Our Holy Week starts with a memorable image from the 12th chapter of John's Gospel - Mary using her hair as a brush to anoint the Rabi's feet with precious nard.
Women are on the first place throughout the Holy Week.
The last at the Cross, the first to witness the resurrection. Women demonstrating insane loyalty.
To his male disciples Christ has to explain over and over again that it is more acceptable in the eyes of God to serve and not to be served… The last ones will be first in my kingdom…
And still, the disciples lapse into arguing who is the greatest. Oh well. We’ll discuss it another time.
Now we are in the house of Lazarus.
For the women in the house the idea of serving at the table would have been normal. It was very deep in the understanding of their own role – and identity - that a good Jewish woman gains her salvation through serving.
Every shabbat, still now, a hymn Eshet Chayil is sung.
Eshet Chayil - "the virtuous wife".
Its content, in brief. The virtuous wife is the incarnation of selfish service. Her candle does not go out at night and she rises before the sun, she dressed everyone, feeds everyone, including the poor who are not even a part of her household.
… in the eyes of God – the conclusion - she is more precious than the riches of the world.
It is the work of her hands that makes the world go round. It is, therefore, a weekly admonishment to the husband that he should never forget where his strength comes from.
The right attitude to your wife is?.. correct – praise and honor.
In one word. You don’t need to explain to a woman how those who serve and are the last ones to sit at the table can actually be the first in the eyes of God.
Living a life that makes you develop the habit of putting others before yourself, makes you free to give in ways that are simply insane, unthinkable.
Mary performs a gesture that… If you evaluate everything from the standpoint of Judas - what practical benefit can I draw from it – this gesture looks disproportionate, even inappropriate.
"The emotionally unstable woman! We could have done so much more for the poor if we sold the oil. And who knows, maybe in the meantime profit from it ourselves as well".
300 denarii! It’s a craftsman's year’s wages wasted in a sign of gratitude.
I'm afraid we flatter ourselves if we think we wouldn't have a second thought before spending a year's living on a symbolic gesture.
Didn’t Mary understand that? Of course, she did. You don’t need to explain to a woman the costs of living expenses.
What was she thinking then? Where was her heart?
The apostles don’t get it. Not only Judas, apparently many raise discontent, so that Jesus has to rebuke them. Better than Mary herself he understands where her heart is:
“Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial".
Her heart is already at the Cross.
And beyond the Cross. Her love will make her die and resurrect together with the one she has anointed, the Christ.
The Messiah, who’s blood has only one price – everything we have. Our own life, with all the good that we are able to give.
Mary on her knees, using her own hair to brush the feet of God with the oil bought for a price bigger than she can afford.
What a sermon has she preached to us.
A sermon so strong that the memory of its fragrance reaches us through 2ooo years.
Let us start this week being thankful for the generosity of the virtuous Mary… and, indeed, for all the Maries who ever lived in our world that despirately needs people who are free not to count the price of nard they spill for Christ.
Amen.