Wednesday, Holy Week: Anointing (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

After spending two days in the crowds, Jesus and his disciples return to Bethany, a little town not far from the city.

They are staying with Simon. Most people wouldn’t stay with Simon, or even enter his house at all. Most people, in fact, would turn away from him and keep their distance. Simon is a leper. That doesn’t seem to bother Jesus. He’s already crossed every social and political boundary he’s encountered. Now he’s eating and drinking with the outcast and unclean, threatening his own health and the health of the entire community.

As they sit down to eat, a woman comes with an alabaster jar of pure nard, a costly ointment, and pours it on Jesus’ head.

Some insight about this anointing: “Alabaster” derives its name from the Eygptian goddess Bast, often depicted as a cat or lion with a human body. As such, alabaster jars often carried the images of cats carved into their bodies. Cats were the guardians and protectors of mystery and the Otherworld, looking with guile upon a human world that could neither see nor understand the depth of their knowledge.

Nard was an expensive incense, burned in the Holy of Holies in the Temple by the high priest once a year.

Furthermore, the only people anointed were kings. In Psalm 23, when the Psalmist says, “You anoint my head with oil,” he is saying, “I am a king in your eyes.”

In other words, this unnamed woman comes, and makes Jesus her king, high priest, Holy of Holies, and guardian of the deepest mysteries. He is the bridge between all that is unclean and all that is pure. As usual, just about no one else in the place understands this, and once again, they start talking about money.

Judas Iscariot, however, does understand. He understands all too well that this is dangerous business. He immediately seeks a way to end the revolution that could otherwise kill them all.

Text for the day:

Mark 14:3-11

Things to think about:

Who do you say Jesus is?

Things to do:

Meditate about money and mystery. What place do they hold in your life?

Jesus, be ruler of it all.

Friday, week two: Touching the untouchable (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

A leper approaches Jesus. He kneels before Jesus, begging, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”

Lepers were outcasts. They were Jews considered unclean and forbidden from entering every place people gathered. Keeping them outside of community was one way to keep the rest of the people well.

Jesus has healed those in the inner circles of the Jewish towns around Galilee. He has demonstrated power and authority in the world of Jewish men and women in community.

Now he is moved to pity one who is excluded from that community. Jesus is moved with pity for one who lives on the fringe. And he does the unthinkable. Jesus reaches out and touches him. He risks his own health and status in the community to restore the leper to all that has been lost.

Upon touching him, Jesus warns him not to tell anyone, but to follow the community’s procedure for being restored to fellowship. He tells him to submit to examination by the priest and follow the rituals for cleansing. Instead, he goes out and proclaims what Jesus has done to anyone and everyone who will listen.

The leper’s proclamation makes it impossible for Jesus to enter any town. There are two possible reasons for this: First, he may be unable to enter any town because he is so popular that everyone flocks to him to hear his teaching and be healed and restored. The other possibility is that touching the leper had made him unclean.

People flock to him anyway, even if he is unclean.  They simply don’t care. He stays out in the country, like one unclean, whether he is or not, and people come to him from every direction. He has power and authority over everything in their religious world and they want what he has to offer.

Text for the day:

Mark 1:40-45

Things to think about:

Every religion has rules that keep people in and out. Jesus lives in both places.

Things to do:

Who do you consider outcast? Who isn’t welcome in your church? Have a conversation with someone who comes to mind. Ask them to share their story with you. Can you withhold your judgments?

Jesus, help me break the rules for someone else’s sake.