January 28, 2007 Sermon

Strange Perfume
Mark 14:1-9

The anonymous woman in the Bible passage we just read did a very strange thing to Jesus. She broke into the room where he was eating with his followers, broke a costly bottle open and poured the expensive perfume it had contained over his head. This woman understands precisely what will happen to Jesus, and why. She understands Jesus soon will die. She has prepared his body for burial. But she has gone over the top on the expense account, using expensive bottles and perfume. She believes Jesus merits such extravagance. She believes he is the Son of God.

Jesus responded by proclaiming that wherever and whenever people heard about him they would always hear about her actions, as well. He endorsed her behavior. From this we gain the idea that we ought to respond generously to him, too. From this we gain our sermon topic for today: Respond extravagantly to Jesus.

Sadly, our passage from Mark is often misunderstood, and in two ways. First, people have misinterpreted Jesus’ comment, “You always have the poor with you.” Christians have used this to dodge their responsibilities to the poor. Second, people have misdirected the giving they hear Jesus calling them to do. He uses the woman as an example of a person who gives to God. All too often preachers have misused this incident to urge people to give more to church. We should give to the poor. We should give to the church. But this incident teaches us that we must give our devotion to God in Christ. Respond extravagantly to Jesus.

What actually happened on that long-ago night? What night was it? A few days before, Jesus had triumphantly entered Jerusalem at the head of a mob. We call this event Palm Sunday. Monday has come and gone; Tuesday has progressed into evening. Jesus knows that in forty-eight hours soldiers will arrest him. The cross awaits him in less than sixty hours. The shadow of his death by torture dominates his thoughts. Indeed, Mark tells us the Jewish authorities want to kill him but have decided to wait until after Passover ends on Friday morning. Too many people have come to celebrate the holiday in Jerusalem. The authorities fear them. They plan to wait until they go home.

Jesus knew all this. Now here comes this woman carrying an alabaster jar. He has reclined for dinner in the home of Simon, whom he had healed some weeks or months earlier of leprosy. She walks past the crowds that have taken to following him. She walks past his closest disciples. She walks past Simon. Without a word that has come down to us she breaks this alabaster jar and pours its contents on Jesus’ head. The jar itself would have cost a pretty penny. The perfume it contained cost about a year’s wage for the average Jew. It has come all the way from India at great cost. No wonder they scold her!

But do the disciples react angrily because they have finally bought into Jesus’ teachings on caring for the poor? Do they sincerely wish she had just brought them the money she “wasted” on the jar and perfume so they could use it to feed, clothe and shelter hurting people? Or do they just feel irritated that she has interrupted their meal in such a disturbing way? After all, every person in the room recognized the smell of that perfume. The rich used it to disguise the smell their decaying bodies made after they died, but before they were buried.

Whatever their motivation, the disciples tell this woman off in no uncertain terms. But Jesus, as usual, takes a contrary position: “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you.” Those who misinterpret our Christian duty to the poor stop quoting Jesus there. But he continued, “And you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.” Our obligation to give to the poor never ends. But at that moment, when the shadow of his death on the cross loomed over Jesus, this woman did a beautiful thing. By symbolically preparing his body for burial she demonstrated her love for him.

We must take care of the poor. But we must also worship Jesus the Christ, the one who died on the cross, nailing our sins to the wood alongside his palms and feet. We must give our love to the One who loved us that much. The woman got this. Do we?

If we do understand the sacrifice of Jesus we will inevitably be moved to respond to it by giving to Him. But this brings us back to our second misinterpretation of this passage. Jesus clearly supports the woman’s extravagant gift to him. That we must also give extravagantly as our response to his love is clear. But what must we give, and to whom?

More than one preacher with a television empire uses video footage of starving children to move viewers to give. Yet the preacher’s organization receives those gifts, not the children in those heartbreaking videos. When you call the 800 number at the bottom of the screen you speak to an employee of that preacher’s corporation. Does this automatically mean you have just fallen victim to a scam? We can hope and pray the organization does the Christian thing with that money. Usually it does. Still, we must learn all we can about any person or organization to which we give. That emphatically includes the church.

How tempting it could be to use this passage to appeal for gifts of money to the church! Pieces of our ministry could use a boost. We will add an addition onto our building later this year. Why not preach that Jesus calls us to give extravagantly—like that woman with the alabaster jar and the perfume gave—to the new building fund? Why not? Because that would twist Jesus’ point. Can we make a case that adding to the building will minister to the poor? Yes. Can television preachers make a case that donating to their ministries ministers to the poor? Yes. But that is not the point of this specific passage from the Gospel of Mark. The point is that we worship the Son of God, who died on the cross. He gave his all so we could live to give. He died so we might not die eternally.

The Bible tells us that God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, Jesus, who died for our sins. Jesus himself applauds a woman who gives him a loving gift. We need to respond to His gift extravagantly. But as G.K. Chesterton, the great Christian philosopher of the mid-twentieth century wrote, “Our relationship with Christ is often less a love affair and more a theory.” This is especially true of Presbyterian churches, like this one. We Presbyterians have a proud intellectual tradition, but at times it obscures our worship of Christ.

In a few minutes we will ordain and install our newest crop of elders and deacons. They have heard the call of God, as expressed in the vote of the congregation, to serve Jesus Christ as church leaders. In good Presbyterian fashion we will use a lot of words to perform the ceremony. And that’s fine. Words can, after all, actually have meaning! But if we perform the ordination and installation without feeling, without inspiration, without welcoming the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in the moment, we will miss the point as surely as so many miss the point of the woman and her alabaster jar of strange perfume.

These elders and deacons have responded to the love of Christ by deciding to give an extravagant chunk of their lives to lead in His church. Praise God! When we lay hands on them and pray, let the Holy Spirit flow through you. Let your love for Christ—and for these, his servants—flow from you. Let your worship come alive at that moment. When that time comes, let us all give extravagantly of our attention to the Spirit, of our rededication to serve God, of our love for Christ. And then, when we go out those doors and into the rest of our lives, let us walk in the light of Christ, which we have received, and which we can and must give.