Lent 5 - Ungrateful

04.03.2022

Scripture: John 12:1-8

John 12:1–8 NRSV

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 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. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (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.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

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The First Supper after the Last Supper

For many of us, our last supper probably will look less like the one Jesus had and more like a bowl of broth. If we live long enough to be taken by either illness or age, we probably won’t have or even want a big fancy meal. In fact, the whole idea of a “Last Supper” is often reserved for those who are condemned to death. Technically, everyone has a last supper, but it is not usually something we look forward to with great excitement.

The dinner party in our story today is not a "last supper". It is far rarer and more exciting than that. This was the supper that happened after the last supper. Rather than wondering what you would like for your last meal on earth, the question for this meal was, "What would you like for your first meal after you died and came back from the dead?" Lazarus could have had a wonderful party celebrating his return to life among the living. Instead, he threw a party for Jesus.

That is like having a near-death experience, coding, heart-stopped, breathing stopped, the EMT's getting those defibrillator paddles out and shocking you back to life. Then, the next day or week, whenever you make it back home, you celebrate by throwing a party for that medical personnel that saved you from death. Often we don't think about coming back to thank them. Sometimes we don't even get their names. We expect our insurance money covers that and our medical bill payments to cover the rest.

But there is no gratitude there. We pay them and they serve us. It doesn't matter if they are bagging our groceries or saving our lives, we have a system that is set up to teach us to be ungrateful.

Our passage today shows us another way though. Through a family that has a profound understanding of what gratitude is and how it shapes every day of their lives, we will learn to see the world through grateful eyes, and this gratitude then helps us see like Jesus.

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Everything to Lose

John gives us Mary, Martha, and Lazarus like some kind of Jewish sitcom. Three unmarried siblings, living together to support one another. Jesus comes to visit them at their house and becomes good friends with them. Martha is the responsible one who always has to be doing something, cleaning something, cooking something, and making sure everyone is cared for during that first dinner party they threw in honor of Jesus. Lazarus was hanging out with the guys and Mary, awkward Mary was just trying to get as close to Jesus as possible.

About fifteen years ago, I took a group of kids from my church to a kids ministry event led by one of the top praise teams in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. Now, I had been to youth concerts and one thing I discovered is that many of the teenagers would try to sit in the back at those events so they could socialize and get into minor mischief. This particular event though was made for elementary-aged kids, and they acted very differently. They were in the front row, jumping, clapping, singing, and having a great time and the energy was intoxicating to the praise band. It started off awesome.

Then things took a different turn. You see, there was no fence or wall between the praise band and the kids, they were up on a raised platform in the sanctuary, so the kids got it in their heads that they wanted to join the band up front. They were literally crawling up the stage just trying to touch the guitar players and it was very apparent that the worship energy was not directed to God. They were kids though, and they didn't know better, and they had never experienced church music with anything other than a piano or a pipe organ. Southern Gospel and Camp songs were not a part of their experience yet. I felt bad for the band though, because they were doing a wonderful job leading the kids at their level, but they were taken by surprise by this one group of kids from pastor Tony's church. It was awkward.

That is how everyone felt about Mary. Mary, we worship God, not people. Why are you so fixated on Jesus?

Then, Lazarus, her brother got sick and they called for Jesus. He didn't come. Lazarus got worse, and still, Jesus was not there. By the time Jesus showed up, Lazarus had already been dead and in the family tomb for four days. First Martha came to see Jesus, and then she went back for Mary. While Martha stood back to talk to Jesus, Mary was again at his feet, both sisters saying the same thing,

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

And there as she wept, Jesus was overcome and he wept with her. Everyone thought he was weeping about Lazarus. Go back and check that story out again for yourself.

Then Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, out of the grip of death, back into the light and the life that is only found in Christ.

This catches us up to our story today. This was the dinner party that Lazarus threw for Jesus because Jesus gave him the opportunity to have many more suppers after his own last supper. Mary could have walked tall with her head held high that her brother was one of the few that Jesus brought back from the dead. Yet there was no pride in her at all. Instead, she, who had lost so much, took this burial perfume, perhaps meant to be used on Lazarus, certainly worth more than what she would have inherited, and dumped it out on the feet of Jesus and wiped it on him with her hair. She had everything to lose and there she was losing it all over again, going back to being awkward Mary all over again, and she didn't care a bit. She was overcome with gratitude.

