Local Preachers’ Group on John's Gospel
Notes of meeting held 22nd February 2010
John 12: 1 – 11
John 12: 1 – 8 is the designated reading for 5th Sunday in Lent and John 12: 1 – 11 for the Monday of Holy Week; we therefore studied the whole passage. We read round as usual but it was only later in our discussions that we realised that a major difference in the translation of verse 7 had caused a misunderstanding for one of our number. In NIV verse 7 reads “It was intended that she should save this for the day of my burial” and in NRSV verse 7 reads “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial”. This led one person to assume that Mary had not used the jar of oil.
In this passage John appears to have collated two different stories from the synoptic tradition, as this story has similarities to the Martha and Mary story (where Martha complains that Mary is not helping with the preparations for the meal) and to the story of the anointing of Jesus’ feet by a woman of ill repute at the house of either Simon the leper or a Pharisee, depending on which gospel you read. After quite a bit of discussion we decided that this story in this format actually started bck at chapter 11, maybe even earlier than that. To really understand what John wants us to understand we should have read from chapter 11 where John tells readers that Martha and Mary are Lazarus’ sisters and that Mary is the person who wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair. To signal this event so early means, that what precedes it is important. Why does John tackle the story in this way? We felt that there must be a significant reason but that to understand what it might be we would need to read some earlier chapters.
This is the only
information we are ever given that Judas Iscariot is a thief. If he were not,
why would John say he is? Does John give us this information to soften Jesus’
reply about the poor? Is it this event that leads Judas to betray Jesus? Verse
8 is a difficult verse and at least two commentaries do not tackle the issue
very well. Why does Jesus make this statement? At a superficial level it makes
Jesus seem selfish, and it is a verse that non-Christians can remember and
quote when challenging our faith.
In this story Mary has chosen worship rather than service. Are there elements in the church today that believe that service is more important than worship? And what can this story tell us about our worship? Jesus seems to be saying here that there are times when worship is more important than anything else. One of our group thought that without rich and nourishing worship we would not be equipped to serve! Mary’s gesture suggests that it is the quality and richness of our worship that is important. This story of Mary washing Jesus’ feet links to the next scene where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. Jesus is God’s servant and unless we serve Him we cannot serve each other! This story stresses the importance of worship so that we can continue in service. Mary like the widow gives her all! The fact that, in John, Mary is not a woman of ill-repute changes the emphasis of the story. Here Mary is a trusted friend and sister to Martha and Lazarus. Mary is not, therefore, asking for forgiveness by her gesture but simply showing her love and affection for Jesus in recognition of who He is.
Jesus is speaking prophetically in this passage, and of all the prophecies in the Bible this has certainly proved to be true over the last 2000 years. The poor are always with us! Is Jesus being political here and stating a fact? Is there a justification in this verse for the wealth of the Church? Does the Church’s wealth cause inertia in worship or is it important that the church display the costly accoutrements of worship? Have we moved too far towards social service and away from enriching, nourishing worship? John’s gospel is not like Luke’s where the social expression of our faith is stressed. John stresses that worship matters. Verse 8 is a challenging verse; we could be tempted to avoid the issues it brings up but we felt it might be better to tackle it sympathetically and carefully.
One of our group found this story comforting because there are times when we feel so stressed by trying to deal with social problems like poverty, we can feel compassion overload. This is when we do need to sit down and worship and let Jesus take control. Sometimes we forget that we cannot to do everything ourselves but have to rely on the Holy Spirit. We need to enjoy the loving fellowship of Jesus. All service without God is not sustainable as we need the nourishment of worship. The burden of needy people will always be with us and we need to be quiet with God in worship. We can only do our bit.
There is a stark
realisation in this story that Jesus will not be with the disciples for much
longer. Jesus has gone to spend time with friends before his final visit to
We tried to work out exactly on which day of the week this meal took place, but became very confused working backwards from Passover. John takes the trouble to tell us specifically that it was six days before Passover; so the timing must be significant! We thought that this meal could have been a Sabbath meal and Mary would be seen as an intruder on a male domain. Unusually for a woman in public situation she has let her hair down. Women were supposed to keep their hair covered in front of people who were not immediate family. Mary has disobeyed all the rules here and yet Jesus says that what she has done is right! What does this say to us about our usual dress codes for church?
One person saw a link to the Jesus Christ Superstar song “I don’t know how to love him”. Here Mary is showing her love in the only way she knows.
It was normal to pour oil on the head not the feet. So what is significant about the feet?
The last two verses concern Lazarus. John tells us that through the raising of Lazarus, many Jews are going over to Jesus and that the chief priests make plans to kill not only Jesus but Lazarus as well! Poor Lazarus gets to die twice. The raising of Lazarus is not the same as Jesus’ resurrection so what is its significance? This is a tantalising glimpse into Lazarus future which we hear no more about.
The passage
without these two verses seems to be mostly about worship but with these tacked
on the end it changes into a passage about Jesus’ death and resurrection.
It would be easy to preach from this text in combination with the synoptic versions of this story and end up being unfaithful to this text as it is. This story of Mary and the anointing of Jesus must have been a well known story for it to appear in both John and the synoptic tradition so it must have been an important event for so many people to remember it and pass it on.
Subjects we might preach on include:
- Contrast the hypocrisy of Judas and the devotion of Mary
- Worship – the richness of our worship. Do we give our all?
- Mary and love – the realisation of who Jesus is and what it leads to
- Pick up on the poor who are still with us – Now that Jesus is not here in the body is it time to give everything to the poor? Jesus said that whenever we showed love to “one of these” we showed love to him. Does this mean that we should now concentrate on dealing with social realities rather than worship? If we only had John’s gospel left to us would we have a strong social commitment in our faith?
SC