The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
Are you a fan of programs and movies like Star Wars and Back to the
Future? If you are, you'll love today's Bible readings! They take us in
rapid succession from the time of Exodus to the time of the Babylonian
captivity, to the time of Jesus, and on to the future...and back again.
The reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah is from what is often called
"Second Isaiah." Some people call it the "Book of Consolation." The prophet
Isaiah lived and preached in the eighth century before Christ's life on earth.
But the portion we read today is from "Second Isaiah," which is written to
comfort the Jews who were exiled to Babylon about two hundred years AFTER the
time of Isaiah. Most Bible scholars think that Second Isaiah was written by a
student or follower of Isaiah, not by Isaiah himself. The point that Second
Isaiah is making, however, is what we are being given to think about today: just
as God had saved the Jews from their slavery in Egypt, and helped them escape
and return to Israel, God would do the same thing again. He will soon save the
Jews who were deported to Babylon from their captivity there, and help them
return home to Israel. Second Isaiah tries to comfort the Jewish exiles by
reminding them to look to the past, remember how God has helped in the past, and
have faith that God will do something new, that is still old...he will help them
escape from the mighty power of Babylon, which nobody has ever done before (that
is the new thing) just as he did long ago help their ancestors escape from Egypt
(the old thing). And the reason why we have it as the first reading today is
much the same: just as Christ came to save his people from their sins, he will
again and again save his people from their sins, all through the ages...right
down to today, here and now.
Psalm 126 carries on the theme: look what God has done in the past. No matter
that people made fun of us for our faith before, God did come through for them.
He will again...no matter if people doubt God's power today and mock our faith
today, God will come through for us just as he did for those who followed him,
long ago.
Paul's letter to the church in Philippi gives us the same message, but with
another slant. He explains what a good Jew he was. He has all the
qualifications. Along with having the "right" ancestors and family ties, he was
a Pharisee, the most strict of the Jews. And he even studied to be a
rabbi...studied under the most famous rabbi of them all, Galamiel. He was such a
good Jew that he tried his best to stamp out this new group that followed the
teachings of a person called Christ. But then...then he had a life-changing
message from God, one so powerful he could not doubt it. He became a believer in
Jesus Christ, himself.
No matter how good a Jew he had been, he found, that was not enough. God was
doing a new thing in his life, and he had to follow where God led him, even
though it led him into all kinds of difficult situations. His new faith in Jesus
became so important to him that nothing else at all, not his credentials as a
top-ranking Jew and a rabbi, not anything, was important to him
any more...just his faith in Christ. That is now, he says, the only important
thing in his life, the only thing he thinks is worth living for.
Considering that the everyday observance of God's Law as it was lived by Jews
in the time of Paul, and is still lived by Jews today, is so strongly connected
to the Exodus story, we can see why Paul says that he cannot live only by
looking to the past, the Exodus story...but also by following where God leads
today, the way of Christ. This prompts us to think: where is God leading
me today? What new thing is God trying to do in my own life? Is anything of
life-changing importance happening to me now, that will help me to stop
following "business as usual" and see the new ways God wants to lead me from now
on?
And now we come to the Gospel. It is the story of Jesus' visit to the home of
Lazarus and his sisters, some time after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.
We do not know the exact timing of this dinner that Lazarus gave for Jesus.
But, think about it: Lazarus, who had died and been raised from the dead, eating
alongside Jesus, who knew that he was on the way to Jerusalem where he would
die, and be raised three days later from the dead. That must have been one of
the most unusual dinners in history! We cannot help wondering what was going
through the minds of those two men, that night.
And Mary, the younger of Lazarus' sisters, the one who loved to listen to
Jesus talk about God, came in with an alabaster jar full of precious ointment or
oil. Now, it was customary at that time to wash the feet of guests at a meal.
The streets were not paved, they were just mud or dirt paths, and there would
often be garbage, mud puddles, spilled food, animal droppings and other filth on
the paths. Most people wore sandals. There was good reason to have people take
off their sandals when they entered a house, and to provide a basin and towel
for the washing of their feet before they came in to walk on the rugs or the
clean floors. And most people would also provide oil to help people tidy their
hair when they came in. Providing oil for the head was also an honor...it
reminded everyone of the anointing of a king or a priest. Guests were to be
treated with all the courtesy one would give to a king or other honored person.
But here was Mary, with an expensive jar full of valuable oil, worth a year's
wages or more for a common worker. Women did not join men at the table. It just
was not done. Men and women ate separately. And women kept their heads covered
in the presence of men, always.
But here was Mary, with her veil off. She knelt by Jesus' feet, and washed
them with her tears, and dried them with her hair, and poured that expensive oil
all over them, caressing those callused feet that had carried him miles and
miles through the desert and the countryside. Stroking and kissing his feet,
those feet that soon would be nailed to a cross.
No wonder the disciples, most of whom were common working men, were shocked
at the extravagance. No wonder they were shocked at seeing a woman here, at a
mens' dinner, doing this. No wonder that they complained.
And no wonder that they were shocked at Jesus' answer: She is anointing
me for my burial. Mary alone, it seems, was the only one who had
understood and accepted the warnings Jesus spoke so often about his coming
arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Again and again he had told
the disciples, again and again they had not understood. But Mary understood.
Even Lazarus, whom Jesus had used for an object lesson to make his meaning
clear, Lazarus, who had died and three days later been raised by Jesus, did not
seem to understand that Jesus would also die and be raised again to life on the
third day, himself. But Mary understood. And she acted on her understanding. She
had learned, from observing and reflecting on God's past actions, what God was
going to do: a stunning new thing!
What about us?
What kind of death are we going to die? A death from sin? A death from
selfishness, laziness, self-righteousness? Or what? We all must die many deaths
in this life, you know, before we come to the final death that sends us through
the gates to the Eternal Kingdom.
How are we going to prepare to die this death to this part of our life? We
will not all meet Christ on the road, in a bright light, as Paul did, but we do
meet him again and again, each time with a call to die and be raised again. What
parts of our life need to be washed and anointed in readiness for this death?
What will this mean...what changes in our life to prepare for it?
More importantly, how will we know that we have risen, like to a new,
different life? What have we learned from God's actions in our lives in the past
that will show us the new way of life God calls us to in the future? Everyone
who follows Jesus has been called in some way, and it is always an on-going
call...never once and for all, but always we are called again and again to
follow more closely in Jesus' steps. Of what will our new life consist, when we
have been raised to follow a new call, and God has done his new thing for us?
As we prepare for Holy Week, we need to consider these things, because we, as
Christians, are called to walk the way of the cross, as Jesus did. His death and
resurrection prepare us for the daily dying to self, dying to sin, and
resurrection...again and again...to a better life today, an even better one next
time, as we, with his help, escape the bondages of various things through our
repeated dying, and rise, over and over, to newness of life in Christ.
Amen.
