Love's Extravagance: John 12:1-8 - Fifth Sunday of Lent

¹Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. ³Mary 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. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(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.) ⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” (NRSV)

By Jan van Scorel - The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH., Public Domain

About a year ago, a black leather NASCAR coat was donated to the clothing closet.  The bright colors and logos certainly made it stand out with all the others on the rack. 

The morning of the sale, a woman pointed out to me that that coat was worth potentially hundreds of dollars.  No sooner does she say that, then another woman takes it off the rack, tries it on, and with a big smile on her face, purchases it…for twenty cents…

I’m thinking to myself, “wow, we could’ve sold that coat on E-bay and made a fortune—and invested that money in the ministry.”  But instead, we handed it over for twenty cents…  Something about that just didn’t feel right.

Yet in light of today’s Gospel, I wonder if I’ve been listening too much to my “inner Judas”—instead of listening to Christ…

Judas Iscariot is furious as he watches Mary spill a priceless nard perfume onto the feet of Jesus.  To Judas, this was an appalling waste.

But this isn't how Mary sees it. She isn't thinking about how much the perfume costs. Jesus is her priceless treasure. She sees his deep and compassionate love for her and her sister Martha that became very real following the death of her brother Lazarus. He wept with them and comforted them. In love, he revived Lazarus. Not only was Jesus their friend, they believed him to be the resurrection and the life. The love they shared was embodied in the aroma now filling the room.

But did she really have to do that?  It’s highly unlikely that she was a person of means, and only God knows how she came to acquire such an expensive luxury good. 

She could have simply given the perfume to Jesus, so he could sell it and help the poor. 

She could’ve even kept the perfume as a kind of nest egg, still loving Jesus every bit as much. 

Amazingly, Judas sounds like the voice of reason, even as John reminds us that he was far more interested in stealing from the poor than helping them. 

But listen to Jesus’ answer to Judas’ protest: “you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me…”

To be clear, Jesus isn’t shrugging off the plight of the poor in order to justify indulging himself in Mary’s extravagance. To put it bluntly: Jesus is the poor. When Jesus is gone from them in body, he will be present with them among the poor. 

What Judas isn’t seeing is the magnitude of love that Mary has for Jesus.  It’s more than just feelings and affection…  She was handing over her treasure—and her very self—to be poured onto the feet of Jesus. The nard perfume may have been worth a year’s wages, but Jesus was worth more. It was worth more, in that moment, to love Jesus extravagantly. 

Her actions are a beautiful foreshadowing of Jesus, pouring out his body and blood at the cross, because you and I and the world are his treasure. Jesus hands over his beautiful life and ministry to suffer agony and humiliation beyond our understanding. Jesus loves the world more than his life. The world God loves is worth the cross. 

Yet when love is extravagant, there is always a cost.  If Mary was poor before; she’s even poorer now. Jesus shows us that extravagant love is a kind of dying.  But God does amazing things by this extravagant love.  Mary enters into a relationship of dramatic intimacy with Jesus, and that’s just the start.  Jesus' extravagant love takes away the sin of the world, and by it we all live forever.  And that’s just the start. 

We are invited into this same intimacy with Jesus, to be loved extravagantly, and to love others extravagantly, especially the poor.  But don’t think for a second that that love will come any easier for us as it did for Mary or even Jesus…

Every day we’re tempted to love only ourselves extravagantly: by all the things we can have; all the things we can do (provided that we can pay for them).  Speaking for myself, I hate extravagance—but only that enjoyed by other people.  What many would consider extravagance I call “the things I need to have” and “the things I need to do” …   It’s so easy to shrink back from loving extravagantly—because of cost; because of anxiety about the future; because of fear that such love may not create the desired effect.  We ask if people deserve such extravagant love.  In the end, there will always be infinite reasons NOT to love in this way. 

Yet we’re saved by the blood of Jesus that spilled into the mud.  Jesus was not wasted. 

So do you believe that your life abounds with opportunities to love extravagantly, particularly the poor who are among you?  Who needs their feet washed?  Whose lives could be changed forever by the things you call “treasure?”

It doesn’t matter whether or not you are rich with the world’s goods.  Everyone can love as extravagantly as Mary—and what God can do through that love truly knows no bounds.

The call to follow Jesus is the call to become poor, as the world defines it.  The Apostle Paul describes it beautifully—to count everything of value in your life as RUBBISH so that you may know Christ and the power of his resurrection; to share in his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, through which God will draw you into resurrection.

Being a Christian isn't about living extravagantly, but loving extravagantly—and being loved extravagantly.

So what will you give away, so that you and your neighbor may become rich in the love of Jesus?