“It’s not
about the poor”
Highlands
Presbyterian church - March 17,
2013
The Gospel story opens this morning six days before
the Passover. Jesus has a week to live. He who is about to be killed and rise
from the dead goes to pay a visit to the formerly dead…a visit with the one he
has raised from the dead. Lazarus had spent four days dead in the tomb. Perhaps
Jesus was curious and wanted to ask Lazarus what that was like…what was it like
to be dead? What was it like to lay in the tomb? What was it like to have your
life restored after so long dead?
The Gospel of John teaches that it was this act…the
raising of Lazarus from the dead…that signed Jesus’ death warrant. In the
chapter just before today’s reading…chapter 11…
…beginning at verse 45…”Many
of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed
in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and
said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go
on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and
destroy both our holy place and our nation.” Caiaphas, who was high priest that
year, said to them, “Do you not understand that it is better for you to have
one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”
Those who had been most troubled by Jesus’ ministry
had witnessed Lazarus walk from the tomb alive. This would be the last straw
for the Romans…they killed a lot of people in order to maintain the empire and
when they killed someone, they wanted that person to stay dead…none of this
coming back to life stuff.
By the end of chapter 11, they are looking for
someone to tell them where Jesus was so that they could arrest him…and here he
is…in Bethany…just outside of Jerusalem…hiding in plain sight. He couldn’t have
gone anywhere else where there would have been more people gawking than to the
house of a once dead man. The paparazzi had to have the place surrounded. Jesus
could not have been more conspicuous.
The scripture says there was a large crowd there.
They wanted to see Jesus but most of all they wanted to see the formerly dead
Lazarus. They were there when Lazarus died. They were there when he rose from
the dead. They couldn’t get enough of watching the dead man live.
Think about the characters in this story. Of course
there are Jesus and Lazarus. Then there is Mary. Just a few short verses
earlier Mary was grappling with the whole idea of Jesus. When Jesus arrived
after her brother had died, she said to him, “If only you had been here, he
would have lived.”
Now…a few days later…it is Mary and only Mary who
seems to understand that it is Jesus who will soon die and like Lazarus, spend
days in the tomb. She prepares his living body for death.
Nard is one of the main characters…nard is the oil
she uses…nard is just not any oil. It’s an aromatic perennial herb grown in the
Himalaya Mountains, having rose-purple flowers. It was obtained as a luxury in
ancient Egypt. And a luxury it
was. In those days, the average worker was paid one denarius for a 12-hour
workday. The nard Mary uses was worth, a Judas points out, 300 denarii…almost a
month’s wages.
Nard
was used to perfume dead bodies. There was no embalming then and to reduce the
stench of death, this oil was used by those who could afford it. There was
another use for nard in those days. It was used to anoint the heads of Kings.
Mary uses it to anoint the feet of Jesus. He is not a king.
And
then there is Judas. We all know Judas. We know his role in the arrest and
crucifixion. Jesus knew before we did, maybe before Judas knew. There is a
telling dialogue between Jesus and Judas. Judas is not happy to see all that
expensive nard going to waste on the feet of Jesus. Jesus who claimed to be the
champion of the poor should have ordered Mary to sell that oil and give the
money to the poor.
Isn’t
it surprising when Jesus rebukes Judas? Leave her alone he says. She is the
only one here who understands what’s going on. Besides, Judas isn’t all that
concerned about the poor.
The
Gospel writer challenges Judas’ sincerity. “Why was this perfume not sold for
three hundred denarii,” Judas demands to know, “and the money given to the
poor?” John then adds, “He said this not because he cared about the poor, but
because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put
into it.”
Do
you know who Judas reminds me of in this story? He reminds me of those people
who say things like, “With all the poor and homeless people in America why are
we sending so much money to other countries to help their poor people.” They
say that as though they would actually support the use of that money to
actually help the poor here.
