Mark 14:1-9

by loisem

A Lenten Parable in Response to Mark 14:1-9

Breaking an expensive jar of perfume and pouring the precious liquid over Jesus’ head is an extravagant act. The jar is shattered; the precious perfume is soaking into the soil at Jesus’ feet. That perfume is worth over a year’s wages, perhaps $50-$60,000 in today’s economy. That money could build a house for Habitat or feed hundreds of children through World Vision. It could fund the travel of Jesus’ disciplines as they disperse to spread the gospel. Why would Jesus commend a person for this impulsive, irresponsible and wanton act of extravagance?

If the woman could find a jar of perfume worth a year’s wages, she probably was not going to acutely miss the money invested in this gift of perfume; this is not a story of sacrificing self for others.  Moreover, she was not acting to meet another human’s acute needs, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the cold, and healing the sick; this is not a story of compassion or justice for others.

This is a story of loving with abandon, from a place of infinite abundance.

God created the earth with abundance—fruits, vegetables, fish and animals for food; trees, minerals, mud, and wool for comfort. “Go!” God said, “Give with abandon and live in abundance!”

But God’s people could not trust this wealth and hoarded the gifts of survival. At first they were greedy; they wanted more of God’s gifts. Then the people were fearful. Others might take God’s gifts away, and the people would have none. So, they scavenged God’s gifts and hoarded their supplies. When their stores were overflowing and God thought they had nothing to fear, the people found they enjoyed their gifts more when others had less. In some bizarre inversion of God’s plan, the value of God’s gifts increased, it seemed, when people made access to the gifts scarce.  God cried in frustration and despair. Perhaps this is when God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden of abundance.

But being a God of giving and abundance, God could not turn Adam and Eve’s people out of the garden with no supplies, so God gave the people infinite gifts that never ran out. In a rash act of abandon and abundance, God filled the people with love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude. “This will teach the people that I will always provide,” declared God, ”for love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude are by definition endless! At last, the people will learn.”

But alas, the people were slow to learn and the cycle repeated. At first they were greedy; they wanted more love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude. They tried to coerce others to love them. They transgressed relentlessly and asked for forgiveness again and again and again. They withheld their giving in order to demand greater and greater gratitude. Once again, they became fearful that others would take God’s gifts away and they would have none. They scavenged for love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude and hoarded their supplies. These gifts were no longer freely given, as love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude became conditional. When their stores were overflowing and God thought they had nothing to fear, the people found that these gifts, too, were more enjoyable when others had less. They actively deprived their neighbors, their co-workers, even their own families, of love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude.

And so it was that God sent Christ to pour love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude over all the earth. But it was not to be. “It is wasteful,” the people shouted. They rebuked him for his extravagance, and hid behind their righteous piety: “Those gifts could be used for the poor.” The people were set in their greedy, fearful, and vindictive ways, and this Christ must die for his wanton extravagance. It was at that time that a nameless woman, who remembered how to give with abandon and live with abundance, broke a jar of perfume and poured it over Christ’s head.  Christ said, ”…wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told, in memory of her.”  And so it was that giving with abandon and living with abundance lived on in her memory, for she alone had acted with extravagance before God.

Prayer: Gracious and giving God, help us to use this Lenten season to prepare ourselves for your ultimate gift of abandon and abundance, the gift of Easter. Help us to receive this gift and learn to live our lives pouring out our love, mercy, forgiveness and gratitude with extravagance.  Let us, “Go! Giving with abandon and living with abundance.”

                                                                                 —Deirdre Johnston