Lent: Wednesday

April 3
Wednesday
Mark 14: 1-11

Intro
Lent-last week Tuesday-importance of learning-focused on one story-money-collaboration with the empire-are you starting to see the pattern? Today is no different.

Let’s take a look:

Mark 14: 1-11

1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

Markean Frame:
Need for a traitor-what would the frame end with? The provision of a traitor. So the story in between is some how related.

At this point to it’s important to note that the people still love Jesus. This is Wednesdday. How does Jesus go from being so loved on Wednesday to the point that the chief priests and teachers are afraid the crowd will riot to shouting crucify him on Friday? Have you given any thought to this?

3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

And here we are 2,000 years later reading and sharing this story, in memory of her. Why? What is so special about this woman that Jesus calls her to our attention? She is the first Christian-the first one who understands that he will die-Immense faith of the woman.

10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

A little about this story in other gospels:
Matthew & Mark place this event just before the Last Supper, John a week before the triumphal entry and in John Judas is the naysayer, and Luke records a similar story early in his gospel. Mark uses this story to give us another frame-we talked about the Markean frame with the fig tree. The idea that Mark groups similar stories together with bookends. Here you have the need for a traitor, story of the unnamed woman, the advent of a traitor.

Several different theories exist as to why Judas betrays Jesus as a result of this story. I’m only going to touch on two
One side, which we can easily relate to, says:

The simple extravagant act of anointing Jesus, though wasting a year’s wages worth of perfume, resulted in a lasting legacy. Like our permanent fund and the other funds that have been left to the church and other organizations. A lasting legacy has been left from that person’s life. Their generous gift continues to further the work of ministries like Mobile Meals, Habitat, and First Christian El Reno. Everyone sitting in this room has benefitted from those generous and lasting donations.

Judas was particularly irritated with Miriam’s anointing act. Jesus’ response irritated him even more. To Judas, the notion of Jesus going off to find martyrdom was no different than the wasted perfume. Wasted opportunity. Wasted resources. Three years of his own life wasted following a would-be Messiah, who given the opportunity to really accomplish something, was about to throw it all away.

Unable to endure such foolishness any longer, Judas goes to the Temple authorities and arranges to betray Jesus into their hands.

This makes sense. When we feel our time has been wasted, when we feel betrayed and used we can easily turn on our so called friends. And according to the Bible and many scholars, Judas wasn’t exactly the best of guys any way. So why would we expect anything less than betrayal? This is one side of the argument. What about the other?

Well, I’m what you might call a Judas sympathizer. I really think that Judas has gotten the bum wrap in the scriptures and commentaries of the years. That’s why I’d like to offer another possibility.

Consider this:
Mark never mentions Judas’ motives, but identifies him as Judas-one of the twelve. Judas doesn’t ask for money, they promise to give it to him. And if you are skimming off the top as pointed out in John 12, why would you want to mess up a good thing? 30 pieces of silver wasn’t very much money-approx $15 according to one source. We even remember that Judas tries to give the money back. And then what happens to Judas? Hangs himself. Are those the actions of a man with no regret?

What if we thought about Judas’ actions this way? Judas’ betrayal is simply the worst example of how those closest to Jesus failed him dismally in Jerusalem. The traitor has entered into an agreement with those who collaborate with imperial rule.

Maybe Judas was simply tired of hearing Jesus talk about dying and Judas was trying to force Jesus’ hand to be the conquering Messiah that was promised, not the suffering and dying one Jesus kept talking about.

Or what what if it just got too hard for Judas? What if being a follower of Jesus as the sacrificial Messiah was more than Judas could bear?

I think Judas thought that path was going to be hard for him. I think this is nothing more than ultimate failing. As we continue our Lenten journey, ask yourself-how willing are you to follow Jesus-will you quit when the going gets tough? Maybe a better way to ask-for what have you betrayed Jesus? We have all been Judas in some way-betraying Jesus. Maybe that’s why I’m a Judas sympathizer.

Haven’t you felt that way? That life was more than you could handle? Maybe it was a job, an illness, or school, or a relationship, or a death. It all just got too hard and so you quit. I know that when I watch the Olympics and the amazing things they do-I think how do they do that? How does Michael Phelps win 14 gold medals-8 in one Olympics. That’s impossible.

I found a clip to help illustrate a possible answer-it’s from A League of their Own-a movie about the female baseball league that started during WWII.

And that’s the difference. Michael Phelps and other people like him didn’t quit. They kept going. And so now I sit at home and watch them compete at the Olympics believing it to be impossible.

We would like to avoid the implications of this journey with Jesus. We would like its Holy Week conclusion to be about the interior rather than the exterior life, about heaven rather than earth, about the future rather than the present and about religion safely and securely quarantined form politics.

We want our experience of Jesus to be untainted by the outside world and be a more internal spiritual encounter. The temptation is clinging to a faith that doesn’t make waves. WE want to celebrate our spiritual life away from our normal life. But we can’t.

Our faith and our life cannot be split apart. Jesus is what gets inside you, it’s what lights you up. If being a follower of Jesus was easy everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.