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“Challenge and Response” Sherry Lohman - March 21 – 5th Sunday in Lent John 12:1-8 Who do you eat with? Who has recently sat at your table? What was the occasion? Were you the host, or the honored guest? Today we heard the story about a dinner given for Jesus. The gospel writer, known to us as “John,” conveys this dinner event, for us. And, like any writer, he has an agenda. He writes for a specific purpose, and he has a particular audience in mind, as well. We can figure out much of this, but there are some things written in John’s gospel that will always remain as mystery. For today, there are a number of things that John draws to our attention. For example, he mentions Passover. For those of you who may not be familiar with Passover, the Passover celebration was and is the festival of freedom and redemption; it represents God’s love and saving acts, but it is tied to God’s saving the Israelites as they made their journey/exodus out of Egypt. (Somebody once told me that our entire Bible is one long story of our Exodus; how we are constantly on the run, trying to be released from that which holds us captive, and God’s saving grace). Passover almost always required sacrifice—the sacrifice of a lamb (symbolic of giving of the first fruit). The lamb would be slaughtered, and the blood was then spread on the doorposts of the house, as a visual sign for God to “pass over” that household, or protect it. It was that tradition that that prompted the new Christian community, to celebrate a thanksgiving festival, which we call “the last supper,” or “communion,” which Jesus celebrated with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. But this dinner in today’s scripture is not the Passover. That’s yet to come. Still, John wants us to keep it in mind. It’s relevant to the story. In the next sentence, John mentions something else worth noting: dinner is being held at the home of Lazarus. Why is that so remarkable? Well, it wouldn’t be, except that it was just a few days previous to this that Lazarus was dead, and Jesus had brought him back around; pulled him from an environment of death and resuscitated him./ His sisters, Martha and Mary are there, too. He includes them in the story. Women are included in the circle of men, with Jesus. Who else is there? More than likely, the disciples, even though it’s only Judas who is mentioned. If you read carefully, you will find that John alludes to all kinds of contrasts beginning with Passover vs. the common meal, references to life vs. death, loyalty vs. betrayal, defending vs. accusing, presence vs. absence. These are all insights to the story John is telling. We could take any one of those things and spend the morning on it. But what I’d like us to focus on, today, is honor or its opposite; dishonor. After all, this story revolves around Mary honoring Jesus. That’s what she’s doing when she pours the perfume on Jesus’ feet. Foot washing, itself, wasn’t uncommon in those days. A host would provide water for guests to wash their feet, provide a servant to wash the feet of the guests or even serve the guests by washing their feet. But Mary is doing something more than washing Jesus’ feet. She is honoring him. We honor people today with medals, banquets. I guess we would include our wedding bands that we exchange when we are married. Some say, Mary was anointing Jesus; not merely washing his feet. Anointing is lavish. It was also a means of investing someone with power, such as the anointment of a king upon his ascent to the throne, perhaps to signify divine sanctification and approval. Or, it could signify the consecration of someone for a holy purpose. Although, during the time of Jesus, priests were no longer being anointed. But there’s something else going on between Judas, Mary and Jesus; something subtle, that isn’t talked about, much. The perfume has already been poured—did you ever wonder why Judas bothers causing a stir? What’s going on there? In the Mediterranean society of the first century, the time of Jesus, the pivotal social value was honor. What do you think it might be today? In one of Paul’s letters to the Romans he writes about Jesus’ followers outdoing one another in showing honor./ Your honor was everything. It wasn’t fame or fortune. And there were two ways of obtaining honor. It could be ascribed, (by being born into an honorable family), or acquired, (which was the result of skill in a never-ending game of challenge and response). We can see examples of this game in some of the early stories of Jesus, when he is presented with a number of challenges by the Pharisees and scribes. Jesus is quick to answer, leaving them speechless. They challenge, and he responds. His response is the means to defending his honor. There’s another part to this honor business, and that is, maintaining it had to be done in public. The whole community must acknowledge it. Your honor was your public reputation; your status in the community. You couldn’t just claim to be honorable; it had to be recognized in the community. One more note: challenges to one’s honor could be positive or negative. For example, giving a gift would be a positive challenge requiring reciprocation in kind. We do that. An insult would be a negative challenge, not to go ignored. And this game was played in every area of life with every person in the village watching to see how each family defended and maintained its position. On the other side of that was the very real possibility of shame./ Now, shame wasn’t completely dishonorable. To “have shame” meant to have genuine concern about one’s honor. That’s a positive shame. For example, you’ve done something wrong, you acknowledge it and feel remorse. But it could also be understood as sensitivity to one’s own reputation (honor) or the reputation of one’s family. It’s sensitivity to the opinions of others. To lack this positive shame is to be “shameless” or arrogant, or without shame or concern for honor. It was usually women who played this positive shame role in Jesus’ environment. They were the ones expected to harbor this sensitivity in a special way and teach it to their children. That leads us right into Mary’s deliberate act. She is sensitive to what is going on around her; perhaps even has some intuition about how close Jesus is to death, and so she honors this man she has learned from; the one who watched as Jesus pulled her brother back into the realm of life. She bows before him, humbling herself, anoints his feet, serves him—she is completely immersed in the moment. In contrast, Judas, with his words, dishonors Mary, what she is doing, and without saying it outright, denies any honor toward Jesus. It’s a double stab. He’s playing the game. He’s challenging both of them, and he thinks he can get away with it, because he pretends to be concerned for the poor. Jesus defends Mary—tells Judas to leave her alone, saying, “This was perfume that was purchased for my death; not my life.” You see what he’s saying? What you just witnessed, Judas, is love; spontaneous love. Such love as this won’t neglect the poor. Did Jesus defend his honor? I’m not sure at that point, he had to. But there’s one more thing we should note concerning John’s gospel in relation to this story of Mary, and that is, that there is no Last Supper, no Eucharistic meal included. You can find it in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but you won’t find it here, in John’s gospel. There is a final gathering, later, when Judas is revealed as the betrayer (John 13:27), and they eat together. But there isn’t the celebrated meal like we hear about in the other gospels, when Jesus takes the bread and the cup, blesses it and shares it with the disciples, saying, “take, eat, drink---remember me every time you take of this.” It’s not there, in John’s gospel. That’s a pretty important story to just leave out, wouldn’t you think? There was a meal (Chpt. 13:2), together with the disciples. Jesus knew he didn’t have much time left. But this time, instead of the deliberate sharing of the meal, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. This was Jesus, poured out for them, honoring, bowing, anointing and serving. Judas was there. Jesus would wash his feet, too. It was time the disciples learn the trade, accept the honor and begin their own journey, pouring themselves out, for others. No more games. No more challenges and quick responses. He would leave them, not with a final word, but the act… honor, demonstrated; lavished upon them by a humble servant. Outdoing ourselves with honor toward one another. Serving others. Spontaneous serving—random acts of kindness. Giving and receiving. It’s all here, wrapped up in this scripture. Has Jesus sat at your table? How have you honored him? How has he washed your feet? And how have you washed the feet of others? Will you pray with me. *Harper Collins Bible Dictionary *Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Bruce Malina & R.L. Rohrbaugh |