Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 12 verses 1 through 8:
12 Six days before ithe Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
One of the most difficult times a family often has is in the days immediately following the death of a loved one. Especially when the passing was sudden or not well planned for, there is 36 to 48 hours of gut-wrenching and stressful decisions to make. Oftentimes, the decisions involve the balance between wanting to appropriately honor their loved one and the limitations of a fixed budget. Sometimes I have found certain funeral homes' practices to be exploitative of families' grief and considerably harmful to their bottom line. I have seen families fall deeper and deeper into debt because they were trying to honor mom or dad with a casket they couldn't afford. This is not only sad, it's also unconscionable.
In today's Lesson we are given another way. Mary comes to anoint Jesus' body, but she does so before and not after his death. She takes the time to show her love and devotion to Jesus now, before his death, rather than waiting until after he is gone. She takes the time to come and honor her beloved while she knows she still has the time. She honors him in life rather than waiting for death.
I wonder if as a culture we would all be a lot healthier and less grief stricken if we learned from Mary how to honor and be present to the living rather than waiting and trying to make it up to the dead.
In Mother (now Saint) Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize reception speech she spoke of working in a nursing home for wealthy people. She said that though the people there were well to do and had all manner of amenities in each of their respective rooms, she also said that as she passed by in the halls she noticed something common about all the residents. They all had there heads turned to Theodore and their eyes looking out into the hallway. They were looking for someone to come and visit them. No matter how much in material things they had, what they really needed was human company, presence, and touch.
It can be costly to give up the time and go and visit the dying. Anointing Jesus with her perfume cost Mary three hundred denarii -- a year's worth of pay for a common laborer. But what she bought with it would last the rest of hers and Jesus' life. For she had prepared Jesus for his death; and she had also prepared herself.
And the whole house was filled with fragrance from the perfume.
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