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Nothing to Lose

But there was more than just Mary, Martha, and Lazarus there with Jesus. Jesus had His disciples with Him. Peter, James, John, and the rest of them trying to hold back their amazement that Lazarus was really back among the living. Then there was Judas. He is the opposite of Mary, especially when it comes to gratitude. He had been chosen by Jesus as one of the Twelve. He likely preached and taught, healed, and cast out demons. Jesus called him to be a leader among those who ushered in the Kingdom of God to the entire world, and he apparently had the special role of caring for the collective purse for Jesus and the Twelve.

He may not have been Peter, but he had a special place set aside for him. He had so much given to him, and yet he felt as if he were always lacking. He stole from the common purse he carried. Why steal when all you have to do is ask? What unmet needs did Judas have, even before he was considering betraying Jesus?

No matter how much he received, Judas acted as if he had nothing to lose. The trouble is, if you have nothing to lose then you have nothing to give.

Judas was concerned about the wasteful use of expensive perfume and tried to justify his attitude by pointing out the possibility of using that wealth to give to the poor. Judas stood back and complained about the way Mary was spending her money, and it wasn't his money to do anything with. In fact, it really wasn't money at all. It was burial perfume. By focusing on the money aspect, Judas missed the symbolic aspect of Jesus taking on death in the place of Lazarus, and for all of us as well. Judas missed that, acting as if he had nothing to give because he had nothing to lose.

Gratitude is not about the ability to give. It is about the ability to lose and choosing to give anyway. It is the why behind intentional sacrifice. From the widow’s mite to Jesus laying down his life on the cross, every act of gratitude to God inspires us to lose more because we are grateful for what God has already done for us, and then it inspires us to have faith in God that He is not finished with us. God has more in store. When Jesus said “it is finished” with His last breaths, He was talking about the power of sin and death over us. God was not finished. Jesus was not finished. He was coming back for more.

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What are you willing to lose for Jesus?

The day after this dinner party, Jesus would begin preparations for His own last supper. He began It by telling his disciples:

John 12:24–25 NRSV

24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

The seed that must die and be buried shows how offering our lives up in gratitude, as faithful followers of Jesus, is the only way to be truly fruitful.

The men and women in the room with Jesus would not live to have or see their grandchildren. They would die without land or political power. Those who did not die within the first few years would spend much of their lives persecuted by their governments, and their neighbors, and would end up in prisons all over the Roman Empire. As they gathered around the table with Jesus, each one of them was invited to take their inheritance, their futures, and hand them over to Jesus while they were still alive. They trusted Jesus, that He would not run off like the prodigal son and waste their lives unfaithfully. They had seen Jesus defeat death in Lazarus, and they were learning to see that they could lose everything for Him, and still come out better than they would ever be on their own.

Would you join them at that dinner party?

Would you offer up your life and your all to Jesus while you still have life left to give?

What are you willing to lose for Jesus so that you can see the way to a grateful, faithful, and fruitful life?

Communion – The Great Thanksgiving II

Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him,

who earnestly repent of their sin

and seek to live in peace with one another.

Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another.

Merciful God,

we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have failed to be an obedient church.

We have not done your will,

we have broken your law,

we have rebelled against your love,

we have not loved our neighbors,

and we have not heard the cry of the needy.

Forgive us, we pray.

Free us for joyful obedience,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hear the good news:

Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;

that proves God's love toward us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

Glory to God. Amen.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,

Always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

And so,

With your people on earth

And all the company of heaven

We praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection

you gave birth to your church,

delivered us from slavery to sin and death, And made with us a new covenant

by water and the Spirit.

On the night to which he gave himself up for us

he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread,

gave it to his disciples, and said;

“Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

When the supper was over, he took the cup,

gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

“Drink from this, all of you

this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it,

in remembrance of me.”

And so,

In remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving,

as a holy and living sacrifice,

in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,

and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ,

redeemed by his blood.”

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other,

and one in ministry to all the world,

until Christ comes in final victory,

and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ,

with the Holy Spirit in your holy church,

all honor and glory is your, almighty Father,

now and for ever.

Amen

The body of Christ, given for you. Amen.

The blood of Christ, given for you. Amen.