Isaiah 50:5-10/1 Peter 2:21-24/St John 12:1-43
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Holy Week has begun. We are gathered with the Twelve around the table of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, their brother, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. The air is thick with a sense of departure and dismissal, not unlike when a son or daughter, is preparing to be deployed to battle; in all likelihood, they go to their death.
But Mary is the only one who seems to understand this. She knows Jesus’ death is imminent. Her sister prepares the Sabbath dinner. It will be His last. Lazarus, loosed from the chains of death, reclines with He who is the Resurrection and the Life. Mary, in her love for the Master, gave the best that she had: she anointed His feet with a very costly oil and wiped them with her hair. The entire house, blessed with our Lord’s presence, was filled with the fragrance.
Judas was correct. It was “a waste.” Yet there is a type of ‘wastefulness’ our Lord loves. An extravagance that flows from a heart that wants to do all for Him. Such wastefulness is greater than all calculating wisdom, which thinks about losses and gains, risks and merits. Judas mentions the poor. And we cannot overlook them; the Church is obliged to care for the poor. Yet Jesus’ affirms Mary in her deed.
For there is a wastefulness of love, a joyful extravagance, which gives its best to Jesus. We have a right to “squander” our time, in a way, when it comes to listening to His Word, as Mary did, when she sat at His feet, though there was much to do at home.
So it is for you this night and throughout Holy Week. You do not come here, primary, to give, but to receive; just as the believing Greeks wished to see Jesus. Yet even in this there is a “squandering” of time. There is much to be done at home, to be sure, yet you have chosen the better portion - to sit at the feet of Jesus, those beautiful feet that bring the Good News of the Father’s love, those feet that shall be pierced through and nailed to the Tree. Take you place, then, next to the Magdalene, and live from His extravagant love and ‘wastefulness’ in offering up His life for you.
Drown the Judas of the old man in baptism; beat him down and subdue him by daily contrition and repentance, in order that the new man may emerge by grace to live before God in the forgiveness that declares you to be pure and holy.
For the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. His glory comes not in His triumphal entry as heralded King. Rather, the glory of Jesus comes in Him mounting the throne of the Cross and dying for the sins of the world.
The Father glorified the Name in the Incarnation. There the Son, the exact imprint of the Father, took up flesh in the womb of the Virgin and received the Name above all names - as you heard yesterday from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The name Jesus reveals the glory of God. He is named Jesus, for He will saved His people from their sins.
The Incarnation set our Lord on His great course of redemption. This is why we bow at that section in the Nicene Creed, yet stand at the confession of the suffering and crucifixion. For this purpose He came to this hour. Mary confessed this with the pouring of the expensive nard. She rejoiced in the path that the Lord Jesus had chosen and the cup that He would drink for her. The Son of Man is glorified, and the Father is glorified in Him, by being lifted up from the earth.
The Gentiles asked to see Jesus. If you would see Him, if your would behold Jesus, behold Him there, lifted up in agony and suffering upon the Cross. For there, and there alone, you might gaze upon God’s glory and not be destroyed. For in gazing upon the crucified Christ you gaze upon where and how He was destroyed for you.
There you look into the things that the prophets longed to see and kings desired. Jesus says Abraham saw His day. Perhaps it was in a vision or a dream. Perhaps it was in the prefigurement of the ram in place of Isaac. In any case, he saw it and rejoiced. St John, by the Spirit, says that Isaiah saw His glory and spoke of Him.
Indeed by the same Spirit Isaiah spoke the words read tonight, I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not My face from disgrace and spitting. He speaks of Christ Jesus! He is the Servant of the Lord who sets His face like a flint. He trusts in the Lord God who helps Him. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By grace Mary grasped this; she beheld our Lord’s glory and prepared Him for burial. Judas could not see, for his eyes were blinded and his heart hardened. May God grant you the eyes of faith that you behold the glory of His crucified Son this Holy Week and always; that you may sing with Simeon, Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.
Would you see Jesus? Would you anoint and kiss His feet? Then hear His holy passion and see Him upon the Cross. Here is the fruit borne of He who is the Seed that fell to the earth and died. Come, receive His Body and Blood in the Sacrament. Here He rides in humbly on bread and wine. Fear not, daughter of Zion. Here He gives Himself to you and for you, for the strengthening of your faith for your life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Holy Week has begun. We are gathered with the Twelve around the table of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, their brother, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. The air is thick with a sense of departure and dismissal, not unlike when a son or daughter, is preparing to be deployed to battle; in all likelihood, they go to their death.
