“Blame it on Lazarus”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, April 11, 2022
John 12:1-11 (Forward, p. 72) CEV p. 1117
It is rather revealing, to say the least, how the raising of Lazarus from death evoked widely differing responses:
a) With his sister Mary, it called forth such a gratitude that she was willing to expend what must have been one of her most prized possessions, a bottle of expensive perfume made from pure spikenard, and seemingly ‘waste’ it, to extravagantly anoint Jesus’ feet.
Jesus saw, in this, was probably not something that Mary had intended, but an act of preparation for Jesus’ own burial and so was very happy with it.
Interestingly then, what Judas Iscariot saw in this was not an act of gratitude but a wasted opportunity, a wasted opportunity to get rich!
b) Then, with the crowds there was their idle curiosity. They were the gawkers, the seemingly inevitable crowd that gathers at the scene of a fire, a crime or a disaster. They wanted to see the evidence firsthand, to see Lazarus in the flesh, and because of that, many of them put their faith in Jesus.
c) But it was that very fact that the authorities decided that they needed to rid the world of this evidence, that is, to kill Lazarus.
It is quite incredible that this one act of mercy on the part of Jesus could call forth such varying responses, gratitude, curiosity and hatred. I see the first two responses as ones that are worthy of our imitation. We should, like Mary, be eternally grateful to Jesus for what He has done for us and we should respond with an extravagant gifting of what is most precious to us. And, like the crowds, we should be willing to come and check it out for ourselves, willing to examine the claims of Jesus and test them for ourselves. But sadly, unfortunately, there are far too many in our world today who want to silence or rid the world of the evidence, lest people also put their faith in Jesus as these people did. Let us pray that these efforts are frustrated, and that people do come and want to know for themselves whether this is true or not and then come to faith in Christ Jesus. And let us all who do know Christ and have experienced His great love and mercy, give ourselves and all that we are and have as expressions of our love and gratitude. Amen.
Forward notes: “Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s 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?’” (verses 3-5)
“Every time I encounter this story, I imagine myself in it. I am at the table. Martha comes and goes, serving the meal, stopping only to wipe the sweat from her brow. Mary is off somewhere, searching for something. When she returns, Mary brings perfume and begins anointing Jesus’s feet with the nard. I do not fully understand Mary’s actions, but I can tell they are reverent. Then I realize that Judas is also here. I am pulled out of the story. I can see into the future. I know Judas as both disciple and traitor.
“Holy Week and the entirety of a Christian life is lived like this. I am always in past stories and present moments. I am ever experiencing the life, death, and resurrection of Christ while attempting to live out my Christ-likeness.”
Moving Forward: “Imagine yourself in the stories of Holy Week as they unfold as well as from the perspective of knowing how the week ends, with the empty tomb and Jesus’s resurrection.”