I
do not, as Paul said to the early church, I do not want you to be uninformed
brothers and sisters. The next time someone says that to you, tell them the
truth. As a percentage of our income, the United States spends much less on
helping the poor of the world than any other developed nation, other than poor,
nearly bankrupted Italy. We spend about a billion dollars a year or 25 cents
per day per person. That is far less than the widow’s mite and but only a
fraction of the five loaves and two fishes with which Jesus set the example for
how to feed the multitudes.
A
few loaves and a couple of fishes are enough to feed the world if we are
generous. If we are less than generous givers, it leaves far too many starving.
If we who have so much are unwilling to help those in Africa and Asia and South
and Central America who are hungry, it is little wonder that there are, among
us, people of our own nation who do not have enough to eat.
But
Judas aside…what is going on here? Judas is, after all, correct. All that nard
was worth a lot of money, money that could have fed a lot of hungry people.
This week, the grandeur of the Catholic Church has been on display. The
Vatican, St. Peter’s Square, the Swiss Guards, the Sistine Chapel, the
vestments of the new Pope.
I
am certain there were many who watched it all and repeated the words of Judas.
“Why was this not all sold for the billions it must be worth and the money
given to the poor?” Certainly…the Vatican and all of its grandeur is an affront
to the senses of austere Presbyterians…look at these blank walls. If the
Vatican is one extreme, are we not the other?
The
one from whom we learn the most in this story of the anointing of Jesus is the
one who says nothing. While Jesus and Judas debate the use of money it is Mary
who teaches us that it is not money that is at the center of our ability to
help the poor. It is instead the inspiration of knowing why we seek to do so.
I
watched the Highlands team last Wednesday night serving dinner at Connections
Corner. Connections Corner is one of the many ministries Highlands supports. It
is a ministry to those who live in generational poverty. It is a ministry that
brings middle class mentors together with people in poverty so that we can
learn from one another. They meet every Wednesday night and they begin every
meeting by sharing a meal…a meal donated by churches and others. Highlands
takes its turn and thanks to Laura and Mary Ann and Vic and Abita…everyone
enjoyed a wonderful taco dinner last Wednesday.
But
it is so much more than a dinner. I know for a fact that for the children who filled
their plates that night…this is the one night a week that most of them are able
to do that. For us it was a delicious meal…for them…Wednesday night is the one
night a week they don’t go to bed hungry.
So…where
does the inspiration come from? What is it that inspires some to do the hard
work of social justice…to feed the hungry, house the homeless, visit the sick
and the captives? It’s not the money…it’s the inspiration…the inspiration that
comes form anointing Jesus…at times with expensive oils…it’s the painting on
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it’s the magnificent cathedrals and the
ornate sculpture, the stained glass…the visual images of art and architecture
that lift our hearts to levels our minds cannot always comprehend.
As
the votes of the cardinals were being counted, Claudio Hummes of Brazil, comforted his friend Cardinal Bergolio "as the
situation became dangerous".
After
the voting reached the two-thirds majority that elected him, Hummes told him
"Don't forget the poor.” While the formal voting continued, the pope said
"I thought of wars .... and Francis (of Assisi) is the man of peace, and
that is how the name entered my heart, Francis of Assisi, for me he is the man
of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects others."
On
the night he was elected amid all the grandeur that is the Vatican…the new pope
shunned the papal limousine and travelled on a bus with other cardinals. He
went to the Church-run hotel where he had been staying before the conclave and
insisted on paying the bill.
Francis,
the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, also urged Argentines not to make costly
trips to Rome to see him but to give the money to the poor instead. And then he
reminded his followers that it is not about the pope but about Jesus.
I
would add…it’s not even about the poor…it’s about Jesus!
The
work of God’s justice will, as Jesus said, always be with us. It is hard,
demanding work that requires a renewal of the senses…the lifting of our spirits
that comes from using expensive oils to anoint the feet of Jesus as the means
of reminding us that the inspiration will not always be with us, that it must
be renewed, that worship is an integral part of mission.
Worship
is the inspiration and whether we find it on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
or the beauty of the wide-open sky, it is what creates for us the sense that it
all matters, that it all arises from an understanding that neither are we alone
in the work or larger than the cause. AMEN
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