Lent
March 13, 2016

Scripture Reading: John 12:1-8

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ –John 12:4-8

Greed is a pandemic in our land. Judas was certainly not the first and, alas, not the last. It eats at us like little gremlins running around in our heads sending us messages that are false. It is very hard to ignore them. Truth has become whatever it is we hear reported over and over. It has little connection to actual facts but it does support our greed and lust for power. I find it interesting that fact checking has become a needed industry in our world today. Yet we readily ignore the facts they check. It forces us to be cynical, not believing much what we hear.

The sad thing is that just planting the seed of doubt in our minds may be all that is needed to shake our trust. I lived with the widely held belief that government employees are lazy and incompetent for many years while working with some of the most dedicated hardworking even sacrificial people I have ever met. Saying government is inefficient and ineffective is a means to justify “contracting” with the always smart and hardworking private sector. The “private sector” often hired those incompetent state employees and paid them more once the private company was awarded a contract because they could not do the work without the knowledge base the state employee had. Those companies also walked away from their “project” after fulfilling the letter, if not the spirit, of the contract leaving those horrid government employees to clean up the mess. I see this same distortion of fact happening in public education now.

So what does that have to do with Mary’s anointing Jesus’ feet? The fact check Mary did that drove her to this act was the one that said Jesus had confronted the seekers of greed and power using violence when necessary to get what they wanted, and his death became inevitable. Jesus got the last word though. His message of love has stood to challenge the forces of greed and power for over 2000 years.

Prayer: Lord, undergird us with your spirit of love so that we, too, can withstand the forces of evil that infect our world. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.