Mary, Judas, and the Space Between Them
A Sermon by the Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3rd, 2022.
“…Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair….” John 12: 1-8
Here we are just one week before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, when Jesus will be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners to be crucified. The pressure is mounting all around today’s story. Jesus has just restored his dear friend Lazarus to life and this is the act that seals the deal on Jesus being put to death. The religious authorities see that people are following Jesus more and more after this miraculous demonstration of God’s power and they decide that he must die because the Romans will think he might inspire a Jewish revolt which will obviously threaten their power, and if Roman power is challenged, then the power of the religious hierarchy is at risk because the high priest collaborated with the Romans in order to stay in power.
So danger is very close at hand, and Jesus knows what awaits him in Jerusalem, as he returns to Bethany, just 2 miles from the capital, to stay with his friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Their home was his home away from home. It had always been his safe place, the place he would go when he needed to rest and to be taken care of for a little while before returning to his very full ministry of preaching, teaching and healing. Mary and Martha prepared a dinner for Jesus and his disciples, maybe to thank him for giving their brother back to them. And as Martha served the meal, Mary did something so extravagant, so shocking that Judas couldn’t believe it. She took nard, a very expensive ointment, imported from the Himilayan mountains, and anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the Gospel of John tells us “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume”. Such a beautiful, loving and knowing thing to do. She is anointing Jesus because she senses that he is on the trajectory of death. Mary is very aware of the wolves at the door. But instead of lamenting or pleading with Jesus to go into hiding, she simply cares for him and her sacramental anointing invites others into the holiness of the moment. Some are able to enter in and others are not.
One of the most beautiful things in this life is to witness someone who is able to be completely present to their loved one as they prepare to die. Wiping their brow. Rubbing lotion on their body. Putting a sponge in their mouth to moisten it. Reading psalms. Singing favorite hymns. Asking forgiveness for anything that is still lingering from the past. Telling them how much they love them. Telling them that it is o.k. to let go. When all of the medical interventions have stopped, when everyone knows that it just about being together and helping them make the transition. It’s very much like being a midwife, and helping the person move into life in its fullest sense, life with God. But pain is often part of that process, just like pain is part of the process of bringing life into the world during childbirth. And the reality of pain is hard to accept. Maybe that was at the root of Judas’ rejection of Mary’s loving act. Perhaps he just didn’t want to face the reality of what was about to happen. Mary’s act would seem very foolish and wasteful to someone in denial. His comments aren’t really about the money or the poor. Jesus tries to explain to Judas that she is doing this to prepare him for burial, but he still doesn’t understand.
Karl Barth, a theological giant of the early 20th century, did a lot of thinking about Judas. He asked an unlikely question that I think is still a relevant question for us today, “is there redemption even for Judas in the death of Jesus?” Judas is the most scorned, the most despised figure in Christian tradition, and for good reason. He was one of the twelve chosen by Jesus to be part of his ministry team. They were friends. They ate and drank and spent so much time together. He helped Jesus heal and teach those who came to him. He was in a position of great trust as the treasurer. And yet, in the end, he stole from the common purse that supported their ministry and betrayed Jesus. John tells us later that Judas brought a detachment of soldiers to a garden where Jesus often went to pray with his disciples and he gave Jesus to them. He says that Satan entered Judas and implies that he was motivated by greed. Others have given Judas’ actions a gentler interpretation and theorized that he was trying to force Jesus’ hand so that Jesus would use his power to save himself and glorify God. Maybe Judas was afraid and didn’t want to suffer a similar end because of being one of Jesus’ closest. Fear can do horrible things to people. Whatever the reason, he did the absolute worst thing he could possibly have done.
We believe that Jesus died to save our sins, and Judas is the biggest sinner of all time. Is there redemption for Judas? We proclaim that Jesus came to draw the whole world unto himself. Did he finally draw Judas back to himself, even in death? Scripture doesn’t answer that question, but I believe the answer is yes.
Mary is the saint in today’s Gospel. She is he model disciple. Judas is a sinner. But is it really that simple? I don’t think it is. We are all some combination of both. The love of Jesus comes to us in a myriad of forms each day and yet it is sometimes hard to see. We are sometimes believing and sometimes rejecting. So our constant prayer must be “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”
As we prepare today for Holy Week to begin a week from today on Palm Sunday, we are reminded that our shouts of “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” can in a nanosecond turn to “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Mary’s adoration today can easily turn into Judas’ rejection tomorrow. There is both a Mary and a Judas in all of us.
May God help us to be steadfast, to be present, to be open to what God is doing that goes beyond our understanding. May God help us to stay connected to those we love and to the world that Jesus came to redeem. May we see the beauty of the moment everywhere we look and be part of creating that beauty. When we see news reports of Ukraine and notice a vase of flowers in a shelter while there is artillery fire raining down all around, may we see God even there. When we are blessed to one day be with someone very dear to us as they lay dying, may we be able to enter into the holiness of that time. May we always, even in the midst of suffering, allow ourselves to love and to be loved and have a deep and abiding awareness that our life story is caught up in Jesus’ story.
“…Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume….” John 12: 1-8