The Good News Of Love

This morning I was reading the story of the woman who anointed Jesus feet and head with perfume. These are the muzings that followed.

Jesus is invited to be the guest of honour at a party thrown by Simon the Leper. However, while Simon is honouring Jesus he is careful not to honour him too much. He doesn't give Him the customary kiss in greeting, and he doesn't have one of his servants wash Jesus' feet which again is customary for all guests.

Matthew and Mark tell us that Simon is a leper, so we can safely guess that Jesus healed him, and that this feast is Simon's way of showing thanks for that healing. Luke tells us that Simon is a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a sect of Judaism that focused on keeping the law perfectly, and they disapproved of Jesus because He did not keep the law they way they thought it should be kept. In fact many of them were plotting and planning to kill Him. Hence Simon has a dilemma, how to show gratitude without alienating his fellow Pharisees. This is I think the reason why Simon is so 'offhand' in his treatment of Jesus. Have the party but don't be polite, it would be understandable to his fellow Pharisees that he feels he must show his gratitude, but he can't let them think he's too close to Jesus in case they throw him out of the Pharisaic club.

At the party a woman shows up and breaks open a bottle of very expensive perfume, the smell is so strong it fills the whole room. The woman pours the perfume on Jesus's head and feet, then she cry's all over Him and wipes the excess liquid away with her hair.

Matthew and Mark just call her 'a woman' Luke tells us that she is a sinful woman, and has lived a sinful life in that town, she is notorious. John tells us she is Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

Two people object to this treatment; first is Simon, the Pharisee. All he can see is that Jesus is making himself unclean in the eyes of the law by allowing a sinful women to touch Him. The second objector is Judas. Judas objects to the waste, why is this perfume being squandered? The money could have been sold and given to the poor.

Only Luke records the objections of Simon. Interestingly Simon does not voice his objections but keeps them in his heart. Jesus responds to them anyway, He asks him a question, "Simon, two men owed a moneylender money, one owed him a fortune, one owed him a smaller amount. However neither were able to pay. So, the moneylender cancelled both debts. Which man will love the moneylender most?" Simon correctly answers that obviously the man with the greater debt will love the moneylender most. Jesus then compares and contrasts the actions of Mary with the actions of Simon, pointing out that while Simon has shown Him rudeness Mary has shown only extravagant love. The point is that Mary was forgiven much. Mary has a great sense of her own sinfulness and she has responded to the love and forgiveness of Jesus with uncensored and unlimited love. She doesn't care who is watching, she cares only that Jesus is shown the respect that is her due.

John tells us that Martha is serving at the party and that Lazarus is also a guest. I can imagine that Mary is out the back, unseen and she observes, or Martha tells her of the slights Simon has given Jesus in his rudeness. In her love Mary (who herself has endured many slights and rudeness's over the years) is hurting for Jesus  because she knows how it feels, and she wants to make it up to Him, to comfort Him. Love prompts her to go and get the perfume and anoint Jesus's head and feet. If this incident had not happened the perfume would have been used to anoint Jesus body on the Friday afternoon of His burial. In fact Jesus tells us that this is what the perfume was meant for. However He accepts and loves her for her service of love to his living body, even though it changed God's plan.

It is the same for us, if we act out of love God will accept and appreciate our service to Him, even if it is misguided and changes His plan. But if we act from duty or fear or any motive other than love then our service is not acceptable to Him. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3;

"I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned—but if I have no love, this does me no good." (Good News Translation) 

Without love our actions are pointless and useless. We must pray and ask God for the love, His love.

After Jesus talks to Simon He turns to Mary and assures her that her sins are forgiven, and Mary leaves. I am sure that as she left her love for Jesus was even greater than what it was when she arrived.

Then Jesus hears the mumbles and grumbles coming from the direction of the disciples. "Why was the perfume wasted? It should have been sold for the poor." Mark says these complaints came from "some who were present." Matthew narrows the focus and tell us "some of the disciples" were making these criticisms. John again is the one who zero's in and tells us, 'It was Judas!' John goes further and tells us that Judas said this because he was the keeper of the money-bag and that he was a thief, helping himself to the money in the bag. The implication is that Judas was thinking that the perfume should have been sold and the money given into his keeping so that he could access it for himself. Judas's words also show us that he had no love for Jesus. He didn't care that Simon was rude to Jesus, that Jesus was being honoured by Mary had no bearing on the situation, all he could see was his own greed and that he was missing out on an opportunity to benefit.

This story illustrates the three kinds of people who follow Jesus, the first is represented by Mary. These people have a deep and abiding love fore Jesus. Their actions are motivated by love, they want to please Jesus, to honour Him and to show others how good and wonderful He is.

Simon represents the second kind of follower. These people honour/obey Jesus because the think they should. There motivation is duty. These people often go to one of two extremes; "How much is enough? What's the least I can do?" or "How much is enough? Have I done enough?"

The first group are the people who cut the corners  they try to do the right thing but at the same time they are wondering, "Just how much is enough? What's the least I can do?" For example, "I know I can't have sex with my boyfriend before I get married but how far can we go? Petting perhaps? Or oral sex?" Another example, "I have to keep the Sabbath, I missed Sabbath School this morning, but I did make church, and I'm sure it's ok to go to the game this afternoon, I'm not working." Or, "I know drunkenness is condemned in the Bible, but it's alright to drink as long as I don't get drunk." These people are concerned with doing the least possible and still being 'ok' with God. Sadly they are far from God because they are not motivated by love.

The second group are the people who worry "How much is enough? Have I done enough?" These people go to the other extreme, "I must maintain my purity, I won't even hold hands with my boyfriend until we are married, there must be one metre between us at all times." "God asks for tithes and offerings, so I'll give 10% of my income as tithe, like He asked, and I'll give another 10% in offerings, even if I can't eat this week to cover it, I wonder if I should give more?" Again, these people are serving God out of duty, not love and they are sincere, but they have missed the point. If they have no love then all their gifts and services are pointless, which is particularly sad as they lose the joy in life and come to resent God for taking all the things they love, when He never even asked for them.

Finally there are the Judas's. These people follow God from greed, for what He can do for them. They are looking for the rewards, they may search out the promises in the Bible and carefully try to meet the conditions of each promise so that they can put God under obligation and claim the promised reward from Him.

I think at some point in our lives we all follow God for any and all of these reasons. Love, Duty, Avarice. But God only accepts the service and gifts of Love.

I want to be  Mary, and I know there are times I've been a Simon and a Judas. I want the love, but here is the kicker. It is impossible for us to manufacture the love. The only way we can have the love is as a gift from God, in response to the love He has shown us. Like Mary we recognise our own sinfulness, and when we see God's love and forgiveness, in response our hearts open and God fills us with His love which we then send back to Him. This is why confession is good for the soul. It brings us face to face with our own sinfulness, and we have the opportunity to acknowledge God's love and forgiveness.

Note: I'm NOT saying we should commit more sins to increase the love! God wants to transform us, to keep us from sinning. One of the results of our love for God is that we stop doing those things that separate us from Him aka sins because we want to be closer to our lover.

And that is the good news of love, it accepts me as I am and transforms me to be better than I think can be.