But Mary is the only one who seems to understand this. She knows Jesus’ death is imminent. Her sister prepares the Sabbath dinner. It will be His last. Lazarus, loosed from the chains of death, reclines with He who is the Resurrection and the Life. Mary, in her love for the Master, gave the best that she had: she anointed His feet with a very costly oil and wiped them with her hair. The entire house, blessed with our Lord’s presence, was filled with the fragrance.
Judas was correct. It was “a waste.” Yet there is a type of ‘wastefulness’ our Lord loves. An extravagance that flows from a heart that wants to do all for Him. Such wastefulness is greater than all calculating wisdom, which thinks about losses and gains, risks and merits. Judas mentions the poor. And we cannot overlook them; the Church is obliged to care for the poor. Yet Jesus’ affirms Mary in her deed.
For there is a wastefulness of love, a joyful extravagance, which gives its best to Jesus. We have a right to “squander” our time, in a way, when it comes to listening to His Word, as Mary did, when she sat at His feet, though there was much to do at home.
So it is for you this night and throughout Holy Week. You do not come here, primary, to give, but to receive; just as the believing Greeks wished to see Jesus. Yet even in this there is a “squandering” of time. There is much to be done at home, to be sure, yet you have chosen the better portion - to sit at the feet of Jesus, those beautiful feet that bring the Good News of the Father’s love, those feet that shall be pierced through and nailed to the Tree. Take you place, then, next to the Magdalene, and live from His extravagant love and ‘wastefulness’ in offering up His life for you.
Drown the Judas of the old man in baptism; beat him down and subdue him by daily contrition and repentance, in order that the new man may emerge by grace to live before God in the forgiveness that declares you to be pure and holy.
For the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. His glory comes not in His triumphal entry as heralded King. Rather, the glory of Jesus comes in Him mounting the throne of the Cross and dying for the sins of the world.
The Father glorified the Name in the Incarnation. There the Son, the exact imprint of the Father, took up flesh in the womb of the Virgin and received the Name above all names - as you heard yesterday from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The name Jesus reveals the glory of God. He is named Jesus, for He will saved His people from their sins.
The Incarnation set our Lord on His great course of redemption. This is why we bow at that section in the Nicene Creed, yet stand at the confession of the suffering and crucifixion. For this purpose He came to this hour. Mary confessed this with the pouring of the expensive nard. She rejoiced in the path that the Lord Jesus had chosen and the cup that He would drink for her. The Son of Man is glorified, and the Father is glorified in Him, by being lifted up from the earth.
The Gentiles asked to see Jesus. If you would see Him, if your would behold Jesus, behold Him there, lifted up in agony and suffering upon the Cross. For there, and there alone, you might gaze upon God’s glory and not be destroyed. For in gazing upon the crucified Christ you gaze upon where and how He was destroyed for you.
There you look into the things that the prophets longed to see and kings desired. Jesus says Abraham saw His day. Perhaps it was in a vision or a dream. Perhaps it was in the prefigurement of the ram in place of Isaac. In any case, he saw it and rejoiced. St John, by the Spirit, says that Isaiah saw His glory and spoke of Him.
Indeed by the same Spirit Isaiah spoke the words read tonight, I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not My face from disgrace and spitting. He speaks of Christ Jesus! He is the Servant of the Lord who sets His face like a flint. He trusts in the Lord God who helps Him. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By grace Mary grasped this; she beheld our Lord’s glory and prepared Him for burial. Judas could not see, for his eyes were blinded and his heart hardened. May God grant you the eyes of faith that you behold the glory of His crucified Son this Holy Week and always; that you may sing with Simeon, Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.
Would you see Jesus? Would you anoint and kiss His feet? Then hear His holy passion and see Him upon the Cross. Here is the fruit borne of He who is the Seed that fell to the earth and died. Come, receive His Body and Blood in the Sacrament. Here He rides in humbly on bread and wine. Fear not, daughter of Zion. Here He gives Himself to you and for you, for the strengthening of your faith for your life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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