Mary Anoints Jesus | April 6, 2025

By the Rev. Greg Farrand

Listen by cliking the play bar below, or read the text if preferred.

In our Gospel reading, we find Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointing Jesus’s feet and drying them with her hair. Not only that, but she is using a pint of pure nard which cost about 300 denarii, which in today’s value would be worth about $50,000.

The disciples, and particularly Judas, are offended. Their offense stems from a number of sources. First, it was almost culturally scandalous that a woman would touch Jesus in this way, anointing Jesus and drying his feet with her hair. And we are told that Judas makes the case that it’s a waste of resources. He says this incredibly expensive nard could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Of course, the gospel writer shares that Judas really just wanted the money, so that as the group treasurer, he could skim some of it off the top.

But instead of correcting her or saying she’s doing anything inappropriate, Jesus rebukes the disciples. “Leave her alone! What she is doing is beautiful.” He goes on to say, “You will always have the poor with you, but I won’t always be around.”

Now some have used this passage to justify not prioritizing care for the poor. But that’s not at all what he’s saying. In fact, he is quoting Deuteronomy 15:11 which says “there will always be poor in the land.” And the passage goes on to say, “I command you therefore, always be open-handed with anyone in the country who is in need or is poor.” The sentence construction implies that they should serve the poor, who will be among them always. But this moment is a special moment, a beautiful expression of love. Mary is so overflowing with love that this anointing was an outward, physical expression of her heart.

So the question is, what leads to this kind of extravagant love? To anoint Jesus’s feet with costly perfume and wipe them with her hair?

Well, when we read the gospels, this kind of reaction to Jesus was not uncommon. Have you ever noticed that no one walks away from a conversation with Jesus thinking it was just a pleasant chat? They are either full of joy or full of sorrow. Full of wonder or full of anger. Wanting to worship him or literally wanting to kill him.

In terms of over the top joyful reactions, there is Mary anointing Jesus’s feet. There is Zacchaeus the tax collector, so full of joy that he sells half his possessions to give to the poor. The Samaritan woman at the well joyfully shouting to everyone about Jesus. Bartimaeus, born blind and healed by Jesus, skipping down the road to follow Jesus. Those are just a few of the intensely joyful reactions to Jesus.

Or, on the other hand, there were those that encountered Jesus and hated him, even wanted to kill him. In fact, if we look at the next few sentences following this morning’s Gospel reading, we read, “The chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.”

They planned to kill Lazarus, because Jesus raised him from the dead. And kill Jesus. Why?

Aside from the obvious answer, that they perceived him as a threat, what was going on?

To really understand why so many reacted to Jesus with intensity, positive or negative, we need to understand that Jesus was a teacher in The Wisdom Tradition. The Wisdom Tradition was a unique milieu of spiritual teacher that was well known and embraced in the 1st century. It is not common now. We in the west have a more Aristotelian, logical approach to teaching. Like a TED talk… three cogent linear points and an emotional action appeal at the end.

Jesus taught very differently. He wasn’t concerned with downloading a bunch of doctrinal facts for his disciples to regurgitate. The Wisdom Tradition is concerned with the transformation of the whole person from the inside out.

Transformation from what to what?

From Egocentricity to Love and Compassion;

From Dualism to Non-dual Acceptance;

From Scarcity to Abundance;

From Separation to Connection.

They were committed to radically expanding their worldview in order to experience and live this life to the fullest.

Many Christians in the West have shrunk the gospel down to an escape plan for the next life. Believing the world is going to hell in a handbasket so they’re just waiting for heaven. But the vast majority of Jesus’s teaching was about how to live fully and abundantly in this life. Living to transform and heal this world!

To that end, Jesus would often meet someone, assess their existing worldview or lens on life, challenge it, and invite them to a new way to see God, themselves, other people and all of creation.

Like when he met with the Rich Young Ruler. Jesus quickly assessed that this guy found his identity and security in his wealth and it was preventing him from experiencing fullness of life. So Jesus says to him, and only him, go and sell everything you have to the poor then come and follow me. It was a stick in the spokes of his entire life. And it was radically disruptive. We are told the man walked away really sad because he was really rich.

So Jesus, as a Wisdom teacher, taught and modeled a transformational path and practice that leads us from mere intellectual belief to actual inner experience. An experience of Divine love.

Those who realized that their existing worldview was not bringing life, flocked to Jesus. This is why the sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors loved Jesus. But for those who felt their lives were all put together… often the wealthy and powerful… they felt he was an existential threat to their lives and so reacted with sorrow, anger or even violence.

So Mary, in our reading this morning, is the one who sat at Jesus’s feet when he was teaching. She was a contemplative. She witnessed Jesus bringing her brother back from the dead. The message of Jesus was pure joy. She experienced a love that transformed her entire world. And the joy and gratitude was so profound that she didn’t hesitate to fall at his feet with a jar of $50,000 perfume and anoint him, drying his feet with her hair.

Extravagant love. Wild love. Or in the words of retired Bishop Michael Curry, “We need some Christians who are as crazy as the Lord. Crazy enough to love like Jesus, to give like Jesus, to forgive like Jesus, to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God— like Jesus. Crazy enough to dare to change the world from the nightmare it often is into something close to the dream that God dreams for it.”

So the question is, how do we open ourselves to this transformational love each and every day? How do we experience the fullness of life that Jesus said his followers could experience? As Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” That is the mission statement for every church in the world. As Sam Wells writes, “Ministry involves building up the church to embody that abundant life.”

The first way is spiritual practice. You will hear a lot about spiritual practices from me! They are critical for deep and authentic transformation.

A spiritual practice is an intentional and regular activity that establishes, develops, and nourishes a growing awareness of our already existing connection with God, ourselves and all of creation.

Being here in church singing, passing the peace, taking the Eucharist… all are spiritual practices. And there are a million others you can choose each and every day. A walk in nature. Riding in the car with the radio off. It is a practice any time we create intentional space in our lives to step off the hamster wheel of our normal routines and in this space, the Holy Spirit transforms our lives from the inside out.

The second way we open to God’s transformational love is through one another. The church, at is best, is a place to experience and experiment with serving, loving, forgiving, welcoming, and being accepted for our true selves.

So often churches become places where we feel like we need to be on our best behavior. We may be tempted to present an image of ourselves as more together than we are. But church is intended to be a truly loving, sacred space where we can be our authentic selves with all of our complexity.

Remember, we are the hands and feet of Christ. God has chosen that Divine love flows through us, imperfect human beings. We are conduits of Divine love. We can experience fullness of life both by allowing that love to flow through us, and by receiving that love from others as they care for us.

So let us open our hearts to God who is all around and within. God is not far off, up in heaven. We are immersed in divine presence. We are marinating in divine love. And through spiritual practice and loving one another, we create space for the Holy Spirit to transform us and heal our world. Amen.