Advent Lutheran Church

"How High?"

12Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. ³Mary 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. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii^* and the money given to the poor?’ ⁶(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.) ⁷Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it^* so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

How High?

The first time I read this passage, it didn’t strike me as a very flattering Jesus story.  Here Jesus is, having a dinner in his honor and getting his feet rubbed with expensive perfume, rejecting a plea for the poor and saying, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”  It didn’t make sense to me. This was not the Jesus I was used to.  It seemed Jesus had drank a little too much of his own Kool-aid.  It was the first time I had ever seen Jesus seemingly put himself before the poor.  This couldn’t be right.  There had to be a much deeper meaning to this story that I had missed.

At second glance, my college-trained, English class brain went into action.  I began to notice all kinds of foreshadowing going on.  We see Jesus’ omniscience, Judas’ greed and selfishness, the supper, and the ultimate betrayal. Sound familiar?  This passage could easily be written off as foreshadowing to the magnificently big events to come.  Again, this couldn’t be right.  I felt there was a deeper meaning still, but I was having trouble finding it.  What does this story really mean?  What is Jesus trying to teach us?

I finally found the answer when I re-examined the verse that at first glance was so off-putting. “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”  Jesus is reminding us, albeit in a confusing way that God should come first.  He is reminding us that how many poor people you help or good works you perform does not measure righteousness.  It isn’t about or how much money you give, or how many times you go to worship.  Living a godly life is measured by how high you hold God in your heart. Mary held God high in her heart.  Judas obviously didn’t. How high do you hold God in yours?