“BREAK A VASE!”
JOHN 12:1-8
MARCH 22, 2009
A prominent theologian wrote a book titled,
What if Jesus Had Never Been Born?
What a provocative question.
Have you ever thought about it? What
would the world be like if Jesus had never been born?
If Christ had never been born, think what we might be missing today: Some
of the world’s greatest hospitals and universities.
Literacy and education for the masses.
Benevolence and charity. The
high regard for human life. Changed
lives. Hope.
The list could go on, and one of the greatest impacts Christ had on
history was the elevation of women in society.
Prior to Christ, a woman’s life was very cheap.
In ancient cultures, a wife was the property of her husband.
Plato taught that if a man lived a cowardly life, he would be
reincarnated as a woman. In ancient
Rome little girls were abandoned in far greater numbers than boys.
And in ancient Israel, a woman never reclined at a table full of men.
She would prepare the meal and serve it to the men, but then she would
eat in another room, probably the kitchen, much like the custom in Arabia today.
And she would certainly never let her hair down in public. I mention this
so that you can be prepared for the shock of Mary’s behavior.
This morning we continue our Lenten sermon series wherein we are looking
at three of Jesus’ closest friends – Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
These three were siblings, and whenever Jesus was in Jerusalem he stayed
at their home in nearby Bethany.
They were great friends, and last week we focused our attention on Martha.
Next week we will focus our attention on Lazarus.
This week we focus our attention on Mary.
When looking at Mary, I think of a letter Bob Dole received on the
campaign trail when he was running for President.
An article about Bob and Elizabeth Dole appeared in a magazine, along
with a picture of Bob and Elizabeth making the bed together.
Well, a male reader of the magazine wrote to Bob Dole and expressed his
disappointment that Dole would allow himself to be photographed in such a
“compromising” position, making the bed with his wife.
Senator Dole wrote back to the man, saying, “You don’t know the half of
it; the only reason Elizabeth was helping at all was because the photographer
was in the room.”
Mary seemed to be a lot like Elizabeth.
She didn’t seem to help much around the house.
That was her sister’s complaint last week when Martha and Mary had Jesus
and the boys over for a dinner party.
Martha slaved away in the kitchen while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet.
They get along better here, but she’s still not in the kitchen.
Poor Mary. She’s mentioned
three times in the Bible, and two of those times she’s getting chewed out by
someone, and the other time she is a basket case.
When she was not being chewed out, she was crying.
After the death of her brother, she could hardly control herself.
Over come by grief, she wept inconsolably.
But here, at this particular dinner party, her tears have turned into joy
because Jesus brought her beloved brother back to life.
Look once again at what she does.
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.
I wasn’t all that familiar with the term “nard” so I looked it up.
I discovered that it was a costly fragrant ointment prepared from the
roots and hairy stems of an aromatic Indian herb.
They had a picture of it in the dictionary.
It’s an ugly looking plant, but it smelled great, and this was “pure
nard” that Mary uses, not watered down nard.
According to the footnote at the bottom of my Bible, the cost of such
pure nard was equivalent to a year’s wages for a laborer.
So, if you weighed Mary’s act in terms of dollars and cents, we’re
talking super extravagant, top-notch quality stuff here.
Kenneth Lay and Bernie Madoff kind of stuff.
And, of course, someone got his nose out of joint.
In the mind of the treasurer of the group, Judas, a drop or two of the
fragrant oil would have been enough.
After all, it’s the thought that counts.
And indirectly Judas criticizes Jesus here because he accepts her
extravagance. But there’s also a
note of hypocrisy present because on a number of occasions Judas and the rest of
the apostles enjoyed the hospitality of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
They didn’t complain then when they were doling out money to entertain
them. And also, there’s John’s
parenthetical comment that Judas has had his hand in the till and it wasn’t so
he could give a little extra to the poor, unless he considered himself poor.
Unfortunately, what happens here has plagued the followers of Jesus from
the get go. How much do we spend on
ourselves and how much do we give to others?
In partial response to this question, my mind goes back to an experience
of William Willimon, chaplain at Duke University.
Willimon tells of the time the faculty of Duke was discussing a proposal
to renovate the seminary chapel.
They had received a modest proposal from the architect.
But, would the chapel be renovated?
No. “With all the poverty and
hunger in the world,” said one faculty member, “how can we as Christians justify
spending $50,000 to pretty-up our chapel?”
Of course, this person failed to offer similar objections when faculty
salaries were raised each year, (a figure that collectively exceeds $50,000) nor
does he question the morality of the luxurious faculty lounge.
Obviously the man was posturing, just as Judas was posturing.
Even so, the problem is tough.
How much to should we give to others and how much should we reserve for
ourselves?
With all this in mind, note how Jesus responds to Judas’ criticism of
Mary. He defends Mary’s action based
on her purity of motive and urgency of the hour. Jesus said,
Leave her alone.
