The Scripture this week is John 12:1-8. The Chosen (Season 4, Episode 8) covers this scripture as well as the Sheep and the Goats from Matthew 25:31-46 heard on Christ the King Sunday in Year A.
Tomb, Perfume, Feet, Devil – John 12:1-8
John’s Gospel is a collection of signs and symbols. In particular, John 12, Mary Annoints Jesus at Bethany, in this week before Palm Sunday and Passover concentrates on life and death. Take four seemingly unconnected words – Tomb, Perfume, Feet, and Devil within this scripture and their meanings are intertwined:
1 Tomb – Passover is near, and so too is Jesus’ “hour” (see 13:1). He spends time with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus soon after the pivotal scene of Lazarus’s revivification (11:1-44). That is the “sign” that brings many to believe in him (11:45; 12:9-11), many to flock to him (12:17-19), and others to plot his death (11:47-53). When Jesus mentions his burial in 12:7, this confirms that his end is coming. Yet Lazarus’s presence at the table confirms that death does not speak the final word.
2 Perfume. Jesus forges the connection between the anointing and his burial in 12:7 Jesus suggests that Mary’s keeping the perfume in her possession and using it on him now have consequently achieved a greater, more meaningful purpose that she perhaps intended: announcing the nearness of Jesus’ death and preparing for his burial.
3 Feet – Mary’s wiping of Jesus’ feet prefigures the time when he will wipe the feet of his disciples (13:5). This reveals her as a model disciple, for the washing and wiping of feet expresses a unity with Jesus (13:8) and reflects his command (13:14-15).
4 Devil – Readers know from 6:70-71 that Judas is “a devil,” but John chooses this point in the narrative to reveal him as a thief (compare 13:29).
Back to the words. You can connect the following-
Tomb and perfume – The sweet smell of Mary’s perfume counters the stench of Lazarus’s tomb (11:39). Life and death, wholeness and corruption remain contrasted throughout both scenes.
Feet and Devil represent the contrast between Mary and Judas This creates a clear opposition between him and Mary. He is false; she is true. He is greedy and self-serving; she is generous and ebullient in devotion.
John 12:1-8
John 12:1-8 tells of the anointing at Bethany. In John’s version, this is Mary, of Mary and Martha (in Mark and Luke the woman is unnamed, and in Luke she is a “sinner”), who chooses to anoint Jesus. This is Mary who witnessed Jesus raise her brother Lazarus from the dead.
Sunday Links, Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 30
Recent Articles, Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 30, 2025
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Lectionary – Lent 4 Year C
Lent 4 is “Mothering Sunday”
Commentary – Lent 4, Year C
Visual Lectionary Lent 4, March 30, 2025
Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son
Focusing on the Prodigal Son
Growing up in Christ! Atlanta, Part 4 – Empathy
So How is Your Lent Going ?
LENT BASICS
“Lent, for me, is the season where God works through me, alongside me, and for me to help me shed the accreted layers of pride…a practice of humility…“Lent demands a rigorous assessment of my life in relationship with God.” – Rev. Michael Byrd, Vicar, Trinity Episcopal, New York
The Call to a Holy Lent
Origins of Lent
Introduction to Lent, 2024
Lent – From Ashes to Alleluias
Season of Lent
Facts about Lent
5 Lenten Questions – Diocese of Atlanta
Voices of Lent
EIGHT LENTEN PRACTICES
“I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 265)
What are these practices?
1. Prayer during Lent
2. Daily Readings
3. Pretzels in Lent
4. Daily Examen
5. Express Yourself
6. Reducing your carbon footprint
7. Fasting and Feasting
8. Building Happiness in Lent
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
The Stations of the Cross began as the practice of pious pilgrims to Jerusalem who would retrace the final journey of Jesus Christ to Calvary.
Later, for the many who wanted to pass along the same route, but could not make the trip to Jerusalem, a practice developed that eventually took the form of the fourteen stations currently found in almost every church. Many explore the stations on Good Friday.
3 versions of the stations
1. VTS version – video and reflection guide
2. Mary Peterman – paintings
3. Creighton – Catholic version
Growing up in Christ! A Lenten series from the Diocese of Atlanta, Part 3 – Curiousity
“To grow up in Christ takes curiosity. Moses was a felon on the run from Egypt. But now, he’s a husband, father and gainfully employed in his father-in-law’s livestock business. Life is good. That’s when everything changed. He saw a burning bush in the distance so, “he went over to see this strange sight.” And then, “God saw that Moses went over to look and called him by his name.” Moses’ curiosity was the precondition for a conversation with God that changed Moses’ life and human history. Moses’ curiosity was the delivery system for God’s disclosure of God’s self! And, that is still the pattern for spiritual growth and maturity today.
“When I say curiosity, I mean the desire to learn, know and to grow. What part of the faith life are you curious about? Curiosity is the equivalent of saying, ‘God you are interesting, I want to know you more. I want to know how you do things. I want to know if I can really trust you.’ Curiosity stretches the soul and keeps spiritual rigor mortis at bay. When you think about it, that the God of all the universes wants to meet you in your specific questions and wonderings is mind- boggling. Maybe more than ever, in our 24-hour-always-breaking-news and increasingly biblically illiterate world, more godly curiosity is exactly what we need.
“Notice this, Moses’ curiosity is rewarded with a relationship not simply information. Our curiosity has to be lived. Curiosity should cause us to live differently on the way to getting new understanding. We grow as we go. It is curiosity that frees us to live into the mystery of God and saves us from dry dogma and rigid religion. It is Godly curiosity that helps us see the majesty of God and delivers us to authentic worship. That is what happened to Moses that day at work. Wonder became worship. Years later, when Moses finally saw his people walk out of 400 years of slavery, I’ll just bet he was glad he had been curious.”
Exodus 3:1-15
Part 1 of this series
Part 2 of this series
Lectionary – Lent 4, Year C
I. Theme – Our individual and collective reconciliation with God
“Return of the Prodigal Son” – Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1667-1670)
“He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'”
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Joshua 5:9-12 Psalm – Psalm 32 Epistle – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Gospel – Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Today’s readings invite us into the welcoming, forgiving arms of our loving God. In Joshua, the people of Israel celebrate their home-coming in the promised land, eating, for the first time, of the produce of Canaan. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes our reconciliation to God in and through Christ. The gospel story tells of a father’s prodigal love for his lost sons.
Although the focus shifts just a little bit, to themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. . This week’s readings, however, bring together the individual and the communal. Our reconciliation with God leads us into the “ministry of reconciliation.” Our forgiveness brings wholeness, not just to ourselves, but to others through us. This connection between the “me” and the “we” is such an important theme of the Gospel, and a good place to linger in this week’s worship, while also looking at the implications of the practice of forgiveness for justice in our world.
The theme this week stands out very clearly in these readings – God removes disgrace; God forgives and restores; the prodigal is welcomed home and reconciled to his family; God reconciles us to God’s Self, and to each other, and we are called to do the same. Forgiveness flows from God’s infinite and unconditional grace, and is received through honest confession and repentance. But reconciliation with God, as much as it brings personal healing and restoration, is not only personal. It is also social, drawing us back into reconciliation with others, and into passing on to others the healing and grace we have received
We should seek restoration in the world this week in nature. Be alert to God’s enlivening activity in the world. Look for signs of spring in the most unexpected places, even in the valley of the shadow of death. Bring pussy willows and forsythia branches into the warmth of your home, and enjoy new life as they bloom. Listen as every branch and petal proclaims the good news of the Gospel: that life has put death to death, love has conquered violence, God is our shepherd and a whole new world is possible.