And Yet (Matthew 26: 17-30)

 Who likes roller coasters?

At Six Flags Magic Mountain, just north of Los Angeles, there is a ride called Tatsu. Tatsu is a flying coaster, which means you are suspended below the track horizontally, so that your body is in a sort of Superman pose.

That was all I knew about Tatsu when I got in line. And when the ride began, it wasn’t too bad. There I was, gently flying above the trees, nothing too extreme.

But then I saw far below me—124 feet below me, to be exact—the track. At first I was confused. I thought, “What is the track doing way down there if I’m way up here?”

Then I realized that we were about to take a nose-dive, headfirst, toward the ground, as we headed into an element called a pretzel loop…[*****] 

…because it’s shaped like a pretzel.

And this pretzel loop was—and still is—the largest one in the world.

I panicked.

Freefalling toward the ground headfirst was not something I had anticipated.

But the curve into the pretzel loop was gentle, and it carried me toward the ground, and continued curving, along the ground—at this point, I was on my back, facing the sky—and then the track curved back up again, and we resumed flying over the treetops.

The one and only time I ever rode Tatsu was the day before my mom’s funeral. 

A few days after Mom’s funeral, Dad passed away. My whole life in that period felt like a roller coaster. There were some ups, and a lot of downs; and, at times, it felt like I was freefalling headfirst toward the ground.

But then the prayers and the support of so many family and friends gently held me. I did not crash into the ground; instead, the love and support I received at that time in my life carried me along, and brought me back up to where I needed to be.

And it was such a strange, dichotomous mix of emotions. The grief was real and heavy. 

Yet at the same time I felt more blessed than I had ever felt before. I felt closer to my sisters, as we shared our grief together. And I felt closer to the many friends and relatives and church folks who offered their sincere condolences…

For me, Holy Week is like that. There is tremendous grief and sadness as we ponder the darkness of the world, the evil that exists, evil that would deny, betray, and kill even God’s own son. 

But there is also the tremendous joy and gratitude for the love and blessings that Christ’s willingness to die brings to the world.

*****

It starts on Palm Sunday. Jesus and his disciples arrive in Jerusalem at the start of the Passover Festival, the feast of the unleavened bread. Our Lenten devotional points out that this was one of several pilgrim feasts, and it brought Jews from far away to Jerusalem.

Herod also came to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. For Herod, it was an occasion to see what was going on, and an occasion to be seen. 

Herod’s arrival into Jerusalem was a magnificent spectacle, with Roman soldiers lining the streets, their spears raised in salute, while Herod himself arrived in a golden chariot pulled by one or more magnificent war horses.

Despite this display of wealth and power, Herod portrayed himself as one of the people. He wanted the people to see him as a Jew like them, faithful to the God of Abraham. 

Yet Herod ignored the teachings of the prophets and of Moses. He did not care for the poor and needy. He took away people’s rights, and persecuted any who acted or even spoke against him.

Just ask John the Baptist.

The high priests in the temple were granted much wealth and privilege by Herod; in exchange, they supported him and his corrupt ways. They aligned themselves with the things he proclaimed, and so they, too, ignored the teachings of Moses and of the prophets. 

In fact, they were likely right there, in prominent positions along the parade route, welcoming Herod into the city when he arrived at the start of the Passover festival.

***** Jesus, in contrast, entered Jerusalem on a donkey, instead of in a chariot pulled by a warhorse. His path was lined not with soldiers raising their weapons, but with peasants raising palm branches. 

Herod’s procession was over-the-top; magnificent; a great display of wealth and power.

Jesus’s procession was humble, and poor; it was everything that Herod’s procession was not.

The people who greeted Jesus and shouted his praise were neither influential nor powerful. They were peasants and artisans, beggars and outcasts.

Their shouts of “Hosanna!”, and their waving of palm branches, was both a celebration, and a protest. A political protest, against Herod and against the violence, oppression, and inequality of the Roman Empire. It was a rally for the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of peace, and in support of Jesus, the herald of God’s new kingdom come on earth.

And because they were filled with such great hope and emotion at Jesus’ arrival, and because of all the other events that were about to take place in the week to come… the highs, and the lows… It really was one roller coaster of a week.

*****

A few days later, Jesus gathers with his disciples for the Passover meal. It is, in many ways, a traditional passover meal. 

The escape from Egypt is recalled: How God sent plagues to Egypt, yet Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness would not let God’s people go free. 

