Louise Browner Blanchard
St. Stephen’s, Richmond
Palmer Hall
March 17, 2013
The Fifth Sunday of Lent
John 12:1-8
Have you ever felt so tired that you could hardly move? Think about whatever it is that
absolutely wears you out. If you’re a kid, it might be after a few days where you had some really
hard tests and had to do a lot of things in front of the rest of your class and had to give a special
report on something that you worked on for a really long time. It might have made you nervous
thinking about all those things at night, or you might even have had a nightmare, so you didn’t
sleep very well for one or two or three nights. Your brother or sister was picking on you, and
maybe you had an argument with a good friend. And you had soccer games or swimming
practice or something else that made you even more tired...It just seemed like everything was
happening all at once, and you were exhausted.
Then you walk in the door and your mom or dad gives you a hug that feels like the best thing in
the world. You see that all the chores that you usually have to do—like feeding the dog and
setting the table—have already been done, and you smell your absolute favorite supper cooking.
If you like to take a bath or shower, you get to stay in there as long as you want, and if you don’t
like to, you don’t have to take one. One of your parents rubs your back, and then you go to the
dinner table in your most comfortable pajamas. You eat that favorite supper you smelled
cooking...Have I forgotten anything that would make it seem just about perfect? Oh, one last
thing--you get your favorite kind of birthday cake and ice cream for dessert--and it’s not even
your birthday!
It’s at this point that your brother or sister who is not nearly as tired as you says, “No fair! It’s
not even Gina’s (or Charlie’s) birthday!” Well, something like that happened to Jesus in today’s
gospel. He had been traveling all over Judea, as you know, healing people who were sick and
taking care of people who weren’t used to being taken care of and teaching people about how
God loves each of us more than we can possibly imagine no matter who we are or where we live
or what we’ve done, that we should try to love each other as much as God loves us, and that
there’s nothing more important than that. And then one of his very own disciples starts
complaining.
That was what last week’s gospel story was about, too. Remember, that was the story that Jesus
told about the younger brother who left home and wasted all his money. When he finally went
home, his father saw him first and ran out to greet him with a big hug. Then the father had a big
party to welcome his son home. The older brother was furious because he had stayed at home
and worked hard and never got a party. His father assured him that he loved him and that
everything he had was his, but the father had to celebrate that the brother had come home. And
Jesus said that that is how God loves us and how we should love each other.
When the dinner in today’s gospel happens, Jesus had only recently brought back Lazarus from
the dead. Of course, it was one more reason that the Roman rulers and religious people who
thought that Jesus was breaking too many rules were seriously thinking they were going to have
to kill him. But for this night, anyway, Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary wanted to
celebrate with a nice dinner with Jesus and his disciples. They were happy that Lazarus was
alive and that their friend Jesus was with them. They knew that Jesus was exhausted from
walking all over the country and working hard to heal people and teach them about God’s love.
So they fixed him his favorite food, and then Mary started to rub his tired feet with a special oil
called nard. Nard was very expensive and smelled really good. If you like to have your feet
rubbed, you can’t imagine a better way than having them rubbed with nard.
And now, Judas, one of Jesus‘s disciples, was complaining that the nard that Mary was rubbing
on Jesus‘s very tired feet was too expensive to put on there. Judas said Mary should have sold
the oil and given the money to poor people. The gospel writer tells us that Judas really wanted
the money for himself. But what Jesus tries to tell Judas is that we should care for each other the
way that God cares for us. What Jesus has been saying all along is that the way he, Jesus, has
cared for people is how God cares for us, and that it’s all about love. Jesus may have even said
something like, “Don’t you remember the story about the two brothers and the party that their
father gave for the one who came back home?”
That means that yes, we care for people who are poor and sick, but it also means that we care for
each other when we have the chance. When we love each other, we are not just doing God’s
work; we are acting as God’s hands and eyes and ears and heart. Of course, we don’t get to have
those really special times very often because...well, because there’s so much going on in all of
our lives. All the more reason to make the most of them when we have them. And once you’ve
had a special experience like that (and it could be all sorts of things--a really fun vacation or a
present that was exactly what you had hoped for or the way your grandparents’ house smells like
gingerbread and evergreens at Christmas time), you never forget it. You remember how it
looked and tasted and smelled, and you especially remember how you felt even if you can’t
describe it in words, except maybe to say that it was the best feeling in the world. And whoever
it was who made that special thing happen for you feels the same way...and knows that it was
worth it. That time and the feeling that goes with it never really goes away because we
remember it, and we want to share it. Like nothing else, it reminds us that, in the abundance of
God’s kingdom, there’s no such thing as too much love.