THE EXTRAVAGANT FOOLISHNESS OF LOVE

(Preached on Sunday, March 25, 2007)

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.                                                                                 -John 12:3

 

A year=s worth of wages!  That=s what 300 hundred denarii were in Jesus= day.  A year=s worth of wages, since the average wage for a day laborer was a denarius.  No wonder Judas sat up and took notice of Mary=s action. It is difficult to translate that into today=s figures.  The day laborers who seek work by Home Depot south of Marlin near U.S. 1 try to negotiate for $75 a day, multiplied by 300 days would be about $25,000, assuming they get work every day.  Or take someone working at the minimum wage in Florida of $6.15, for 40 hours a week they only make $13,000.  If they work two such jobs they might make $26,000.  So, for sake of illustration lets say she took some perfume worth $25,000 and dumped it all on Jesus= feet!  Can you imagine that?  Foolishly extravagant, wouldn=t you agree?

 

What would you do if you had a year=s worth of wages to spend on friends?  Would you plan a big party for all your friends so that everyone might benefit to some extent?

You could throw some extravagant party for $25,000.

Or would you select just a few of your friends, perhaps your closest buddies, or those who had done the most for you, and plan a glorious trip for them?  Or would you take the entire $25,000 and spend it all on one extravagant gift for one friend?

 

In other words, what type of a lover are you?  In what ways does your love express itself?  In very practical acts of love, or in acts of extravagant foolishness?  Extravagance has always been difficult for me.  While I want to own things of good quality and I realize that to some extent you have to pay more for better quality, I have difficulty with paying amounts that seem extravagant.

I especially have difficulty spending a lot on myself. 

Of course, what=s extravagant in my mind is commonplace for someone else.  And what=s commonplace for me is extravagant for someone else.  So it seems to be a somewhat subjective standard.  Even so, I know I tend to err on the practical side when it comes to spending money.

And though I don=t really like to admit it, I would probably have agreed with Judas had I been at that dinner party that day in Bethany.

 

In fact, I think Judas actually gets a bum rap.  The question Judas raises is actually a very good question.  It is a question of practical love.

AWhy was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?@  When Mark tells the same story in his gospel the same question is raised, but it does not identify who asked it.  But John takes pains both to point out that Judas raised the question and to make an editorial comment about Judas= true motivation.  Now maybe Judas was a thief; maybe he was motivated by selfish concern.  But, maybe it was such a good question he raised that John struggled with a portrait of Judas, the eventual betrayer of Jesus, as a man of mixed motives C sometimes selfless, sometimes selfish, sometimes concerned for the poor, and sometimes trying to control the situation. 

 

Actually Judas is expressing a very common view of love, what might be called practical love.  This is the view of love expressed in the Law of Moses.  Practical love deals in justice, equality and fairness.  It is love codified in the 10 commandments, guidelines for expressing love.  Everyone knew in Jesus= day what it meant to love God and neighbor: keep the 10 commandments, follow the law of Moses, and you could consider that you had fulfilled the call to love.

 

This view of love is similar to our present day understanding of Afair-share.@  The following story from PEANUTS expresses this practical love very clearly.  In this strip Sally asks her brother Charlie Brown to help her write a letter to Santa Claus.  He agrees and settles down with pencil and paper as Sally dictates: A... I have been especially good this year, so I have a long list.  Please note the size and color of each item ... If it makes it easier for you, just send money.@  Already disillusioned with the commercialism of Christmas, Charlie Brown throws up his hands and says, AOh!  Even my baby sister!@  A puzzled Sally remarks: AAll I want is what I have coming to me.  All I want is my fair share.@

 

We laugh, not just because that story is funny, but also to distract ourselves from how true it is.  Not just for children, but for many of us as adults.  What we are most concerned with is our Afair share.@  Even those of us in the church.  Whether it=s our commitment of money, or our time, or sharing our talents and abilities, we tend to watch out for our Afair share.@  We prefer not to give more than our Afair share.@

 

But Mary did not stop to think about the practical applications of love.  She did not worry about what was her Afair share.@  In a very emotional manner, she allowed the gratitude in her heart to spill over in an extravagant manner which she could not hold back.  Without a doubt, her impulsive anointing of Jesus= feet was an extravagantly foolish act of love and was most probably so spontaneous as to be almost involuntary.  Mary had recently witnessed the power of God at work in Jesus in an amazing way.  Just days before this dinner she and her sister Martha had been in deep mourning for the loss of their brother Lazarus.  He had been ill and died before Jesus could reach his side.  He had been anointed for burial, wrapped in a shroud, laid in the family crypt for three days before Jesus arrived.  Mary had witnessed Jesus call her brother back from death, raise him to new life and restore him to them.  Lazarus was sitting at this dinner table and Mary=s gratitude and love for Jesus bubbled over in this gift of risk and extravagance.  She did not stop to count the cost, because it didn=t matter.  No gift she could offer Jesus could ever repay the extravagant gift of new life he had given to her family.  John tells us that the smell of the perfume filled the house.  The unselfish gift she gave affected all who were there.

 

Mary=s extravagance is a reflection of God=s extravagance.

Over and over again in the scriptures we hear that God is a God of abundance and extravagance. Back in January we enjoyed the story of Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana turning water into wine: 600 gallons of it!  And when Jesus feeds the crowds, in one place 4,000 people, in another, 5,000, with a few simple loaves and fish we are told there are over 12 baskets full of leftovers!  The God we have come to know through Jesus is not a God of scarcity but a God of abundance.  God never gives us just enough.  God always gives us more than enough; more bread and fish than we can eat, more love than we dare ask for.

 

We hear a lot today about people wanting Ato do my own thing.@  It=s the mantra of our society, the Ame generation.@

Through her relationship with Jesus, Mary has learned to do God=s Athing.@  She has become a reflection of the God of her Rabbi, Jesus.  Her action at that subdued dinner party, shortly before Jesus comes to the end of the road, is truly godly.  Her deed is unexpected and extravagantly beautiful: sheer God-likeness.  Like the grace of Jesus.  We can only guess how much this extravagantly foolish gift brought consolation and comfort to Jesus= soul.  A healing to go with him through the last days of his life on earth.

 

Isn=t it like that in our own experience?  Some of the most healing, encouraging times in our lives occur when some dear person has acted with spontaneous generosity toward us: Grace.  Unexpected kindness.  Unearned blessing.  Like a fragrance, the action of another has perfumed our whole being with the special sense of beauty and wonder.  In such moments something of God=s Athing@ has reached us through a neighbor, or maybe even through a stranger.