Monday 25 March 2013

Background

This passage describes perhaps the most extravagantly beautifulmoment in Jesus' life. He had called round for a relaxing dinnerwith his good friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus. But during dinnerMary did a very surprising thing: she washed Jesus' feet with somevery expensive perfume.

This was an extraordinary act of love and intimacy. Mary, avulnerable woman, touched the feet of an incredibly powerful man.The touch was both intimate and public. In the middle of dinnerMary was acting out the ritual of preparing a body for burial. Sheknew Jesus was going to die, a truth even his closest malefollowers were determined to deny.

This was an act of extreme extravagance. The perfume was worth ayear's wages. According to Judas, that money could have been givento the poor (verse 5). Judas paints a picture of a world whereresources are scarce and if we were better at sharing the problemof poverty will be solved. For him, washing a man's feet withexpensive perfume is wasteful.

Jesus does not share that point of view. He does not live in aworld of scarcity, but one where God's love is freely available toeveryone and in vast quantities. For Jesus, Mary's extravagance islike God's extravagant gesture of sending Jesus into the world tolive as a human being.

The world's problem is not scarcity, it is sin. And scarcity iscreated by sin. Because of sin, no matter how abundant the world'sresources are some will still not have shelter and enough food.Mary demonstrated that giving to the poor was not enough. Sheunderstands that what was needed was transformation of self and ofthe world and this transformation will happen through Jesus'death.

There is a huge contrast between Mary and Judas in this story.Judas saw only waste in what Mary did. Mary saw the opportunity toanoint Jesus' body extravagantly in anticipation of his terriblesuffering and death. What she did was truly beautiful.

To Ponder

• Find out about the IF campaign. What can you do?

• In what ways can you bring beauty into the life of a person whois suffering?