Judas vs Mary
My family and I have developed an Easter tradition where we open a little box each day of Holy Week with an item in it that represents part of the story and we read the corresponding scripture.
Yesterday the box held a miniature glass flask and we read a section of Mark. Here’s part of it:
Mark 14:8-10
She has done what she could; she has anointed my body in advance for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.
The Gospel of Mark puts Mary’s anointment of Jesus right in the middle of the plot to kill Jesus and Judas’s betrayal. He communicates the narrative in this way in order to make a point.
The world is a faithless place where frustrated people will do anything they can to get ahead and salvage a bad situation. Jesus didn’t fit into what Judas or the religious leaders had for a framework of what the Messiah would be. He was messing up their plans and they weren’t going to stand for it.
They took matters into their own hands. In their minds it probably made sense to step up, take advantage of the situation, make the hard decision and do what needed to be done.
They may have even felt led by God to choose what they did and told each other “I feel a peace about following this course of action, it makes sense”.
Whereas, Mary did what didn’t make sense. She poured out the wages equivalent to a year of life in a minute. Then it was gone. It could not be gathered again.
Why does Jesus make a point to tell her that this will be told throughout the world?
Because she seems, in faith, to understand that the Gospel is about suffering and sacrifice.
The Gospel is not about our agenda.
I am challenged to live a life of faith even if from the outside it doesn’t make sense.
How will you live today?