Wednesday Sermon: The Scent of Love

Pastors have a frequent question when they begin to discover mimetic theory. “That’s great. But how does it preach?”

Reverends Tom and Laura Truby show that mimetic theory is a powerful tool that enables pastors to preach the Gospel in a way that is meaningful and refreshing to the modern world. Each Wednesday, Teaching Nonviolent Atonement will highlight their sermons as an example of preaching the Gospel through mimetic theory.

In this sermon, Tom and Laura explore the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet. The contrast the appealing smell of the perfume (the scent of love) with the smell of sacrificial offering of animals during Passover (the smell of death) and ask, “In our imagination the smell of pure nard, the smell of spring and the smell of death contradict each other. Which will we choose?” 

Year C, Lent5
March 13th, 2016
Thomas L. and Laura C. Truby
John 12:1-8

“The Scent of Love”

“Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.  The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

Two sisters invited Jesus to a dinner party in Jesus’ honor.  Can you smell the food as it simmers on the fire, the fresh bread as it bakes in the oven?    Their brother, Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, was at the table.  Sounds like quite an occasion!  Not often that you have a dinner attended by a formerly dead person.  It’s the gospel writer’s way of preparing us for what is about to unfold on this fifth Sunday of Lent.

Jesus, their beloved friend, had stirred up huge controversy and tension when he raised Lazarus from the dead.  Rome didn’t like it and neither did the people at the temple.  They were trying to decide if they should execute Lazarus again, along with Jesus—that would put an end to this story about his being raised from the dead—get rid of the one raised and the one who raised him.  In the Gospel of John the raising of Lazarus sets the crucifixion machine in motion.  From our perspective, their whole plan has a bad smell.

While the air in Bethany, a town just outside of Jerusalem, was still fresh and pure and their home smelled of baking bread, olive oil and wine, the air in Jerusalem was thick with tension as Passover, the celebration of Jewish identity was approaching in six days. Rome was on high alert.  Would there be nationalist tensions this year and would Rome ruthlessly suppress it?

The crowds were beginning to gather.  Animals were being herded into the city and selected for sacrifice.  Soon Jerusalem’s air would smell of sprinkled blood and burnt flesh.  The fresh spring air would soon be infused with the smell of death. In our imagination the smell of pure nard, the smell of spring and the smell of death contradict each other. Which will we choose?

Mary and Martha hoped to get Jesus out of the city.  They wanted to honor him.  They were afraid for him.  They wanted to provide him with a temporary place of refuge and retreat.  Martha served food and Mary opened a canister of very expensive perfume and poured the entire content on Jesus’ feet.  The house was filled with its fragrance.  And then she undid her hair and wiped his feet with it.  Can you smell the perfume?

Why did she do it?  What did she mean by it?  I think it was a lavish gesture of unreserved devotion.  She threw aside all caution, practicality and even dignity.  It was an outrageous social act.  It reminds me of the prodigal father of last week who threw aside his dignity and runs to meet the returning son: kissing and hugging him. The father pours out his extravagant love like Mary pours perfume on Jesus’ feet. Soon Jesus will pour himself out at our feet.

It reminds me of the fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation where the writer, John of Patmos, hears myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “’Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’  Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

Mary is giving expression to the same impulse arising within her.  She sees the Lamb and understands the power of his vulnerability.  She can’t find words to say it and so pours a fortune in purest nard on his feet. Its fragrance fills the house like the voices of Revelation fill Heaven.

Paul in the epistle lesson writes: “I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ and be found in him.  In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ.” Like Paul, Mary senses the faithfulness of Christ and pours herself out in gratitude.  She spreads the scent with her hair.

But not all live in gratitude for a gift beyond their understanding. “Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), complained, ‘This perfume was worth a year’s wages!  Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?”

St John wants us to know that Judas didn’t care about the poor really.  His heart was in the wrong place for that.  In his mind, Jesus was on the wrong track already and this would only encourage him.

Jesus’ response surprises everyone.  “Leave her alone”, he says.  “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.”  His burial!  What is he talking about!  There is no need for a burial. They have come to Jerusalem to conquer not die.

Jesus sees Mary’s actions as pointing to the costliness of his love about to be revealed on the cross.  Mary, this vulnerable woman who has just poured her life’s saving on his feet and filled the room with its sweetness, sees something the disciples cannot see.  She sees the forgiving victim who embodies God’s love and she responds with devotion.  She fills the house with the fragrance of the crucified Lord.  It’s the scent of love and it lingers still.  Can you smell it? Amen.