People of the Passion: the Woman February 21, 2021 Dr. Tom Pace Matthew 26:6-13
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
People of the Passion: The Woman February 21, 2021 Dr. Tom Pace Matthew 26:6-13 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, "Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor." But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." Matthew 26:6-13 (NRSV) Let's pray together. Gracious God, open us up. Open our eyes that we might see and open our ears that we might hear your words in the midst of these words today. Open our hearts that we might feel. And then, O Lord, open our hands that we might serve. Amen. Oh, my, what a week! It's been crazy! I received this text message from Rev. Cliff Ritter, who's the pastor of caring ministries here at St. Luke's. It goes: "Still no power. Found a leak in the line that feeds our house. Fortunately, there is a valve we can use to shut off the water. Plumber called. Had to leave a message. Complained loudly to the power company. Lost my sanctification. Cliff." Oh, man, it's been a hard, hard week for so many people. So many of you out of power or water - that's maybe even the hardest of all. Broken pipes in the ceiling, flooding, and trying to get a plumber. Just so many things. I'd never thought here in Houston, Texas, I'd receive an email from a friend that says, "Going out in search of water." Sounded like a dystopia of some sort. It's really been a difficult week in so many ways. And we find ourselves moving from trying to be positive to complaining to being angry, to feeling desperate, trying to get back to feeling positive again. Just kind of riding this circuit of our own emotions and struggles and difficulties through a difficult time. So how do we deal with those? I suspect for many of us it will be short-lived but how do we deal with those times that are so difficult? Over the next six weeks during this Lenten season, we're going to be looking at Jesus' most difficult time, which was the last week of his life, heading into his crucifixion. Interestingly not so much how Jesus dealt with his own struggle but how he interacted with the people around him. The people with whom he had contact, those individuals and how he saw them and how they saw him in this last week. Maybe there's something that we can learn from that, about what really matters. Here's the story for today. In that last week of his life, Jesus stayed every night in a little village called Bethany. It's somewhat near Bethlehem, and it's only about two miles up the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem. It's one of those little villages that are called the Daughters of Jerusalem. You have a walled city, and then you have all these little villages around it, called the daughters of that city. They're suburbs, and all the trade works through the main part of the city, and any time there's a threat from an enemy or even weather, they would hide and come in and take shelter in the city. So Jesus was staying most nights, it appears, with Mary and Martha, his close friends, and Lazarus in the town of Bethany. During that last week, he would come into Jerusalem every single day, starting with that journey on Palm Sunday, and teach in the colonnades around the Temple. People would gather and as that gathering grew and grew, the Sanhedrin, the religious authorities, became more and more threatened. That led to them asking the Romans for his crucifixion. On one of the nights, which the Scripture says is two days before the Passover, Jesus is back in Bethany in the evening, and he has gone to dinner at the home of Simon the Leper, what an interesting decision to just move into the home of someone who is an outcast. And all the disciples were there, and he is teaching. Then a woman comes and anoints his head. He's reclining at the table, and she anoints his head with an ointment, a perfume from an alabaster jar. Now it's an interesting thing. We're not really sure who Simon the Leper is or what his home is. Some believe that Simon is the same as Lazarus and if you're like me and you love to chase down such factoids, just go online, and you can look at all the discussion and conversation about whether that's true. But the essence of this story is that she took an alabaster jar. Now the alabaster of that time was made in Egypt usually, and it is a soft stone that can be carved. So it was carved into this jar or a vase and generally had little brown iron streaks through it. In it would be put spikenard, which is a very unguent perfume, or ointment that was usually 2 imported from India. And it was seen as just the most expensive and luxurious kind of perfume that you can imagine. She came behind him as he's sitting at the table. The disciples would have been offended that this woman - other Scriptures said the woman was named Mary. There were lots of women named Mary, so we don't know if that was Mary as in Mary and Martha. Or Mary Magdalene. We don't know who it was. This woman comes and anoints his head with this perfume. The disciples rebuked her, and Judas is offended that she's wasted this perfume that would have cost a whole year's wages. He says, "We could have given this money to the poor. What's the deal?" Then Jesus said, "The poor you will have with you always. You won't always have me. What she's done is a beautiful thing. She's anointed me for my burial." What I'd like for us to do as we consider this interesting story is two things. The first thing is what is she saying to Jesus when she anoints him? Then what is he saying to the disciples about her in response? First, what is she saying to Jesus? And it's really simple - she's saying, "I love you. I adore you. I worship you, and I give you everything." Now I'll be honest with you. For me personally, to have anointing oil poured over my head and especially perfumed oil would not be something I would be all that excited about. But at that time, it was a statement of this sort of luxurious love. If you read Song of Songs, the romantic love story of the Scripture, it ends with a statement about your anointing oils. The psalmist puts it this way: "How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes." An interesting image, but that's seen as the most luxurious thing. The only thing I can think of that maybe would be a parallel for us is this. I don't know if you've ever gone to the barbershop, and they shampoo your hair, and they're gentle, and it's warm. Then you get the hot towel treatment, maybe a shave. And you think, "Wow, this is marvelous!" Or if someone you love rubs your feet for you. It's a way of expressing this incredible heartfelt love. I just think that's a marvelous picture, to say that "In this moment, I just want to love you." But this isn't as simple as saying, "I love you," what she's saying is, "I want to love you through your challenges. You are headed into the most difficult, challenging time of your life. You're going to go to the cross. I want to love you through that." To love someone through their challenges, through their difficult times. 3 We, as the Christian community, are called to love one another through our challenges. Sometimes it's in tangible ways. Like you really want to make a difference, so you do something that really makes a difference. I have listened this week to all of the ways that people have responded and cared for one another and expressed their love tangibly. Jennifer Boubel is our Chief of Staff, and her mother, who is older, lives in San Antonio. Their water and power went out, and ultimately her cell phone died because she couldn't charge it. So Jennifer and her sisters were just beside themselves. One of her sisters knew the name of a neighbor of her mother's and called her.