Acts of Kindness

The Gospel for Monday of Holy Week (John 12:1-11) is about a party at Mary, Martha, and Lazarus’ home and is the last party Jesus will attend. No one know that of course. I’m sure it was a party though, because John tells us the dinner is in Jesus’ honor. And he tells us that Lazarus is one of those at the table. Seems clear to me they are celebrating Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead. And what a wonderful party it must have been. I bet Mary and Martha pulled out all the stops.

Mary is so full of joy she doesn’t just wash Jesus’ feet as was the custom, she anoints his feet with a perfume made from pure nard. The 300 denarii cost that Judas complains about is a huge sum. It is a year’s pay for a typical laborer or for a Roman centurion. As John told us when he recounted the raising of Lazarus, the behind the scenes story, was that this was the event that sealed Jesus’ fate. Because so many of the locals began to believe Jesus was the Messiah after this and began to listen to him and pull away from the old ways, the rulers decided they couldn’t put up with Jesus any longer. In today’s reading John tells us that those same rulers had decided they had to put Lazarus to death as well because of the big crowd that turned out to see him at this party.

It is hard not to think of this story placed here at the beginning of Holy Week as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death. Mary, Martha and Lazarus don’t think that, though. They are caught up in the joy of the moment. And in that joy, Mary shows her devotion and love for Jesus in a spontaneous outpouring, literally. It is a beautiful and simple act. Mary doesn’t realize as she lavishes her affection on Jesus is that in just a few days, she would also will be involved in anointing his dead body too. But it doesn’t matter.

“That Mary anointed Jesus for burial unwittingly doesn’t rob the event of its meaning. In fact, that she did so unwittingly may even deepen the significance of her act. It is God’s gift added to our simple acts that often elevates them to a place of grander purpose”[1] than we could ever imagine. Just recently I had a former therapy student of mine tell me that she still uses a long list of what I call Harber’s Dictums, such as, “You can look back. Just don’t stare.” And, “What matters is what you do next.” Little did I imagine when she first heard me use those with troubled people that she would take them up and use them to help dozens, maybe scores of people whom I would never meet.

It reminded me of a women who had once been in one of my communication skill worshops, who years later bumped into me at a wedding. She went on at some length about how what she had learned that day had turned her relationship with her children 180 degrees and that she still enjoyed a wonderful relationship with them as adults.
I tell you these things to get you thinking about simple acts of kindness you’ve engaged in during your life. You did them simply to be nice or to be helpful or loving. You may never have thought of them again, but God was able to give them significance in someone’s life beyond anything you could have imagined.

Let us all be like Mary and lavish our attention on others. Because for all we know, it may be the last nice thing done for them. And for all we know, it may be an act that is remembered and repeated for years and years as one person gives away what you gave to them.

[1] Preaching Through the Christian Year A. Craddock, et. al. p.194.