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Trinity Lutheran Church 5 Sunday in Lent Pastor Nick TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH 5TH SUNDAY IN LENT PASTOR NICK DROGE APRIL 7, 2019 “ABOVE AND BEYOND” JOHN 12:1-8 We are now at the fifth Sunday of Lent — next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, so today is really the last Sunday that is fully immersed in this season of Lent; this season when the days lengthen, the days get warmer and we are asked as faithful Christians to spend time in self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial; and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. It’s a time for renewal, for alms giving and drawing nearer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the Holy Trinity that is our God. Lent is also a time when we follow Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem, a story we tell with increasing haste beginning next Sunday with his triumphant entry into the ancient city and then quickly moves to his betrayal; arrest and his condemnation by the religious and civil authorities of the time. Then comes his crucifixion, burial and two weeks from today on Easter Sunday, we celebrate both his resurrection and our salvation. Those are the events we begin to recount more fervently next Sunday. Today we tell a Gospel story set in the village of Bethany, just a short distance outside of Jerusalem, at most two miles; not very far at all, no more than a 30 minute walk. Today we are presented with an event recorded in all four Gospels, the anointing of Jesus. John, Mark and Matthew each report Jesus was anointed in Bethany. Luke’s Gospel however sets this event in Nain, far to the northwest in Galilee, about 6 miles from Nazareth. Mark and Matthew both report Jesus was anointed in the home of Simon the Leper, but neither of their reports name of the woman who does the anointing. John on the other hand, does not name the house, but only the village where we’re told Lazarus was, but John does name the woman, Mary, sister of both Martha and Lazarus. Some scholars speculate Simon the Leper was the father of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, so John’s account of this anointing could very well be set in Simon the Leper’s house just as in Mark and Matthew. Does it matter? No, it’s the anointing that matters. What is anointing all about, anyway? We encounter anointing throughout Holy Scripture — Saul is anointed by Samuel to be king, David is anointed by Samuel to be king, and then by the men of Judah, and finally by the elders of Israel. It is a traditional Hebrew practice to anoint priests, prophets and kings as a sign of their inauguration. If you watched the Netflix series The Crown, then you saw a recreation of Queen Elizabeth’s rather awkward anointing at her coronation by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Anointing royalty at their coronations is an ancient practice dating back at least to the Egyptians; anointing marks those being anointed as chosen, set apart — it also bestows authority and power upon them. And at baptisms the newly baptized are anointed with oil, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever, designated as God’s chosen, blessed and protected. But for all its festive significance, the origin of anointing is thought to be in an agrarian practice of shepherds with their sheep. Lice and other insects naturally get into the wool of sheep, and if they get near the sheep's head, they can burrow into the sheep's ears and potentially kill the sheep. Disgusting! To protect their sheep, those ancient shepherds poured oil on the sheep's head making the wool too slippery for insects to get near the sheep's ears; they just slide right off. From this ancient practice anointing became symbolic of blessing, protection, and empowerment. It also explains why people oiled their hair in earlier times and why shepherds traditionally keep their sheep apart from human settlements. After all, who wants a bunch of greasy sheep close by? In religious practice, anointing has become a symbolic indication of God choosing a person. That’s what the word Christ means: the anointed one, or the chosen one. There is another significance to anointing — especially as it relates to Passover, Christ’s passion and today’s Gospel text. Easter and Passover are bound together by calendar, religious custom and history. To understand that a little deeper, we can learn something from the Jewish practice around Passover lambs. In the book of Exodus, God instructed Moses to have each family select a year old, male lamb without blemish and slaughter it, sprinkling its blood on the family’s doorpost so God’s destroyer would pass over that house during the final Egyptian plague. You see it all depicted when the film “the 10 Commandments” is televised Saturday after next, on ABC, at 7pm. You can come to the Easter Vigil here at 6pm, and then drive home while it’s still light to catch most of the film and almost all the commercials. But back to our discussion of Passover lambs. Passover lambs were chosen six days in advance of Passover. This allowed them to be inspected for to ensure that they were free from blemishes, including their legs, ankles, and feet; all of which are easily damaged or marked on the rocky hillsides. After this initial inspection anointing oil was rubbed into the ankles and feet. A second anointing occurs two days before Passover. After a final inspection the Passover lamb is anointed on its head declaring it to be free from disease or blemish. So to recap, six days before Passover the lamb’s feet and ankles are anointed, and two days before, the lamb’s head is anointed. Today’s Gospel story is set in Bethany which is the first place we encounter both John the Baptist and Jesus in John’s Gospel. It’s at Bethany where John the Baptist denies being either the Messiah, or a prophet and says he is the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” And the next day upon seeing Jesus, points to him and declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John is declaring Jesus to be the new Passover lamb, the final Passover Lamb of God. Today’s Gospel story takes place six days before Passover, and Mary anoints Jesus’ feet. In Mark’s account of Jesus’ anointing, it occurs two days before the Passover, the day the Passover lambs are anointed on their heads. In Mark’s account the woman pours the perfume over Jesus’ head anointing him two days before He was crucified symbolizing He was without defect, without sin. John’s Gospel really brings forward this imagery of Jesus as the new Passover lamb. In Moses’ time the Passover lamb shed its blood to protect the first born of the Israelites from the final plague before the Exodus, protected them from death, and setting the stage for those Israelite people to find freedom from captivity in Egypt. With the imagery of Jesus as the new Passover lamb, John’s Gospel announces a new Exodus. Jesus shed his blood to protect those who believe from the finality of death, opening to us the way to eternal life and setting the stage for a new Exodus, our exodus from the captivity, the bondage to sin we confess when we gather in worship, This is our exodus to freedom from sin in the forgiveness Jesus makes possible for us when we are repentant. You may recall the first of Luther’s 95 theses: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. We are called to be repentant not just in Lent, but every day of our lives. The ancient Israelites anointed their Passover lambs in anticipation of those lambs being sacrificed in commemoration of God delivering Israel from captivity in Egypt. Mary anoints Jesus in anticipation of his death. His death on our behalf — a death he endured out of pure love, a death which cost him everything but one through which we gained everything, especially the power to become children of God. We have talked in the past about John’s Gospel being the last one of the four Gospels to be written — scholars place its writing around 90 AD. It’s written to a Jewish community that has fallen out of favor with Rabbinic Judaism because they believe Jesus is the Messiah. Mainstream Judaism does not. We can see in this story particularly, John reassuring these ostracized Jews that Jesus is the Messiah, and encouraging them to keep the faith. Mary’s anointing of Jesus is very intimate and emotional for her. She understands her dear friend Jesus is about to die, and she knows there is nothing she can do to change that. Furthermore the extravagant aroma of the expensive perfume can do little to distract from that harsh reality. That reality instills a tension in this scene which is totally lost on Judas. His mind is set on the mundane tasks of keeping the common purse and pilfering from it for his own gain. He fails to grasp the gravity of the situation and expresses his displeasure with what Mary has done. But Jesus says leave her alone; meaning don’t judge her actions but try to understand her tremendous generosity, try to understand the gift of time is really for us to focus on life, not to obsess over money.
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