mad, crazy-devoted, socially responsible

This and the postings that follow are a series of reflections that originally appeared here, on the Diocese of Dunedin website "worship" page

Monday in Holy Week

April 6th

READING. John 12:1-11

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 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. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

REFLECTION

It’s a peculiar scene. No eyebrow raised at the presence of Lazarus, who’d been thoroughly dead a little earlier. John is not interested in the peculiarities of that story any more. Nor in the sibling rivalries of Martha and Mary. Something greater is here. Mary and Judas: they represent something greater. Judas: dour, fiscally responsible social activist. Mary: lover (no matter how we choose to define that), dreamer, idealist. John places a knife deep in the gut of Judas, but there’s history there. Judas was long dead when John wrote. Mary? Probably not. John tenderly remembers Mary’s act of love. Conspicuous, mad, sensual, irresponsible love. Love, overflowing love, poured out for the one they called Lord. Not that I recommend irresponsible love in a time of Covid-19 (though I thoroughly recommend Gabriel García Márquez’s remarkable novel Love in a Time of Cholera which might just speak to us of love and dedication and fallibilty and grace); but utter, crazy, mad devotion to the one who we know will break out of the darkness of Holy Week and Covid-19 and every darkness and explode Easter light through our lives and his universe. Let’s continue to be mad, crazy-devoted, in our socially responsible bubbles, to the one who will breathe light into every darkness, hope into every despair, and life into every death ... Because he has been there.