“Prepared for burial” (John 12:1-8)

John 12:1-8

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The Ointment of the Magdalene (Le parfum de Madeleine). James Tissot, c. 1900

Pastor Tom Johnson, April 3, 2022

Can you smell it? Can your nose imagine what a room full of perfume would smell like? The ointment comes from Nardostachys jatamansi, a flowering plant of the valerian family that grows in the Himalayas. It’s why it was so rare, exotic and expensive. The aroma is described as floral with musky, woody, and spicy overtones. Mary, Lazarus’ sister, puts this pure nard on Jesus’ feet. Mary offers this costly sacrifice to Jesus and applies it to his feet with her hands and hair. “How beautiful—how aromatic—are the feet of him who brings good news!” She bows down at the feet of Messiah and has the best view and best whiff of his lovely feet. Throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Noah, the faithful offer up their sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. The Psalmist sings, “Let my prayer rise before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” And God describes their offerings as “a sweet aroma in his [anthropomorphic] nostrils.”

Jesus receives Mary’s extravagant generosity. Judas estimates it is worth 300 denarii—pay for a year of labor—around $40,000 by today’s money. Yet, Jesus welcomes this sacrificial offering. And now the whole room of disciples participate in the offering by their sense of smell. But to Judas the odor is repugnant. He calls it a waste. He says they could of sold it and given the money to the poor. But, as the text tells us, that is not his generosity speaking but his greed. Judas was taking money out of their collected funds in small amounts in the hope that no one would notice—this is called pilfering. Judas’ greed, masked by his pious words, reminds us that God is always more concerned with the heart than he is with our words. As it says in the prophet Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Isa 29:13). 

In contrast, Mary honors Jesus with her gift, her hands, her hair, and her nose—but her heart is also close to Jesus. This is a beautiful example of the great command to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength—to love God with our whole being. And why, oh why, would we ever want to deny the nose? Judas betrays his own lack of commitment to Jesus and his mission just as he will soon betray Jesus with a kiss. Judas will sell Jesus out for profit—for thirty shekels of silver. Judas will financially benefit from Jesus’ death and burial. Jesus can smell a rat. He knows the thoughts and intentions of those in the room. So he tells Judas, “Leave Mary alone. Don’t scold her for what she did. You’ll always have the poor—but not me. She is preparing me for my burial.”

Jesus does not dismiss the needs of the poor. He emphasizes the priority of the Gospel—his own death, burial, and resurrection. It is necessary—he must confront death and the grave so that he can defeat them and rise victoriously for us. Judas’ miscalculation and misplaced priorities should remind us how easily we can stray off the path Jesus blazes before us. Judas white-washes his greed by words of concern for the poor. So we can have our own selfish interests and white-wash them with religious language. We too can feel so strongly about something in Christ’s Church that we miss what ultimately matters—the Gospel—the good news of him who will die, be buried, and triumphantly rise again. Mary lavishly invests in Jesus and his mission. She invests her money, resources, and whole self to prepare Jesus for his suffering, death, and burial. Just a chapter before, Jesus brings her brother Lazarus to life from the grave. Her sister Martha warns of the stench of death since he was in the grave for four days.

I think Mary knows that Jesus will only taste death but that it cannot hold him just as Jesus released her brother from the grip of death and said “I am the resurrection and the life!” She believes in the sweet aroma of Jesus’ life which will conquer the stench of death. She wants to enhance the scent of his sweet sacrifice. So Mary anoints Jesus’ feet. She does what the prophets did in the Old Testament when they anointed a king. It is where we get the word Messiah in Hebrew. Mary Christens Jesus as Messiah. Her actions show that he is also anointed by the Holy Spirit to bring salvation to the world. Mary wants the beautiful, aromatic feet of Jesus to overcome the seduction of this world. She wants us to be drawn to those feet that will be pierced for our transgressions. She wants us to foresee and fore-smell Jesus who will be buried as a seed but will rise out of the fallow ground like the rose of Sharon. Soon Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus will bring a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing 75 lbs to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. They too bring their sweet aroma and faithful devotion to Jesus. Soon we also will bring Easter lilies and other flowers to fill the sanctuary not only with their color and the sound of our praises but also with the sweet aroma of Jesus’ triumph over the grave.

When Mary anoints Jesus’ feet, she is also identifying with him. Remember, she used her hair to apply the ointment. She is putting her mark and scent on Jesus. He receives it. He takes it through his suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. They both now share the same scent. So Jesus takes us all of us with him. He gladly identifies with us. As Scripture says, “If we are united in a death like his, we will certainly be united in a resurrection like his.” He takes all our humanity with him and offers himself, and us, as a living sacrifice. He prepares us—not for burial—but for eternity in his Father’s house. He anoints us from head to foot with the water, Word, and Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. He Christens us to be royal daughters and sons of the Most High. Now we radiate Christ’s light. We bear the same fragrant aroma as Jesus Messiah to the world. 

He came from His blest throne Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none The longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend, My friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend!
          (“My Song Is Love Unknown,” LSB 430, v. 2)