Show Notes
In this fifth week of Lent, we read John 12, where Mary pours perfume on Jesus’ feet. What can we learn from Mary’s actions, and Jesus’ response to Judas in this passage?
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Episode Transcript
The Lenten season of reflection provides an opportunity for us to allow our hearts to be calmed so that we might see into them more deeply, just as we can when the ripples on a body of water are stilled. And perhaps nowhere do those currents that cloud our vision occur more than around the issue of money. It’s no surprise that Jesus said our hearts will be found where our treasure is.
A reading from the Gospel of John, chapter 12 beginning in verse 1.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, famously observed that the last thing to be converted when someone comes to faith in Christ is their wallet. While we need to be clear that Scripture proclaims the love of money, not money itself, to be the root of all evil, we must also recognize how deep that flaw, tendency, lies within us. What better time to do that than during Lent?
The selfish lure of money is well evident externally. In the adverts that try to persuade us to buy things we don’t need, the empty get-rich-quick promises, and the predatory lending practices that prey upon the already financially disadvantaged, it’s easy to recognize the way money manipulates and controls those around us. But our vision can be cloudier when it comes closer to home.
Jesus’ encounter at Bethany reminds us that when it comes to money, we don’t necessarily see things clearly. What many scolded as a waste, Jesus commended as an expression of love and devotion. What seemed to be wise stewardship from Judas was actually a cover for his own selfishness. Just as it has been said that a fundamentalist is someone who is more conservative than you are, so we might be tempted to dismiss someone with more money than we have as greedy. But we should remember that we do not know the ways they may do good with their wealth that are unseen. May God help us to see more clearly into our own hearts before those of others. Because if charity begins at home, then so too does economic justice.
As we learn to trust God more fully for, and with the money we need personally, we are better positioned and suited to petition for and pursue caring and compassionate financial principles and practices from our businesses, culture, and financial institutions. Ultimately, it’s not the amount of money that matters, but our attitude toward it.
Psalm 126, a song of ascents.
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, Lord,
like streams in the Negev.
Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them.
A prayer from Alliance Bible Fellowship.
Help us to be content when every message around us tempts us to desire more. Keep us from wanting things we can ill afford. Help us to be better stewards of what you’ve entrusted to us. While the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Thank you, Jesus, that you came to give us life to the full and that you can do immeasurably more than we can ask, think, or imagine according to your power at work in us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
A reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter three, verse four through 14.
I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
