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Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Lent – April 6, 2025
John 12:1-8
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
It has to have been the strangest dinner party ever. First of all, it was being held at the home of a guy who was, just a few days before, very much dead. Lazarus, whom Jesus had called out of the tomb, had now changed out of his grave clothes. All his mummy wrappings had been rolled up and put away, and he was now, along with his sisters Mary and Martha, hosting a dinner party for Jesus and his disciples.
And as if a formerly dead guy hosting a dinner party weren’t strange enough, at some point during the meal, his sister Mary got up and retrieved a very expensive bottle of perfume from her room. This bottle cost her a good 300 denarii, which was a full year’s worth of wages for a common laborer. It was probably the most expensive single item Lazarus, Mary, and Martha owned between the three of them! Martha and Lazarus probably wondered what their sister was up to. But without offering a single word of explanation, Mary took that bottle, knelt down before Jesus, and poured it onto his feet.
But it gets even more strange: Mary then let down her hair. In the ancient world, virtually all women grew their hair long. This long hair was seen as a powerful symbol of a woman’s femininity, and so whenever women were out in public, they kept it pinned up and covered. It is still like this in some cultures of the world today. My sister, who has long hair, recently traveled to the country of Oman for her work. Oman is in the Middle East, just south of Afghanistan and just east of Iran. Though Oman is allied with the West, it has a very traditional culture, and so whenever my sister left her hotel room, she had to wear a head covering. In these traditional cultures, respectable women only let their hair down in the privacy of their bedrooms. Only their husbands are allowed to see their hair tumble down over their shoulders. It is considered a deeply intimate act. And so as Mary let down her hair, you can imagine the disciples shifting nervously in their seats, averting their eyes, forcing themselves to think about baseball.
And just when you think things couldn’t possibly get even more strange, Mary then used her long hair to wipe Jesus’ feet! In the ancient world, washing the sweaty feet of guests who had walked many miles in sandals was the job of the lowest of servants. And here Mary, the host, was doing it herself, in the middle of dinner, with her hair!
Lazarus and Martha, along with Peter, James, and John, Philip, Thomas and Matthew and the rest of the disciples all sat there in stunned silence, until Judas decided it was time for him to weigh in on the situation. “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” Judas objected. You see, Passover was near, and it was customary to make an offering for the poor at Passover.
But that’s not what Judas’ concern really was. Judas was virtue signaling. That’s what we call it today. He was aligning himself with a cause to make himself look good and to make Mary look bad. He was saying what sounded virtuous while doing exactly nothing to actually alleviate the problem he claimed to be so concerned about. His words were a badge he wore to signal his supposed superiority over Mary. But he was in no way superior to her. In fact, St. John first reminds us that Judas would soon betray Jesus, and then mentions that Judas was a thief who liked to dip his fingers into the common purse to skim off a little for himself.
To Judas, what Mary was doing seemed absurd. To be fair, it likely seemed absurd to the rest of the disciples too. It had to have seemed absurd to Martha and Lazarus, who just watched their sister dump out the most expensive thing she owned on Jesus’ feet and then rub it in with her hair.
But none of it was absurd to Jesus. Jesus told Judas to back off. He told him to leave her alone. Jesus understood that Mary was expressing her love for her him. Jesus explained that she was preparing him for his burial, which was now only days away. “You always have the poor with you,” Jesus said, “but you do not always have me.” Jesus received this extravagant display of love with joy.
As strange as it is, Mary’s behavior has a lot to teach us. In contrast to Judas’ false piety, Mary shows us what a life of true faith looks like – and it is something that always looks a little absurd from the outside.
Mary took what was most valuable to her and gave it to Jesus. She poured out her greatest treasure at his feet. We too are called to use all that we have been given, all that we treasure, all that is valuable to us, in ways that honor our Lord. This includes our giving to the church, which often seems like a huge waste to people outside of it. There have been times when our congregation has been blessed to have received large financial gifts from people who included Oak Harbor Lutheran Church in their wills, and you should hear the howls of their non-Christian relatives when they get wind of it. To them, it is absurd. It is a waste.
But it isn’t just our financial gifts. All that we have is to be used in ways that honor and glorify Christ. This seems absurd to those who only see their resources as a way to pleasure or glorify themselves, but this is what flows out of a heart of faith. Mary could be so generous with her treasures because she had come to treasure her Lord Jesus above everything else.
Mary was worshipping Jesus, kneeling at his feet in adoration and praise. We too are called to worship him as our Lord, as we are doing here today. This, too, is something that many people find absurd. Singing songs to Jesus on a weekend morning when you could be sleeping in? Are you crazy? Theologian Marva Dawn wrote a wonderful book about worship called “A Royal Waste of Time.” It was a tongue-in-cheek title, pointing to how worship is perceived by many people. It, too, seems like a waste.
Mary let down her hair in front of Jesus. While the suggestive nature of this gesture is hard to overlook, it does not symbolize romantic involvement. Jesus would not have seen her in that way. But it does symbolize something pretty close to that. It does symbolize intimacy. It does symbolize vulnerability. It does symbolize Mary letting Jesus see her as very few others in her life ever would. Mary could do this, she could let down her hair before Jesus, only because she felt utterly safe with him. This is faith! This is trust!
We too, male or female, are, spiritually speaking, able to let our hair down before Jesus. We too enjoy this close, intimate relationship with him where we don’t need to hide or cover up anything about ourselves. He already knows anyway! We can be our true, vulnerable selves with him. Even the most intimate parts of our lives, the parts we cover up from most other people, are safe with him. This seems absurd. We often believe we need to put our best, most respectable foot forward – especially before God! But to have faith in Christ is to lay our entire lives at his feet, trusting in his mercy, trusting in his great love for us.
Mary stooped down to serve Jesus, washing his feet with her hair. Jesus would do something very similar for his disciples just a few days later. After he was done washing their feet, he told them that if they wanted to be his disciples, that’s how they should love each other – by taking the form of servants, by living in humble service to one another. Mary powerfully foreshadowed Jesus call to humble service.
We too are called to lives of humble service. As Jesus’ disciples today, we are called to wash his feet by serving one another in humility and love. This is carried out in our vocations, our callings in life – in our families, in the church, in our work, in our community. This seems absurd in a world where everyone is looking out for number one, but as Christians our calling is to be looking out for one another.
As strange as her behavior is, Mary of Bethany teaches us some important things about discipleship. While Judas was crowing with false piety, Mary was modeling true faith as she poured herself out before Jesus in love.
The morning after that strange dinner party with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, Jesus went to Jerusalem. He could probably still smell the perfume on his feet as he made the last leg of his journey. There he was greeted with palm branches and people shouting “Hosanna!” There Jesus showed his love for each of us as he gave himself up for us on the cross. We’ll pick up this part of the story next Sunday as we begin Holy Week.
But we remember even now that on the cross, Jesus poured out more than perfume. He poured out his blood for us. He poured out his life for us. It was a shocking display of love that seemed strange to many. It still seems absurd to a lot of people.
But in his great love for us, Jesus poured himself out for the sake of what he treasures most. He poured himself out for you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church