Meditation for Monday in Holy Week

Meditation for Monday in Holy Week 2020

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 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. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 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.” When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.                John 12, 1-11.

Yesterday had been a day of considerable public activity for Our Lord. Jesus had made a rather dramatic entry into Jerusalem amid scenes reminiscent of the arrival of a king described in the prophecy of Zechariah – riding on the back of a donkey. Those ‘in the know’ shouted out for pity and salvation. The vast majority of the cosmopolitan population of the city ask, ‘who is this man?’ On arrival through the gate Jesus turns toward the temple and causes a real commotion there.

The next day is, by comparison, perhaps a little quieter, but by no means less of day for symbolic gestures and deep meanings.

The gospel writer St. John gives us a sort of diary entry. ‘Six days before the Passover’ he tells us that Jesus has a meal in Bethany. Only 2 miles from the city of Jerusalem Bethany had been the scene not so many days before this of the raising of Lazarus. Bethany means in Hebrew either ‘the house of dates’ or ‘the house of affliction’.

Those who were at the Lazarus family home for this dinner, including his sisters, Martha and Mary, were all too aware that just a few days earlier Lazarus had been dead. Imagine how you would feel in the company and household of a former dead man. We simply can’t skip over the words of scripture without really thinking it through – they are having dinner with someone who was brought back to life! They are having dinner with the one who brought him back to life!

As if this were not enough we get a reminder of something we might associate with Christmas. Do you recall those Wise Men that St. Matthew tells us about. One of them brought a gift – myrrh.

‘Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom: sorrowing , sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb’.

We see how those gifts had such future symbolic meaning. Now it is not an eastern potentate who brings the perfumed nard, but Mary, one of the sisters of Lazarus. Some commentators associate this Mary with the prostitute whose life is turned round by Jesus’ words of forgiveness.

Like every beautiful moment of faith there is always someone so blind to the moment that they just have to grumble about something. ‘Grumbling’ is a constant theme in scripture. In the Old Testament God calls the People of Israel a ‘stiff-necked people’, and in St. Paul’s list of the fruits of sin grumbling is high on the agenda. It is a sad feature of the common life of the church everywhere that there is so much grumbling.

This beautiful ‘gospel moment’ is the anointing of Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, and the wiping of his feet with Mary’s hair. We are touching on some taboos. It was the job of the lowliest of people to wipe feet; remember St. Peter’s response to this at the Last Supper. The perfume was bought for burial (for Lazarus first, or for Jesus?) – like people making sure there is enough money set aside for a funeral – and then to wipe his feet with her hair, maybe shocking red hair that may have been used by her in the past to attract customers. All of this happens in a matter of moments.

Judas Iscariot puts voice to the grumbling, setting himself up for what he would soon do.

The crowds gather, and why not? Word is getting ground that the wonder-worker is in town. He is eating with the man he raised from the dead. ‘Let’s see what he is like, this Jesus from Nazareth. Maybe he will give us more evidence that he is the Messiah.’ How much more evidence will they need – these nosey neighbours of Lazarus?

There is much to think about today. Read John 12, 1-11, slowly, silently, aloud. Try to imagine the scene, the characters, the conversations. Focus on the contrast between the grumbling Judas, the gracious action of Mary, and the words of Jesus.

The chief priests turned up. They decided that they should put Lazarus to death as well. So their minds are already made up.

Almighty and everlasting God, who in your tender love towards the human race sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross; grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.