She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.
In six days Jesus would be hanging from a cross.
It was on his mind, and Mary intuitively picked up on it.
She knew Jesus was troubled by something.
She didn’t know what it was, after all, the cross caught everyone by
surprise, but she knew Jesus was troubled.
So she wanted to do something nice, something compassionate for him.
In appreciation Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
She’s not waiting until after I die to do something nice for me.
She’s doing it now.”
And for a moment let’s get back to the statement about the poor, about
the poor always being with us. There
has to be something in that statement.
At first blush it seems so callous, so fatalistic, out of character for
Jesus to say. We know Jesus better
than that. No one has been a more
significant instrument for helping the poor than Jesus.
No one has demonstrated a greater heart of compassion.
Then what could he mean by that comment about the poor always being with
us? Let me tell you what makes sense
to me. Remember the context.
He’s looking at Mary’s act in light of its overall perspective.
He sees his death as imminent.
He sees her devotion as properly extravagant.
And so he says, in effect, “It’s all right.
Don’t’ criticize her or try to stop her.
For this one moment, forget the poor.
In this case her extravagance is absolutely appropriate, in fact, in this
case her extravagance is commendable.”
And in six days Jesus would do something infinitely more extravagant for
the poor, and for the rich, and for everyone in between.
He would die for them on the cross.
Now, why was this particular story preserved?
Why did John tell it? At the
end of his gospel John says he could have told a million stories of Jesus, and
yet he only told a few, and this is one of them.
Why did John include this?
The obvious reason is to expose Judas for the man he was, and to clear up
some of the mystery about him. Ever
watch the television show “Unsolved Mysteries?”
I’ve never watched it, but like the assassination of JFK, and the
assassination of Martin Luther King, and the death of actress Marilyn Monroe,
Judas is sort of a man of mystery, and John attempts to clear up the mystery, to
tell us what may have motivated him: money.
Now, that’s why John may have included this story, but I think the Holy
Spirit included this story for another reason.
I think this event has been preserved to teach us one major lesson:
There are certain times when extravagance
is appropriate. There are times
when God shouts with a smile, “Break a vase!”
Think back. Remember when God
built that magnificent tabernacle in the wilderness?
In so doing, God broke a vase.
God instructed those wilderness wanderers to construct a fabulous, albeit
temporary, place of worship – a tabernacle.
And they followed God’s design to the nth degree.
Lots of gold. Beautiful
tapestry. Lovely wood craftsmanship.
You can read about it in Exodus 25 & 26.
And throughout those years in the wilderness God’s glory resided in the
so-called “extravagant” worship center.
And have you ever taken a close look at the “new Jerusalem” in the Book
of Revelation? Ever done a study of
the heavenly city that God designed for us to spend eternity?
We’re talking wall-to-wall broken vases.
If the thought of extravagance makes you nervous, you’ll be nervous
throughout eternity.
I’m told that Harry Ironside, a fine pastor and conference speaker of
yesteryear, once checked into a hotel where a church had made reservations for
him. Without a word, one of the
bellboys led the pastor to the designated accommodations and unlocked the door.
It was like nothing he had ever seen.
It was the penthouse. At
first he just stood in the doorway staring in disbelief at the plush furnishings
– among them a silver service sitting on a carved table and lots of highly
polished brass. On further
investigation he discovered multiple rooms, including several bathrooms with
thick, luxurious towels and marble finishings.
Immediately, Pastor Ironside went to the phone and called the desk
attendant downstairs, and said, “I think there’s been a mistake.”
The receptionist asked, “Are you Harry A. Ironside?”
“Yes.”
“Are you speaking at such and such a church tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I have a note here that I don’t understand, but it says, ‘If Dr.
Ironside calls you and has any concerns, just say, ‘We want you to learn how to
abound, Dr. Ironside.’”
Now before you get your hopes up, remember, that’s not what we can expect
… nor should we. Like the account of
Mary’s anointing Jesus, such rare moments need to be handled with care, not
flaunted. Vases were not broken over
the Savior every day. He didn’t
smell the luxurious perfume throughout his life.
But how fittingly perfect it was at this moment.
Now for a few pointed questions:
Must we always fly economy and never first class?
Must we always drive Chevrolets and never Cadillacs?
Must the best buildings in town be banks and never churches?
Must we live all our lives under constant restraint and self-imposed
guilt, for fear of being told that we are overlooking the poor?
Must everything be just “adequate.”
There’s an old theatrical expression actors sometime use in jest when a
person is about to go on stage. They
say, “Hey, break a leg.” Jesus has
another expression for us. He says
to us, “Hey, break a vase!”
Some would say Mary wasted this precious perfume on Jesus.
And some would say that Jesus wasted his life on you.
But Jesus would never say that.