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| Image by Panaramka |
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A GREETING
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, O God, do I seek.
(Psalm 27:8)
A READING
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 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.”
(John 12:1-5;7-8)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
(Psalm 23:5)
A REFLECTION
And this is ultimately the very heart of the gospel. It is a love story. I think we can make the Christian faith and even worship such a dogmatic thing, such a sensible thing even. But when we look at the gospels and we look at the effect that Jesus had on people's lives when he met them, it's so much about passion, about love, about meeting Jesus and instantly feeling such a desperate desire to to give it all to him. We see this time and time again as Jesus meets people along the road. I wonder whether some of us have lost sight of the love story and become sensible or automatic in our worship of Jesus?...What if we are so busy toweling his feet with a cloth that we miss out on the intimacy of drying his feet with our hair...As we look to Mary's example, are we content to wash with water? or are we bold enough to drench with perfume?
- - from a transcription of Episode 16 by Hannah McVeigh of "Anagnorisis",
the 24-7 Prayer video podcast series for Lent, 2014.
VERSE OF THE DAY
Love one another deeply from the heart.
(1 Peter 1:22b)
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| "Tenderness for my wounded God, Good Friday, 2022," by Laura Makabresku, found on Instagram. Makabresku's art was also featured on Days 11, 12 and 13. Although it is not Good Friday yet, how does Mary's gesture with the nard prefigure the anointing of Christ after his death? |
T The anointing of Jesus' feet, as told in John's gospel, takes place in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Mary, who once sat at his feet (Luke 10) to listen to him and wept with him on the road about Lazarus, now lavishly anoints him.
How did Jesus experience this expression of profound love? The washing of feet was the job of a servant, not of a friend or relative, and not of a woman. Each of the siblings of this family has a moment of mystical encounter with Jesus, an intimate experience of the divine that seems to transcend their own lived experience. Martha experiences the knowing that Jesus is the messiah. Lazarus is returned to life. And Mary's conscious presence to what is coming allows her to embody the "already, not yet" of the Holy Saturday anointing. Jesus understands the enormity of her gesture and affirms what she is doing.
During this week, we will be exploring all of the ways that Jesus incrementally feels his power going out from him. Back in the wilderness, he told the Satan that he was not interested in the kind of power that can magically reverse the course of events or provide dramatic rescue. At a time when people are touching him all the time, crowding him so much that he keeps taking himself into the mountains to get away, Mary is someone who wants instead to nurture him. She doesn't take from him, instead she seeks to soothe and restore.
She is also acting radically against convention and expectation in every aspect of her behaviour, but perhaps especially in the use of her hair. Extravagant love is requiring the whole of Mary's body to show her devotion, just as the whole of Jesus' body will be involved in the Crucifixion -- his own extravagant gesture of love for us.
When we love others, simply because we recognize Christ in them; when we welcome the stranger, and feed and assist them; when we witness against injustice; when we work to free captives and provide homes and shelter for others; when we challenge ourselves to learn more about lives we don't understand -- we are lavishing our devotion on Jesus.
How will your extravagant love be felt by Jesus today? What is your nard?
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| Image by Panaramka |
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Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
For those who may wish to pursue an imagined narrative of the events of Holy Week as told through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, this blog was created in 2009 by Deacon Sherry and then republished in 2020 during the pandemic. The first few days can be found here:
Palm Sunday.
Holy Monday.
Holy Tuesday.
(A new day will be made visible here each day.)
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LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!