so. Jesus says, ‘You will always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have me.’ (John 12 v8).
Jesus modelled a different way of living in community. He encouraged his followers to be generous to one another, to ensure that everyone in their travelling band was fed and clothed. Money was held in a common purse and used to meet basic everyday needs. Surplus money would be used to support the destitute, the outcast and those unable to support themselves because of a physical, mental or sensory disability. We are called to do the same today.
A slogan used recently by a well known aid charity says, ‘May we live simply, so that others may simply live.’ An appropriate message for all of us who live in ‘developed’ countries, at this time of Global Climate Emergency.
Fred Pratt Green’s hymn speaks of God’s love for us and our (humankind’s) fickle response;
(from Singing the Faith No 727).
God in his love for us lent us this planet, gave it a purpose in time and in space:
small as a spark from the fire of creation, cradle of life and the home of our race.
Thanks be to God for its bounty and beauty, life that sustains us in body and mind:
plenty for all, if we learn how to share it, riches undreamed-of to fathom and find.
Long have our human wars ruined its harvest; long has earth bowed to the terror of force;
long have we wasted what others have needed, poisoned the fountain of life at its source.
Earth is the Lord’s: it is ours to enjoy it, ours, as God’s stewards, to farm and defend.
From its pollution, misuse and destruction, good Lord, deliver us, world without end!
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.