Lent
March 12, 2016

Scripture Reading: John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. –John 12:1-3

I was 16 years old working in a nursing home as a nurse’s aide during my summer school vacation. The patient was an elderly woman who had lived on a farm actually only a few miles from my home, but I did not know her. When I arrived at work that morning the head nurse told me the patient was near death and her family had been called. Would I go sit with here so she would not be alone until the family arrived. I sat and held her hand and massaged the back of her arm. I did not know what else to do. She had been unresponsive for a few days. I did not know if she could still hear and what would I say anyway. Her hand went even limper and I somehow just knew that she was gone. She was the first person I had ever seen die. I stayed for just a few moments more holding her hand with a sense of wonder when her son and daughter-in-law walked into the room with the head nurse. I said, “She’s gone.” Her son took her hand from me and I slipped into the background as he began his grieving vigil. It was time to let her go.

Somehow, I think Mary too knew that Jesus’ death was imminent, not from the medical signs of dying but from a keen awareness of the reality of his situation. The disciples most likely were aware of the danger also but they perhaps were in denial that their world was soon going to crash down around them.

Mary loved Jesus enough to accept him as he was; she did not try to make him into something that he was not. Our greatest gift to God is to love God as the I AM that God is, to offer our very best in praise, and to allow God to mold us to be like Jesus rather than our constantly trying to mold Jesus to be like us.

Prayer: Lord, it is very hard to give up a loved one, I cannot image how Mary must have felt as she anointed you that day. I thank you though that her story has remained so I can learn from her example of loving you completely. 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.