"Wild Women of Faith" - John 12:1-8

March 21, 2004
Rev. Rachel Cornwell, Bethesda UMC

This Lent, as we move deeper into the Passion narrative and get acquainted with more of the "cast", I have the privilege and the challenge of preaching on three of the women in the gospel stories, each with the same name: Mary. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, Mary the Magdalene. It's a privilege because each of these women has an interesting story to tell, and they each play a significant part in the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. And it's a challenge, because historically they have been lumped together, and are often confused and misrepresented. Mary Magdalene's key role in the Passion story is as the first witness to the resurrection, and we will meet her Easter morning. But today, we'll spend some time with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, an unrecognized disciple of Jesus, a woman of prophetic action.

A friend of mine from seminary had a bumper sticker on her car that said, "Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History." And it's pretty true, especially of women in the Bible. Mary of Bethany was one of those not-so-well behaved women. In the scripture reading today we see that her act of devotion, of generosity, of love for Jesus went against social convention, and made some people feel uncomfortable. But she was a history maker. Although she is not named in Mark and Matthew's recounting of this event, Jesus tells the disciples who criticize her: "Whenever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." (Matthew 26: 6-13, Mark: 14:3-9).

Mary of Bethany was what we would call around here a "Wild Woman of Faith." When we first meet her, she is sitting at Jesus' feet alongside the men, listening to his teachings, being shaped by his message. Her sister Martha is annoyed that her sister's devotion to the spiritual has caused her to neglect the earthly life and her responsibilities in their home. So Martha asks Jesus to please tell her sister to get into the kitchen and help her make supper, to which Jesus responds that Mary has made the right choice.

When Mary and Martha's brother, Lazarus, is on his deathbed they send for Jesus, knowing that he has the power to heal him. But Jesus doesn't come, and Lazarus dies. When Jesus finally arrives in Bethany, Martha comes out and confronts him (you see, Martha isn't exactly a "well-behaved woman" either), but Mary won't even come out to Jesus. When Martha comes back to the house and tells Mary that Jesus wants to see her, Mary quickly goes, but like her sister, she too blames Jesus for her brother's death. Through her tears she blurts out, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." But Jesus is moved by her grief, and he cries with her. Then Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

So here is Jesus with his disciples sitting around the table of this family whom he loves. They are all celebrating Lazarus' return to life, but Jesus is aware that his own death is growing near. Jesus hadn't come back to Judea when Mary and Martha first wrote to him, because he knew that there were people there who wanted him dead, but he came out of love. There are people plotting to kill Jesus, and Lazarus, too, because of the stir that Jesus has created by bringing someone back from the dead. People had been converted by his signs before, but bringing a dead person back to life was bound to attract a lot of attention, and not just from lepers and Samaritans and ordinary folk, but from the Roman authorities, which would be really dangerous.

Mary comes to the table and once again kneels before Jesus. He has not only brought her brother back to life, he has resurrected her, too. She wanted to do something to show how much she loved him. So she acted with extravagance, taking a bottle of perfume worth 300 denariiBthat's $12,000 by today's standards and pours it on Jesus' feet. She lets down her hair - something that a well-behaved woman would never do in public, in front of men who were not her husband - and she wipes his feet with her hair. This was a very intimate and strange thing to do, and it was seen by those looking on as excessive and unnecessary. Jesus knew that Mary loved him, and even if she felt like she needed to anoint him, a few drops of the precious oil would have been enough. It might have made sense to anoint his head, as you would a king, but why his feet as you would a corpse?

Although she wasn't aware of it, Mary's gift of love was a prophetic sign. As the scent filled the room, and everyone was embraced in Mary's act of love, things came to light. Judas showed his true colors in the face of love - criticizing Mary's gift as wasteful, when he himself had been stealing from the common purse. He couldn't understand her act of love, because his heart was full of deceit and betrayal. "You will always have the poor, but you won't always have me", Jesus said, responding to Judas. "Love me now, and I will give you the strength to serve others."

The other disciples didn't understand what she was doing either, because they didn't really understand what Jesus was about to do. Mary had taken to heart all that Jesus had taught her and she knew what it meant to be a disciple. In the near future, Jesus would show them again this simple act of humility and service. Only this time it would be Jesus kneeling at the feet of his disciples, washing their feet, because it was so important for them to understand - you have to give yourself in service, in love, as I am going to give myself for you. That is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

It wasn't easy for the disciples to understand Jesus' sacrifice. They wanted him alive, not dead. There was a story that I read not long after September 11, 2001, in the New York Times that reminded me of how the disciples must have struggled to understand the meaning of Jesus' death.

Harry Ramos died when the World Trade Center collapsed, because he stopped to help another person out of the building. His wife, Migdalia, was really angry when she learned from surviving witnesses that her husband had died because he stopped to help someone. Her mother had just died a few weeks earlier, and now she had lost a husband. She wasn't grateful to know that her husband had done something selfless, she wanted him instead to have been thinking of himself, and her, and their sons. But a few weeks later, she was clearing out her mother's apartment when the fire alarm went off. The stairwell was filled with smoke, and Migdalia and her children were rushing to get out, and then she remembered the elderly woman across the hall, who was nearly blind and would not be able to get out of the building on her own. The fire crews hadn't arrived yet, so Migdalia ran back upstairs to find her mother's neighbor, and as she did, she suddenly realized why her husband had done what he had done, why the instinct to serve, to give himself to try and save another person had been so strong, because now she felt it herself.

Like Migdalia, the disciples would not understand Jesus' gift of his life on the cross until later, until they turned in response to give themselves for others. But Mary understood. She gave all she could. She didn't wait until Jesus was dead to anoint his body. And she didn't hold anything back, because she knew how much he was willing to give. Because Jesus gave his very life, nothing we give looks like sacrifice or extravagance - it looks like gratitude.

This morning we are commissioning three new Stephen Ministers. These are people who have responded to a call to serve, offering themselves as companions in faith to those who are experiencing, grief, loss, hopelessness, and struggle. They have gone through extensive training to give them the resources to handle difficult situations, and they are offering themselves to us - to walking with us so we don't have to be alone in our times of darkness. Penni Spriggs-McDonald, one of the Stephen Ministers being commissioned today, wrote about her calling to Stephen Ministry that is in your bulletin this morning. She wrote: "This is why I am here, to be a steward for the Lord; this is God's purpose for me".

Of course, not all of us are called to offer ourselves as Stephen Ministers, but all of us are called to offer ourselves in some way. And Mary shows us how. Don't worry about what other people might think or say about you. Don't worry about what seems appropriate. Be a wild woman - or man - of faith. Remember what Jesus has done for you, how he has changed your life, and let your love overflow. Don't hold anything back. It might seem extravagant, but that's OK. God's love is extravagant, too

Bibliography:
Lockyer, Herbert. All the Women of the Bible. Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1967

Newsom, Carol A. and Sharon Ringe, eds. The Women's Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 1998.

O'Day, Gail. "The Fragrance of Love," The Word Disclosed.