Less than a week before his death, Jesus sits down to a meal with his closest friends. This should be a peaceful meal. One where love and joy is shared around the table. Jesus has pointed to his death all along and the time for his exaltation is at hand. The weight of the world is on him. The religious and political leaders are looking for him to execute him. His closest companions have seen him do extraordinary things. I mean…Lazarus is sitting right there with them! There’s an unnamed company of people with them but we can likely assume the disciples were there along with those who are named: Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Judas Iscariot. Jesus is sharing a meal with his friends and things get tense.
This is the kind of story where you get invited into the narrative to see where you sit. There are two disciples who have a different interpretation of Jesus’ ministry. The first disciple, Mary, anoints Jesus’s feet with a precious perfume. Why his feet? This is not a royal anointing, which happens on the head. Nor is it a common practice for anointing a special guest. The answer for the kind of anointing comes in verse 7, this is in preparation for his burial. Mary seems to be one of the few who really understands Jesus. He’s heading to Jerusalem to die. This reality is not lost on Mary who abandons her dignity to prepare Jesus for his glorification. By abandon her dignity, I am talking about letting her hair down. This is the modern equivalent of a woman hiking her skirt up mid thigh in public.
The other disciple is Judas. His interpretation is of Jesus’s ministry is that they should be taking care of the poor. After all, much of Jesus’s teachings focus on this deep concern. Judas, in so many ways, isn’t wrong in his assessment of how money should be used. There are two factors against Judas’s interpretation of this event. The first is mentioned directly in the narrative. He’s a hypocrite and doesn’t actually care about the poor. The second factor is in Jesus himself. Mary recognizes Jesus as the Word of God come in the flesh and gives honor and respect for the death he is about to endure. Judas does not know Jesus the way that Mary knows Jesus. All of this time with him, in his presence, and he still does not know Jesus intimately.
Mary continually shows up in stories as the example of a true disciple. She recognizes the presence of God at the table and brings her offering to pay respect and give honor. She worships Jesus with everything she has. I am amazed by Mary’s uncontrolled worship of Jesus. I want to know what it is like to forget about everyone else in the room, the anger of the sister who is doing all the serving, the disdain of the men for letting my hair down, or the contempt of the treasurer for being wasteful. One of my first apprehensions, when sitting with Mary here, is what Jesus might think of what I am doing. The reality is, Mary understands the love of Jesus better than anyone else in the room. She worships out of the reality of knowing that she is deeply loved.
What holds you back from worshipping Jesus?
Where do you get held up in judging how others worship?
What does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus?