The Fifth Sunday in Lent - April 7, 2019

Mary as Model: Simple Adoration as Lenten Devotion (John 12.1-8)
Fourth Sunday in Lent at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City
Isaac Petty

The audio recording of this sermon can be found here.
 
There are several Marys in the Bible who can serve as models for us. We have the Blessed Virgin, for whom this parish is named [and sidebar: I probably don’t have to say much about what she did … (or what she didn’t do) … but if you want to know more, see Fr. Charles after the Mass]; Okay, where were we? Oh yes – Marys. There’s also Mary Magdalene, one of the first evangelists of the Resurrection; and there are others, including Mary of Bethany, whom we encounter in today’s Gospel passage. We know very little about Mary of Bethany, but we know that she and Martha were sisters of Lazarus, the one who died and was brought back to life by Jesus. Actually, that story of the raising of Lazarus is the only place in Scripture where we get to hear this Mary’s words. In John 11, the chapter preceding today’s reading, we get this verse: “When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’” (Jn 11.32 NRSV).

Probably the most notable time we encounter this Mary in the Gospel accounts is when Jesus visits Mary and her sister Martha. There, too, Mary is at Jesus’s feet, although this time she is simply listening to Jesus’s teaching while her sister Martha is busy being the **hostess with the mostest.** Jesus even says “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10.41b-42 NRSV).

In today’s lesson, Mary is at Jesus’s feet yet again, but this time she is anointing those feet with expensive perfume and wiping them with her hair. This time, instead of Martha being mad at Mary for not helping her serve Jesus, we have a recognized disciple being so taken with greed that he misses her devotion. To read from the lesson at verse four: “Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray [Jesus]) {John always layers on the details for us}, [Judas] said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for [a year’s wages] and the money given to the poor?’” (Jn 12.4-5 NRSV, edited). I love that John also gives us a note of explanation next. Verse six: “[Judas] 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” (Jn 12.6 NRSV).

The tie of Judas’ greed probably brings up the story of Jesus’s crucifixion for many of us – and if not, then I hope my comment helps bring Christ’s Passion into view here. In this Lenten journey, the lectionary passages remind us that we are journeying with Jesus to Jerusalem. A few verses before today’s reading, we hear “Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves” (Jn 11.55 NRSV) and today’s passage begins “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany…” (Jn 12.1 NRSV). Christ’s Passion and Resurrection should be heard in terms of the Jewish Passover, where Jesus celebrated with his disciples and instituted a different way of gathering for the religious feast – developing into the Eucharist we know today. The journey to the feast – for Jesus, to the feast of Passover, and to us, to the greatest feast of Easter – is a journey of preparation; of self-denial; of purification; of devotion.

Our trek with Jesus to the Cross, even as people with Resurrection hope, is a calling to greater devotion to Jesus – to move away from self-centered desires and to practice the simplicity of sitting at Jesus’s feet. Like Martha, we may get so busy in doing work for Jesus that we forget to simply adore of Him. Instead, even the seemingly most religious among us, devout disciples of Jesus, can begin to miss the devotion of other people – of disciples who aren’t recognized as such. Judas was filled with vile contempt and didn’t see the point of Mary’s devotion. So, reading from the lesson: “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’” (Jn 12.7-8 NRSV).

While giving of what we have to the poor and picking up pious slack is meet and right so to do in the Lenten season (as well as year-round, I might add), we must also recognize the importance of simply sitting at Jesus’s feet and being transformed by his teaching. In the growth toward simplicity and adoration, we have an exemplary model in Mary of Bethany. Here, we are called by one with no words to devotion – a short sermon where Mary is recognized as less of a disciple and isn’t even recorded speaking, yet her simple devotion speaks to us in a voiceless sermon all these centuries later. When Matthew and Mark tell of this event in their Gospel accounts, they close with one more line from Jesus: “Truly I tell you, wherever this [gospel] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her” (Mt 26.13 & Mk 14.9 NRSV, edited).
Sermons may be short, such as this one on a busy Sunday, but no sermon of any length compares to the message of Mary’s simple devotion to Jesus. As we continue in this Lenten journey to shape the whole of our Christian lives, may we remember the call to simple devotion at the feet of Christ, ignoring distractions, staying strong against our self-seeking habits, and allowing ourselves to be discipled in such a way as to preach a voiceless sermon through our simple devotion. Amen.  

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