The Wilderness of Death

John 12:1-11

March 13, 2016

Lent 5

The poor you will always have with you.

The Anointing of Christ, Julia Stankova

Jesus was right about that,

as followers of Christ,

we will always be driven to the poor

and those that have need.

Jesus is not saying that in other circumstances we shouldn’t

sell all we have and give the money to the poor,

Jesus did give that exact advice at another point in the gospels.

But at the same time, Jesus did not want the disciples to

insult or humiliate the outpouring

of love and caring that Mary showed to him.

“You will be spending a lot of time with the poor in the future,

but I am with you right now, so take advantage of it.”

Jesus had been telling the disciples that he was going to die.

And that it would happen soon.

He would be taken by the authorities and be killed.

The disciples knew that the authorities were looking for him.

Some sympathetic Pharisees had warned them about it

and told Jesus to leave town.

They knew that there was a lot of focus on him

after raising Lazarus from the dead.

And yet, it seems like they just don’t grasp the reality

even at this late stage in the story.

So when Mary takes the expensive oil that is reserved

for sacred and religious purposes and anointed him with it,

Judas feigns some self-righteous outrage

at the amount of money spent.

 Now, this gospel explains it as Judas’ greed,

but the earlier gospels have all of the disciples

protesting the expense.

Death is a stressful time,

I have watched quite a few fights, arguments

and tension between families at funerals, at receptions,

even shouting matches over hospital beds.

The arguments between the disciples at this point are common.

It’s as if the rose colored glasses that we’ve been wearing

have been ripped off of us when someone we love is dying

and it hurts to look at reality.

Death is something that we can stare in the face,

and yet not believe it’s true until it happens in our lives.

·         What has been the hardest death in your life deal with? Why?

·         What worries you about your own death?

Paul writes in Romans

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Prepared or unprepared for death,

we know that Christ is with us and that we will be with Christ.

Mary is sharing one of those moments that

we wish we could have with people who are not here anymore.

The gifts that we wish we could give someone

if we only knew and were fully prepared and accepting

they were going to die.

Death is a sacred time, a time when we come so close

to God’s promises, we can almost feel them coming true.

In Christ, death has no dominion over us.