Preached 3 April 2022 at Christ Church, Billericay
Video sermon here: https://youtu.be/q9xq9XPIVFI
Purpose: Are we as devoted as Mary? As the pilgrims?
Reading: Psalm 126; John 12:1-8
Introduction
I’m going to look at both passages, starting with the Psalm, and then look at a common theme that they both, at least, allude to.
Psalm 126 (ascents)
Psalms 120 to 134 are each labelled as ‘A song of ascents’. Some of them, including 126 that we are looking at today, are thought to be written by the returning exiles, but this is by no means guaranteed.
These songs, it is believed, were used on the long journey up the hills to Jerusalem that the people made three times a year, in accordance with the law in Deuteronomy 16.
16 Three times a
year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place
he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks
and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD
empty-handed: 17 Each of you must bring a gift in
proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
Ascent
Jerusalem in on a hill, and it's a long way up. It is 803 metres / 2634 feet above sea level, but many of the pilgrims on the route would have come from Jericho and that’s below sea level −258 m (−846 ft). There was a Roman road that covered part of the journey, which would have made the climb easier, but remember they still have all their food and water, tents and gifts to carry.
Singing these Psalms would not only have helped them stay together, but also to stay focussed, and begin to get into the right spiritual mindset for the celebrations ahead.
Even today, on some Christian coach tours, these psalms are recited as the coach makes its way up the hills into the city. A poor imitation of the dedication of the Israelites, I’m sure, but better than nothing.
Psalm 126
Our Psalm this morning remembers the return from exile. It happened, relatively speaking, quite suddenly, as though it were happening in a dream, it didn’t feel quite real to them. One minute they are prisoners living in exile, the next they are going home.
Berlin Wall
The nearest modern equivalent is the fall of the Berlin Wall, when after 28 years, the city of West Berlin was once again part of the city of Berlin and families could cross freely to meet with each other. It all happened so suddenly, something that had no doubt been seen as a permanent fixture was not there any more. For us, I’m sure the TV pictures showing people dismantling it, helped us believe it, even then it didn’t seem quite real. What an amazing thing the Lord had done.
Return
Return from exile cannot have been easy, but seeing God at work rescuing them and bringing them back to His holy city meant that the difficulties were put out of their minds. The only thing that mattered was the celebration. The second stanza of 4 lines (in Hebrew) continues the theme of celebration, reminding the singers that the Lord has turned their tears of sorrow into joy.
John 12 – Intro to family
In our New Testament reading, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the passover. He arrives at Bethany, just a couple of miles outside Jerusalem, to stay with His friends – Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.
Jesus has stayed with them before, we have the story of the conflict between the sisters in Luke 10. Mary is only interested in listening to what Jesus has to say, while Martha is busy preparing the meal for Jesus and frustrated with her sister for her lack of involvement in the duty to her guests.
Lazarus resurrected
On another occasion, Jesus was sent for because Lazarus was sick, but by the time He arrived, Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. There were a lot of mourners there, and some of the crowd, knowing who Jesus was, were critical of Him for allowing His friend to die.
Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, he had been placed in – and out he walked! A lot of people saw what happened and put their faith in Jesus as a result. A side effect of this was that Lazarus became a bit of a celebrity.
Dinner (mood)
Now the family are hosting a dinner for Jesus. It is six days before the passover. His disciples know that He is going to Jerusalem. They also know that the Chief priests are looking for a way to kill Him. In John 11:16 Thomas has said “Let us go and die with him”, so the mood at the meal was not exactly light-hearted.
As usual, Martha serves the meal, and Lazarus, Jesus, and at least some of the disciples are reclining at the table. They are arranged in such a way that their feet are furthest from the table. What happens next is shocking.
Mary’s behaviour
Mary takes an expensive bottle of perfume – nard, breaks it and pours it over Jesus’s feet. Nard is a fragrant oil of light-reddish colour, derived from the spikenard plant. It is not grown in Israel, but imported, probably from east India. Because of the cost, it is often mixed with other cheaper oils, but John tells us that this was pure.
Pouring the oil over Jesus’s feet was one thing, but letting her hair down and wiping His feet with her hair was disgusting and border-line immoral behaviour. If I’d been there, I would have been thinking about having a chat with the safeguarding team. It’s just not an acceptable way to behave.
I would imagine that more than one of the disciples, reclining there, were feeling rather embarrassed and trying to work out what to say. Their nice dinner party in honour of Jesus has been ruined, they’d arrived with heavy hearts, and now this. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife.
Judas objects – the value, the investment.
It’s Judas who breaks the silence. As treasurer of the group, he has a different take on what has just happened. He has already assessed the value of the gift that has been given. It’s worth about a year’s wages for a labourer - that’s equivalent to someone working full-time on minimum wage. That’s about £20,000. It may have been Mary’s life savings. It was common in those days to invest in something like good quality perfume, so it may never have been intended to be used, at all, when it was originally purchased.
Thief
John takes this opportunity to tell us that Judas was a thief, and that his motivation was not to provide for the poor, but to line his own pockets. But this is written after the event, after the death and resurrection of Jesus and the after coming of the Holy Spirit. They did not suspect Judas at the time. They simply considered him as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Jesus
Jesus is unfazed by all of this, His focus is on what is to come, and the act that has just been performed.
“Leave her alone, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
Perhaps he sees this as a prophetic act, a hurried anointing now because there will not be time to do a proper job on his corpse when He dies. He certainly isn’t prepared to allow any criticism of her.
The poor
Neither should we ignore the plight of the poor, but we should recognise that just occasionally there are more important things happening than immediately addressing their need.
Our interpretation
It’s interesting and instructive to put ourselves in the room with Jesus, to ask ourselves how we would react. I’ve already expressed my initial shock at the events that occurred, I wonder what your thoughts were?
Devotion
On further reflection, though, I see Mary’s act as one of pure devotion and worship. We have seen her respond to Jesus like this before, when she upset her sister by simply sitting at Jesus’ feet and ignoring her duty. Now she has gone a step (or two) further and used her life savings (or her ‘pension pot’) to anoint Jesus as he comes to the most critical part of His ministry.
These acts are supposed to make us uncomfortable, they are supposed to make us reflect of the true value of things in the world. They are supposed to make us question our priorities, are we genuinely putting God first.
Pilgrimage
The Israelites leave their homes, their businesses, their old and infirmed loved ones three times a year to go to Jerusalem to worship God. They do it because they are devoted to Him. It may seem strange to us, but we have our own ways of showing our devotion, don’t we?
Or do we?
Think for a minute. Let’s ask ourselves, “How do I show my devotion to Jesus?”
Or do we just take God for granted too much? Are we too like Judas, knowing the price, but not the value?
Amen
References
https://www.gotquestions.org/Songs-of-Ascent.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Ascents
https://www.israelanswers.com/blog/going-jerusalem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho
https://www.israelanswers.com/blog/going-jerusalem
https://www.wherewebe.com/index_2013_05-31a_jerusalem_ascent.html
https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-glossary/nard/
https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-stories/lazarus-raised-from-the-dead-bible-story.html
https://biblehub.com/topical/n/nard.htm
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