Then God sent one final plague: the death of the first-born, reminiscent of Pharaoh’s earlier order to kill every Hebrew male child.

This time, death passed-over the home of the Hebrews—that’s where the name Passover comes from—but every first-born Egyptian son died. 

The Passover festival, when Jesus and Herod and everyone else came to Jerusalem, commemorates this event, when death passed-over the Hebrew households, and they escaped from Pharaoh’s hand.

The Hebrews fled with such haste that they didn’t have time to wait for their bread to rise. And that’s why Passover was also called the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.

And the meal that Jews ate on Passover, and that they eat on Passover to this day, is eaten in remembrance of when God allowed God’s people to escape from the evil, oppressive, rule of Pharaoh.

Herod’s rule was so oppressive, that people in Jesus’ day hoped that God would again intervene, to lead them to freedom and abundant life.

And this hope was present when Jesus gathered with his disciples for the passover meal, the meal that would be his last before dying on the cross.

In the old, traditional way, Jesus and his disciples recalled the Passover and the escape from Egypt. 

In the old, traditional way, Jesus lifted up the bread, and spoke the ancient prayer: baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam, ha motzi lechem min ha-aretz. “Blessed are you, eternal God, whose presence fills creation, who brings forth bread from the earth.”

Then Jesus did something unexpected. Something new. He added, after the prayer, these words: “This is my body.” 

He did the same with the cup. “This is my blood."

In referring to his body and blood, Jesus was saying that these elements—the bread and the cup—represent his life. 

He was saying that this passover meal wasn’t just a way to remember how God led God’s people to life and liberation so many generations ago; it was also a way to recognize that God is leading people to life and liberation now, in this time, through him; through Jesus. 

And then, Jesus added: “Whenever you eat this bread and drink from this cup, do it in remembrance of me.” Traditionally, this meal was eaten in honor of Caesar. A toast to Caesar was as much a part of the meal as the Star-Spangled Banner is a part of Major League Baseball games. 

But instead of a toast to Caesar, Jesus said, “whenever you do this, to it in memory of me.”

—----

What makes this even more emotional is that it is already evident that Jesus is going to be betrayed. A tragic end awaits him. 

And yet, Jesus–knowing this–still offers this prayer of thanks, of blessing, of gratitude.

And the disciples must have been wondering: Are we supposed to be sad? Is this a funeral meal? Are we supposed to be celebrating? Is this a meal of joy?

And the answer is: 

Yes.

It is all of that.

In Peter Pan, it is said that Tinker Bell, because she was a fairy and so small, only had room for one emotion at a time. 

“Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.” [J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan]

But we do sometimes feel more than one feeling at a time. 

Like when someone close to us dies; we often feel gratitude for the life we shared with them, and gratitude for the comfort and condolences of friends, yet also deep sorrow at having lost someone we loved so much. 

And maybe there is also anger, at God, or at the person who died; and sometimes guilt, if we feel we didn’t love them as well as we could have, or if we left things unsaid too long until it was too late to say them.

And all this makes grieving confusing. We could be laughing one moment, and crying the next. And all those emotions just feel like more than one body, one person, can handle.

That’s what’s happening here at the Last Supper. Herod is still in control! In fact, under Herod’s regime, Jesus would be soon put to death!

And Yet… there is also joy and gratitude for the love and the life that come to us through Jesus. And we are so, so thankful for this.

And I think that carries over to the way we celebrate communion to this day. Communion is a joyful meal of great thanksgiving. In fact, in some ancient traditions, the meal itself is called the “great thanksgiving.” And in some traditions, it is called “eucharist,” a word that comes from a Greek word that means “thanksgiving.”

But at the same time, communion is when we remember the Last Supper, and the crucifixion, and the cost of the life and freedom we have through Christ. 

As we celebrate communion, we lament the state of the world. 

We lament that there is still oppression. 

We lament that the poor and other vulnerable people still are not taken care of, but are neglected, while the wealthy and powerful continue to accumulate more wealth and more power.

We lament that our leaders continue to wage war instead of peace. 

We lament the many lives lost and many more affected by the horrors of war. 

We lament all the other death-dealing ways of those who abuse their power.

And yet… we know… that none of that has the power to stop God’s love from surrounding us, and giving us life and hope. 

God’s love will always be there, to keep us on the track, and keep us from crashing head first into the ground. 

