Monday of Holy Week, March 25, 2024

John 12, 1-11

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

Ordinarily, the Holy Church celebrates the Feast of theAnnunciation on  March 25, but not on the occasions when it falls within Holy Week.  This year the feast will be celebrated on Monday, April 8, the first day outside of the octave of Easter.  The feast commemorates both the message of God to the Virgin Mary through the Angel Gabriel that she would be the Mother of his Son, and also the Son’s Incarnation in her womb.  

“Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.”  Jesus arrived at the house of Lazarus on the Saturday before he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  St. John tells us that after raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus and his Apostles retired to a town named Ephraim (present-day Taybeh), a little more than nine miles northeast of Jerusalem, and they seem to have remained there until they received the invitation to return to Bethany for a meal to celebrate the return of Lazarus to life.  They could not have stayed much longer than a week at Ephraim then, though the invitation must have been timed to the Lord’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover.

“They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.”  This could have been either an afternoon or evening meal.  It was a very happy occasion, with all those who had mourned for Lazarus over the course of four days would have come to the feast, still amazed and very joyful.  This brings to mind Psalm 126, 6–7: “He who goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing in his sheaves.”  This is how we shall be one day when we see our loved ones again in heaven.  The dinner seems to have taken place at the house Lazarus, Martha, and Mary shared together, since Martha is said to be serving at it, that is, directing it.  They were young and none of them seem to have been married at the time.

“Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”  The Greek text says that this was a Roman pound, not quite a Roman pound, of pure spikenard oil.  In today’s money this would cost over $54,000.  Mary’s action of breaking open the jar and anointing the Lord’s feet would have shocked the crowd, who would have known right away by its sweet scent what type of  perfume this was.  Mary slathered the Lord’s feet with it.  In a way, it was a preposterous thing to do.  The washing of the feet was the duty of slaves.  The feet were washed but never anointed.  The guest’s head would be anointed but not his feet.  Here, Mary takes the place of a slave at the Lord’s feet, and anoints them with oil greater than a year’s wages.  Lazarus and his family shows with this expenditure and Mary’s anointing that nothing was too good for Jesus.  There was nothing they could do to really show the depth of their gratitude to him and love for him.

Many of the guests must have been shocked.  Judas was one of these, though for a different reason.  While others would have marveled st what they would have considered a waste, Judas saw this as a missed chance to enrich himself.  Since it was soon afterwards that he went to the Sanhedrin and offered to betray Jesus for money, we might speculate that his disappointment in profiting here played a role in this.  If so, how ironic that he wound of throwing the money back at the Sanhedrin after Jesus was arrested: he wasted what he had gotten, while instead of wasting the money spent on the perfume, Mary of Bethany gained a seat in heaven.

“You always have the poor with you.”  The truly poor are those who do not believe in Jesus, and we should do what we can to alleviate their poverty.

“And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.”  Many of the Jews were “departing” or “going away”, that is, seeing Jesus as a greater authority than the chief priests.  We might wonder how the killing of Lazarus would have helped the cause of the chief priests, but by this time their rage against the Lord had blown past rational limits and they were willing to kill anyone connected with Jesus out of their hatred for him and their perceived need to protect themselves.

Lazarus and his sisters spent a great deal of money on the perfume.  They need not have bought so much of it.  They could have been satisfied with a tenth of what they bought.  They evidently bought all that was available in their region at the time.  It would have been sold in small jars of a few ounces, so probably they purchased it from several merchants, possibly going so distances to do so.  What they did makes us think of the incalculable debt we owe to our Lord.  He restored Lazarus to live for a few more decades, but he restores us to live eternal.  How grateful we should be!  And what should we not do for him in our gratitude?