ONE COSTLY ACT

5th Sunday in Lent

            A few years ago, for her birthday, I bought Bev a diamond ring.  When we became engaged I couldn’t afford such an expensive gift.  At that time I was working as a radio news director in Beeville, Texas.  The pay was little.  At the same time, Bev was teaching piano, teaching music in a private school, and playing the piano at the Methodist church.  Her wages were also small.  What’s more, we were both raising children.  We didn’t have money for such a non-essential as a diamond ring.  But a few years ago it became possible.  So I asked Bev what she wanted for her birthday.  “Yard lights” is what she said.  “I was thinking along the lines of a diamond ring,” I replied, “but. . . .”  “That’ll work!” Bev interrupted.  So the yard lights wait.

            Sometimes, when it comes to expressing love, you have to pull out all the stops.  Showing love sometimes requires some lavishness.  To express love, sometimes you need to bring out the best.  Back in the days when I had little money, I made a date with Bev to go out to dinner.  The occasion was special.  I was going to ask her to marry me.  When we went out that day for a trip to San Antonio, Bev knew the reason for this special event.  She knew in the first instance because I had already asked her, “If I were to ask you to marry me, what do you suppose you would say?”  “I suppose,” Bev replied, “I suppose I would say yes.”  She knew the purpose of this dinner because this date was for this expressed purpose of becoming engaged.  We were both nervous.  We both knew what was going to happen.  We went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio, into one of the fine hotels.  We were seated in an elegant restaurant.  It was all perfect.  We ordered from that expensive menu, even added a bottle of wine.  Our waiter was constantly attentive.  After he took our order and poured our wine, I delivered a little speech to Bev about what marriage means to me.  Then I asked her to marry me.  I’ll never forget her answer.  She said to me, “I will, Dick Selby.”  Just like that!  It was wonderful, memorable!  I’m glad we didn’t order Diet Coke!  The meal and wine were lavish, given my financial circumstances, but they fit the special occasion.  Sometimes, in the interest of expressing love, it is appropriate to be extravagant.

            Talk about being extravagant!  Look at Mary.  You watch her as she anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume.  The whole house is filled with the aroma of this lotion.  You can tell by the fragrance that this is the good stuff.  Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with a high-quality, expensive perfume.  This stuff is worth about three hundred denarii!  Nearly a year’s pay for a laborer!  Nothing about Mary’s actions reveal any desire on her part to withhold a drop of this expensive perfume.  She is willing to use it all on Jesus’ feet.  No, of course, it serves no practical purpose.  It doesn’t satisfy Jesus’ hunger, nor does it quench his thirst.  This perfume has no power to cure.  It just smells outrageously wonderful.  It is a gift from her to Jesus.  It is her costly act of love.  That’s its purpose, and its purpose alone.  This is Mary’s costly act of love.

            Well, Judas objects!  Think of it!  This pound of perfume cost nearly a year’s wages!  All or some of that money could have been recovered by its sale.  But too late!  It is being poured all over Jesus’ feet!  The money this perfume cost could have been used to feed the poor, but it wasn’t.  It could have clothed the needy, but it didn’t.  It could have helped build a house for the homeless, but it wasn’t used that way.  Three hundred denarii could have gone to help a farmer get started, but the money was used for perfume.  And it is being applied to Jesus’ feet as Judas stands there and watches.  The wastefulness of it all!  Judas objects.  Maybe you do, too.  Think of how that money could have been used to help the poor, but it wasn’t!  Judas is morally outraged.

            Or is he?  Perhaps it is another emotion that is being revealed.  Perhaps Judas doesn’t like to have another’s love for Jesus shown so lavishly, since his own is limited, self-serving, and conditional.  Perhaps Judas doesn’t like his paltry love to be shown up by Mary’s genuinely demonstrative and exuberant outpouring of love.  Judas’s discipleship is self-centered and calculated.  Our gospel writer seems to need to provide a motive for why Judas will eventually turn against Jesus.  He suggests here that it is greed.  Was that it?  Maybe he wants a mighty Messiah, one who will overthrow the Roman occupiers of the Jewish homeland.  Maybe Judas wants to be part of changing the course of human history by influencing Jesus to become a military Messiah who will conquer by the sword.  In any case, whether this or greed, it is what Judas wants.  He wants.  He wants.  On the other hand, there is Mary, giving.  Giving lavishly.  Giving freely.  Mary gives.  Judas wants.  See the contrast.  Later in this gospel, Jesus will wash his disciples’ feet as an expression of his love for them.  Jesus will take the role of a servant to serve his disciples in love.  This act will anticipate his costly act on the cross, dying for them and the world.  He will tell his disciples that this is the way they ought to behave toward one another, demonstrating their mutual love and service.  Now look back at Mary.  This is what she is doing, even before Jesus tells his disciples that demonstrating love for one another is the mark of being his disciple.  Look at her.  Her costly act anticipates Jesus’ foot washing and his death on the cross.  She’s the very model of faithful discipleship, giving freely.  Now look again at Judas.  He’s the model of the unfaithful disciple, who follows Jesus for self-serving purposes.