And in the kingdom of God, which is present even now, right now, right here, in our very midst, there is more than enough love, and more than enough grace, and more than enough hope.

That, we can celebrate.

And for that, we give thanks.

All Poured Out (John 12:1-8)

 Do you remember middle school? (Junior high school?)

What a fun time! Right? 

Most of the leadership I’ve provided to camps over the years has been with middle school age campers… what we in the Disciples of Christ call “Chi-Rho.”

I remember one year: this was at least 20 years ago, at a Disciples church camp in northern California, a place called the Community of the Great Commission: [*****] which is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the sky is blue and the dirt is red, and the sleeping accommodations were in the form of 8 small cabins nestled beneath towering pine trees, each of which could hold one or two counselors and 6 or 7 campers.

That year, I was in a cabin with a group of middle school boys, all of whom, it turns out, had recently discovered the importance of smelling nice. 

Now, I know: many parents can only dream of having their adolescent boys embrace the importance of controlling body odor and smelling nice. Many adolescent boys have not discovered the importance of this. 

If you know an adolescent boy who you wish would discover the importance of smelling nice, send him to church camp! Who knows? He just may come home smelling sweeter than he ever has before!

But let me warn you: be careful what you wish for.

Because, that summer, twenty years ago, in that little camp cabin, this particular group of sixth and seventh grade boys decided that the best way for them to smell nice was by using copious—and I mean copious—amounts [*****] of Axe body spray.

Do you know about Axe body spray? Like many things that appeal to adolescent boys, it is not subtle. And all the teenage boys were using it. I don’t know if they still do, but they did back then.

When I was a small child, I would sometimes hear my parents complain about some old ladies at church who wore way too much perfume. Apparently, those ladies would put on their perfume until they themselves could smell it, which was problematic, since those old ladies themselves had lost their sense of smell. But for those around them at church, it was overpowering.

I mention these old ladies, because I don’t want any middle schoolers to feel singled out by this sermon… but if my parents had ever spent a week in a cabin with middle school boys who were obsessed with Axe body spray, they would never have complained about the ladies at church.

The marketing for Axe body spray boasts that it is more than a body spray. It’s a vibe. A flex. A statement. And that it will give you 72 hours of straight-up freshness. Yet these boys felt it necessary to spray themselves—and each other—every ten minutes.

All week long, they kept Axe-bombing our little, poorly-ventilated cabin in the woods, so that we were living in a cloud of Axe body spray that you could smell, see, and taste.

I remember opening the little window that was in the cabin, to try to get some breathable air to come in. The boys protested. Opening the window, they said, might let in critters: bugs, raccoons, bears!

I said, “Look: the air quality in here has a toxicity that is far more hazardous than any creature living in these woods. The window,” I said, “stays open.”

—---------

***** The windows were probably open in the room where Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with a pound of pure nard. At least, I hope they were. 

Because a pound of pure nard is a lot of nard. 

And nard is… what is nard?

I looked it up. 

Nard is “an intensely aromatic, amber-colored essential oil and ointment” derived from the underground stems of certain plants that are grown high in the Himalayas.

Two things stand out to me about this description: 

1. Being from the Himalayas would certainly have made this perfume “costly,” as the scripture says. The Himalayas are a long way from Bethany. 

2. Being “intensely aromatic,” one probably would not need to use a whole lot of this perfume. In fact, being “intensely aromatic,” one probably should not use a whole lot of this perfume. To use more than just a tiny amount would be overpowering and overwhelming.

—-----------

Mary took a pound of this perfume. A pound! Some translations say that it was a pint of perfume… And she poured it all out on Jesus’ feet.

And the scripture says “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

No kidding!

I said that the youth I spend time with at camp teach me a lot. Well, that particular summer twenty years ago, in that little cabin beneath the pine trees, those boys helped me understand what it must have been like, to be in the room when Mary took a pound of intensely aromatic nard, and poured it on Jesus’ feet.

—-----------

So why did she do it?

Some have suggested that perhaps she had been planning to use this nard to anoint Lazarus’ body, to cover the smell of death. A pound of nard would certainly be enough. But then Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and the nard was no longer needed for that purpose…………

Jesus himself comments that Mary was saving that nard for the day of his burial. Except she’s not saving it; she’s just poured it all out… perhaps she knows that the day of his burial is very near, in which case her act becomes highly symbolic…………

It has also been suggested that maybe the nard was Mary’s dowry. If this nard really was worth 300 denarii, as Judas claims, that’s a fortune! 

