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And that's what Bethany was. All around Jesus the black storm clouds were gathering. The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that should Jesus appear at the Temple of Passover, he was to be arrested. Their intention to get rid of him was reaching a climax. At the other side of Bethany, we find Judas whose heart was blackened with whatever motivation was going to force our Lord into a corner from which there would be no escape. Not only a betrayer, but one who professed friendship.
A few verses afer the Bethany story we find Jesus with his soul troubled.
What should I say - Father save me from
this hour. No, it is for this reason that I have come to this
hour. Father, glorify your name!
Storm clouds on every side - but - just for a
moment, the clouds part and a shaft of sunlight penetrates the
gloom. Mary of Bethany will be forever remembered for providing
it. Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. He had drawn out of Martha a confession that she knew him to be the Messiah and not it was Mary's turn. She didn't use any words. After all, it was Mary who sat quietly at his feet whilst Martha busied herself. Even then we are told that they gave a dinner for him and Martha served.
Mary was always the dreamer. Or perhaps we should say that she was a Visionary. Unlike her sister, she didn't confess that Jesus was the Christ, nor did she discuss the finer points of Resurrection theology. She just did something to show that she understood and it was an understanding that came not from her mind but her heart.
The costly perfume was Mary's prized possession. It was meant to be used sparingly. She carefully and deliberately poured it over Jesus. Her action was totally extravagant - as Judas was to point out. Think how many poor people could have been fed had it been sold. But he misses the point. This for Mary was a moment that came and would never return and she seized the day. As William Barclay puts it in his wonderful meditation on Christ's Passion, Crucified and Crowned, such a gesture puts into the world a fragrance which time cannot obliterate. To this day, he says, the story of that woman's devotion moves the heart. A loving gesture, freely given, is a pure demonstration that can only be described as selfless love and for Jesus, she brought a moment of brilliant light into almost impenetrable darkness.
We have to remember, of course, that the theme of Light penetrating darkness is an image absolutely central to St John's Gospel which begins with just that theme, so for him, this anointing is part of a process which flows through his Gospel. In that respect, this story is placed at a pivotal moment in the Gospel as events move towards a Passion which, in worldly terms is about the, what Luke called, the hour of the power of darkness. A darkness which for the enemies of Jesus is symbolized by the Cross.
The Anointing at Bethany is part of a process whereby God challenges the forces of darkness in the world and seeks to turn the lives of His people towards the light which breaks upon the world in Jesus Christ. This is no easy task. Even those around him haven't yet grasped what this journey to Jerusalem involves.
In St John's Gospel it is Judas who complains about the waste of perfume, but in Matthew's account, it is the disciples who complain. In both accounts, the reply of Jesus is the same - they will always have the poor with them and they can help them at any time, but they will not always have him.
I become increasingly amazed about the crassness and obtuseness of the disciples. So often they really can't see what is in front of them, not hear what Jesus is really saying to them. It takes Mary to do the generous and loving act which they consistently fail to do. That she is attacked for doing it, either by the disciples or just Judas, compounds their failure and lack of vision. Because it is vision which is at the heart of this interlude of light in the gathering darkness. Mary had the vision to see beyond what was happening to what is about to happen - the death of her beloved Jesus. She was indeed anointing him for his burial.
Actually, though, it goes much further than that. Those who are doing the Lent Course will this week be considering what it means ot be Called On by God. The course encourages us to look beyond the present into the future as we all follow a Call from God which never ceases. We may not know what the future holds but we have confidence inthe one who holds it. A quotation is offered for Christina Rees, from her book, Divine Embrace:
There has been no sense of arrival,
Just a sense of knowing myself to be on the right path
I have no idea where the path will lead,
Only the confidence in the One who is leading.
That
is so true for Mary, who may have known that Jesus was to die, even if
not the manner of his death. She may well have had confidence in
Jesus but she still did not fully know where he was leading both her
and the world. What she did have was the kind of vision which can
be described as insight - the kind of vision which goes beyond the
moment to something much bigger. The Gospel encourages us to have
a wider vision of God and of God's action through Jesus. We need
to see with Mary's eyes, not through the eyes of those who didn't yet
understand what he was about. It would come to them in the end
but Mary was way ahead of them.Just a sense of knowing myself to be on the right path
I have no idea where the path will lead,
Only the confidence in the One who is leading.
Having a wider Vision has some implications of how we see the Cross. Much that is preached about it relates to personal behaviour. Things like: Jesus paid the price for my sins and was some kind of atonement for what I have done wrong. We are encouraged to see what sinful humanity has done to God - which is why we come down hard on the Pharisees, the Religious Leaders, the Roman occupiers and the Jewish race generally. That led, and still leads, to the most appalling anti-semitism and to a blame culture which can be summed up in the cry of an old preacher I listened to one Good Friday, who pointed to the Cross and shouted: Look what you've done to Jesus. As a form of evangelism it was very effective but it missed the point a bit. As I've said before, the Cross is less about what I've personally done to Jesus and much more about what Jesus has done and goes on doing for me - and you - and the whole world.
What He has done and goes on doing is to open our hearts and lives to a very wide vision indeed - to the vision of a Kingdom where justice and freedom, love, healing, mercy, peace and joy are all bound up with the eternal gift of God's Grace which transforms our human nature both now and after death. It is a vision which changes our perception of ourselves and of the world. We are encouraged to recognize that no matter how dark everything gets there is a light which draws us away from the hurt, pains and failures of the world towards a Kindom in which we are totally loved, accepted and valued. A place of total security.
Of course the Cross speaks to us of forgiveness and draws from us repentance. But Jesus is no scapegoat for what we've done wrong. He is the beacon to whom we are attracted to do right, the light shining in our darkness and changing us in order that we may see a glorious purpose for our life which is bound up with loving and being loved by God.
Mary's extravagant gesture is about both of those things and her anointing of Jesus does not just resound through history. It resonates in heaven because it says precisely that love defeats evil, and the defeat of evil is what is at the heart of the Cross. It is not simply the evil of human agents who put Jesus there - that's an earthly view of the story - but rather that Jesus confronted and defeated the force of evil that was abroad in the world. An evil which thwarted and still thwarts God's loving purpose for His creation.
We go to the Cross because therein lies our hope of being delivered from the power of this cosmic force. At the Cross we are caught up in God's Victory in Jesus. We are shown that the Cross is the gateway to heaven. The Resurrection confirms this but it is a natural follow up rather than a necessary overturning of events. As Michael Ramsey said - and I'll quote this until the day I die:
Calvary is no disaster which needs the
Resurrection to reverse it, but a victory so signal that the
Resurrection follows quickly to seal it.
That's a big vision, but to grasp it we need only
to see what Mary saw, that Jesus can deliver it - and to share it, all
we need is to sit at his feet, loving him, pouring on him the perfume
of our faith because in anointing lives to that tremendous truth that
though we are made of the dust of the earth and so often hidebound by
the limitations that brings, we are actually destined for glory - we
are children of the Kingdom. We may be of the earth but we are
moving towards the perfection which is heaven. To understand this
we have to look beyond what our eyes see and look with the eyes of
faith and vision towards the Kingdom which Jesus on the Cross reveals
to us. Mary of Bethany is living proof of something C S Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity about our Vision of Heaven:
Aim at heaven and you get Earth thrown
in. Aim at earth and you get neither.