As we continue our way through Mark’s record of what we now call Holy Week, we are up to Wednesday. Notice it is called 2 days before Passover. Passover was the significant point in the religious year, just as we count down to Christmas, people counted down to Passover, making sure all the preparations were in place.
A few weeks ago I mentioned a literary device that Mark uses, it is called ‘frames’ or ‘sandwich’; in which Mark surrounds an event within another event. We saw it with the story of the Temple being framed by the withered fig tree. This passage is also one of Mark’s frames. We will look first at the frame, then at the story of the woman.
The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’
The chief priests and scribes, not all of them, but many of them, were wanting Jesus out of the way. These were people in collaboration with the Romans, and Jesus could upset their privileged place. The thing people were scared about were the crowds, crowds that were following Jesus, crowds that showed his popularity, crowds that made it difficult to keep people in their ‘right’ place; the religious leaders were concerned about Jesus’ popularity, because if they lost control of the ‘religious practice’ and the people were not controllable, then the Romans would come down hard on the whole population.
The religious leaders were wanting to get rid of Jesus because of the crowds, but it is also the crowds that prevented people getting to Jesus. The leaders were concerned at what would happen in they openly arrested Jesus.
The second part of the frame:
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
The chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus, but were prevented by the Crowd, they had given up, and here is Judas offering to betray Jesus. Often we think of the crowd as being against Jesus, but the problem was that Jesus was popular. The only way the religious authorities could arrest Jesus was to know when he would be away from the crowd, arrest him and execute him before the crowds knew what was happening.
A side note, when we read of the trial before Pilate, and the crowd calling for Jesus to be executed and Barabbas freed, Mark notes that this crowd was stirred up by the chief priests, it is quite likely that it was a select crowd that had been allowed into the governor’s grounds.
Now to the story that is framed by deceit and betrayal; the story of an unnamed woman who poured expensive ointment on Jesus’ head, anointing him for burial before his death.
Jesus has told the disciples a number of times that he will be arrested and put to death, but they disciples just don’t get it, then we have the unnamed woman come and anoint him. Nard was used to anoint a body before burial, but if Jesus is to be killed as a criminal, there is not usually the opportunity for anointing, so she has done it beforehand.
And the response of those around her, how outrageous!, wasteful! This could have been sold and given to the poor. Jesus responds: you always have the poor with you… you can show kindness to them whenever you wish. but do we? We may talk about the poor, pray for the poor, but do we do anything to prevent or alleviate poverty? Or do we ignore the problem, and imagine that it is for people with more power and influence to do something about such issues.
Jesus recognises her actions as preparing his body for burial ahead of time, but others in the room see only expensive perfume being wasted. Jesus commends her for doing what she can. We might think we have little to offer to Jesus, or the world; but here we have an example of a person with limited opportunities, offering what she can. “In the midst of deception and disloyalty we find an act of dedication to Christ and his cross”.[i]
We have a contrast here between the deceit of the religious leaders, the disloyalty and betrayal by Judas, and an act of generosity by the unnamed woman, she is a true disciple because she has believed. What will we be remembered for?
I wonder what we can learn from this story? about Jesus, about ourselves?
One thing I notice about Jesus is how aware he was of what was going on around him, he could read the signs of his impending arrest and death. He was challenging violent political power and unjust religious collaboration, that was, and still is, dangerous. We need only look at people like Oscar Romero in San Salvador, and Nelson Mandela in South Africa, people who challenged oppressive situations, and were killed or imprisoned for doing so.
Jesus also recognised the actions of those around him, he saw something in the actions of the woman, he saw devotion and discipleship where others only saw waste.
What do we learn about ourselves? This story happened in a different time and a different culture, what can we learn about ourselves.
I wonder how often we look for bad things to happen to those we consider are in our way. I remember an incident with Ice skating where one competitor’s family attacked another competitor so she was unable to compete in National Championships. I am sure we don’t do anything so obvious, but how often do we want people out of the way. The problem child in our child’s class at school, the problem person in the office?
I wonder how often we miss the generosity and beauty that is around us; because we are too busy looking for something else? In the story of the woman anointing Jesus there are some in the room more concerned about money than about devotion. In our busy lives, and these days everyone seems to be busy, I wonder what we miss out on?
And I wonder what we make of Jesus? is he is a pest to be eliminated or avoided? Is he causing us to question the way we live? Do we listen to these stories and, like the twelve, wonder what Jesus is talking about, or do we live out our faith like the woman, step out of the shadows and have the courage to do something beautiful, generous, daring;