            What does Jesus say?  He says Mary is doing the right thing.  He says to Judas, “You will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  If what Jesus says sounds strange to you, as if the poor should be neglected because they are ever-present, you need to hear the full verse to which Jesus is alluding, Deuteronomy 15:11.  It says, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”  In other words, we will constantly have the opportunity to take care of the poor.  Mary’s act does not mean that she will not care for them.  But she won’t always have Jesus.  She may not understand that yet, but it is what Jesus is saying.  So now is the time for her to act.  Some time before this dinner for Jesus occurred, where we see Mary’s costly act, Jesus pulled her brother, Lazarus, out of the grave.  As a result of that act, many began to believe in Jesus, while others set out to have him killed.  Jesus knows that he will have to go into a grave, even as he called Lazarus out of his, in order to give life to all.  His time is limited.  So now is the time for Mary to show her love, before it is too late.  William Barclay relays this sad account of love that was never expressed.  “Thomas Carlyle loved Jane Welsh Carlyle, but he was a cross-grained, irritable creature and never made life happy for her.  Unexpectedly she died.”  Barclay turns to J. A. Froude’s chronicle of Carlyle’s feelings following Jane’s death.  “He was looking through her papers, her notebooks and journals; and old scenes came mercilessly back to him in the vistas of mournful memory.  In his long sleepless nights, he recognized too late what she had felt and suffered under his childish irritabilities.  His faults rose up in remorseless judgment, and as he had thought too little of them before, so now he exaggerated them to himself in his helpless repentance . . . ‘Oh!’ he cried again and again, ‘if I could see her but once more, were it but for five minutes, to let her know that I always loved her through all that.  She never did know it, never.’”  Barclay adds his own appropriate moral:  “There is a time for doing and for saying things; and, when that time is past, they can never be said and they can never be done.”  That’s what Jesus is saying.  Now is the time for Mary to show her love for him, because time is short.  Her costly act, in this gospel, anticipates Jesus’ costly act on the cross.  Her motive has nothing to do with indifference toward the poor; they will always be there, she can always do something for them.  But, in this moment, her motive is to show Jesus her love.  Jesus approves of her action.  He says so.

            No time to waste.  Now is the time for us to show love for one another, for time is short.  Jesus approved of Mary’s costly act.  She is the model of the faithful disciple in our gospel lesson for today.  She acted while there was time to show love to Jesus.  Now is the time for us to show love for one another.  But how?  By some concrete and demonstrative act.  Examples:  Treat each person with love and respect.  We can do that right here in our worshiping community.  We can express love lavishly with hugs and warm smiles.  With enough repetitions of those behaviors, they will become habitual.  How else can we show love?  Young people, you can show your love for your parents concretely.  Clean your room!  But there must be something more important than that.  Imagine that you won’t have your parents long.  What would you want to do for them right now to show them your love?  Here are some ideas just to get you percolating:  Breakfast in bed.  Make some special messages on the computer to hide around the house for them.  Give them hugs, lots of hugs.  Say, “I love you, Mom” or “I love you, Dad.”  Say it again and again.  And don’t forget to clean your room!  Parents, do show love for your kids?  Do you tell them?  Never let your child go to bed without hearing from you that you love her or him.  How about some special event together?  Maybe go go-cart racing or on a day-long trip.  You could go to the zoo together.  Or take a ride on the DART light rail train.  Spend time together.  Take pictures or videos.  Sweethearts, you already know what to do; it comes naturally.  Married sweethearts, you’re a different story.  Have periodic honeymoons.  Bring home flowers.  Go out for a special dinner once and awhile.  Not only that.  Listen deeply to one another.  You see, you are changing.  Neither one of you is the same person that you were before.  Learn from one another what things are really important now; they’ll be different from when you were young.  Mature together.  Friends, speak of your love for one another.  Listen to each other’s pain and joys.  Be a confidant and love uncritically.  How often we need someone to be there when we hurt or when we’re angry, and we just need someone to listen and love us uncritically.  You can do that.  Express your affection.  A number of people have made crosses for me made out of broken pieces of colored glass.  Each one was an expression of friendship.  One said, “Congratulations!”  Another communicated the message, “I want a better relationship with you.”  How special those expressions of friendship!  Co-workers and classmates, be genuinely helpful to one another.  Be friendly and kind and supportive.  The mark of a disciple of Christ, as demonstrated by Mary’s costly act, is to show an outpouring of love before it’s too late.  Now is the time.