The nard was likely kept in an alabaster jar. The only way to open the jar would be to break the seal. Once you do that, the jar cannot be resealed. In other words, any leftover nard cannot be saved.

Maybe that’s why she poured it all out.

By the way, Axe body spray does not have to be used all at once. If you only use a little bit, the rest will remain safely sealed inside the container until it is needed. Just so you know. You don’t have to use it all on one occasion!

Judas thinks all the nard should have been saved. It could have been sold, and the money would have helped so many people who were poor. 

Judas expects Jesus to agree with him. I hear Judas, and I expect Jesus to agree with him. Judas is right.

But the narrator of this story wants us to know that Judas said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and would steal what was put into it.

***** …I think this story is about more than just nard. I think it’s about love.

In pouring out all that nard, Mary was really pouring out her love.

She was even willing to abandon reason, and break all the rules, to pour out her love. She poured out her love in a way that was extravagant; over-the-top; and reckless. She poured out her love in a way that many did not approve of.

Women were not supposed to approach a man who was not their husband in the way that Mary approached Jesus… Women were not supposed to be in conversation with men without their husband present; yet Mary, we know, liked to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to him teach… Women weren’t supposed to let their hair down in the presence of a man who was not their husband.

And women were definitely not supposed to use their hair to wipe a man’s feet.

Yet Mary was willing to break all these rules, in order to show Jesus how much she loved him.

Jesus, meanwhile, was known for breaking many rules himself, to show his love. 

He broke the rule about the Sabbath, because he believed showing love and expressing compassion was more important than observing religious laws. The law about the Sabbath was not a bad law; but it is superseded by the command to love. 

Jesus also broke the rule about how men and women were to interact. 

Earlier in John’s gospel, we read of a time when the disciples arrived and found Jesus and a Samaritan woman talking beside a well, with no one else around. And the disciples were shocked. Because as I said, men and women weren’t supposed to engage in conversation without the presence or permission of the woman’s husband. 

And Jesus broke many other rules, when love demanded that he do so. 

And Jesus’ love was so overflowing, so reckless, that not even death by crucifixion would stop him from expressing that love.

He poured it all out. His love. His life.

Most people would stop short of that, especially for someone they didn’t know well, who was not a part of their family or a close friend.

But Jesus loved the whole world, and was willing to die for us all, for every person on earth, so that we all could have life through him.

Jesus’ love is overflowing. It is abundant. It is recklessly excessive.

Just like the outpouring of way too much nard.

Or… way too much Axe body spray.

Because, when it comes to love, there is no such thing as way too much.

Although, I confess, I don’t always think that way.

Sometimes, as a pastor, or just as a human, I wonder how I should react to a certain situation.

And the first question I often ask myself is: 

What is it that people expect me to do?

Or, What is the proper thing for me to do?

Or, What is the safe thing for me to do?

And these questions lead me to portion out my love… they lead me to conserve my love… to be judicious; to show restraint. 

I treat my love the way I would treat a jar of perfume, using just a little bit, so that it would last. Or the way I only push halfway down on the liquid soap dispenser on my bathroom sink, because pushing all the way down gives me more soap than I need; I don’t need the full amount, and if I only push down halfway, then that bottle of soap will last twice as long.

Do you manage your love this way? Do you only push halfway down? Do you only pour a little out at a time? Are you afraid of spending all your love in one place? Are you afraid that you will look ridiculous, or overly-emotional, or that others will say you have a “bleeding heart,” if you love too much?

Mary shows us that you cannot love too much. For followers of Jesus, there is no such thing as too much when it comes to love.

When it comes to love, the true follower of Jesus will pour it all out. Just spread that love everywhere. Spray that Axe spray all over the place. Let it fill that cabin, that campground… let it fill our church, our community… and keep spraying it until the whole world is filled with love.

Because the more you share God’s love, the more you have. You won’t ever run out. 

That’s good news when it comes to God’s love. It’s maybe not such good news if we’re talking about Axe body spray. But we’re talking about love.

So share it recklessly. Excessively. Like a seventh grade boy who’s just discovered the importance of smelling nice. Like an old church lady who keeps applying perfume until she herself can smell it. 

Share that love like Jesus, who held nothing back when it came to spreading and sharing God’s love… who even gave his life, so that you and I could know just how great God’s love is, and how much we ourselves are loved by God.