The Holiness of Hard Things - Week 5: "Extravagant Trust"

It’s the Fifth Sunday of Lent 

Lent is a season of preparation, reflection, and repentance.  It’s also a season when we can learn what it means to discover the Holiness of Hard Things, which is the title of the sermon series we've been working through for the season of Lent. 

Today, we will read a story that appears in different forms in each Gospel. 

And we’ll learn what it means to trust Jesus with our future. 

But first, we’re going to do a little seminary… 

Why do the Gospels have so many points of divergence? For example, there are four different versions of Jesus' baptism, the Sermon on the Mount, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.  

Each Gospel has its own perspective, but the Synoptic Gospels tend to follow the same chronological order and borrow from one another and other sources that we do not have access to. 

But John's Gospel is completely different.  The chronology is off.  Jesus has a different kind of way about him, and the stories themselves are highly cinematic, to coin a more modern phrase. 

Why is John’s Gospel so different? 

The details are secondary to the message. The chronology isn’t as important as the theology. The object is to see and believe, NOT FEAR. 

For an audience of people who were feeling beset upon from all sides, it was a message of hope, and a Gospel that taught them to live courageously in troubled times.  

WHEN WE TRUST GOD WITH OUR FUTURE, WE LEARN NOT TO FEAR IT. 

John 12:1-8

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them[a] with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But 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.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it[b] so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” 

Let's take a look at this story from the perspective of each of the Gospels:  

Who anointed Jesus?  Mary or Mary Magdalene?  

In 591, Pope Gregory I preached a sermon within which he conflated all of the stories about Mary Magdalene with the stories of Mary of Bethany, concluding that she was the woman who anointed Jesus' feet.  He also determined she was a prostitute.  

Luke & John agree on how Jesus is anointed.

The fact that he was anointed on his feet is significant because it speaks to the lowly nature within which he would enter Jerusalem for his week of Passion, not as a king but by a priest. He is set to defy expectations.  

What was used to anoint Jesus? Pure nard, perfume, dowry, her future

All of the Gospels agree that Jesus was anointed with perfume or nard, which was worth a year's wages.  It's possible that this was meant as a dowry for Mary, securing her future.  

The contrast between Mary and Judas in John’s account 

Judas withholds and skims, living in scarcity and fear.  Mary pours out her future. 

The extravagance and scandalous nature of the anointing would have shocked the people gathered.  Jesus knew what it meant.  She would be remembered because she trusted Him with her future.  

When we say that we trust Jesus with our future, do we mean it?  

Questions We Need to Ask Ourselves

1. Am I ready to fully trust Jesus with my future? 

Am I ready to trust Jesus's promises to those who follow him?  Am I willing to surrender control of my life?  

2. What would it look like to show that?

Discovering the ways that I have been holding back, living in scarcity, unwilling to live in generosity, and a life of abundance. 

3. Which side of the room would I rather be sitting on?  

We can sit with Judas, who eventually lets his fear, scarcity, and self-preservation guide him to destruction.  Or we can be with Mary, who pours out her future at Jesus' feet, trusting that no matter what happens, all will be well.  

WHEN WE TRUST GOD WITH OUR FUTURE, WE LEARN NOT TO FEAR IT