Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came,
not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus,
whom he had raised from the dead.
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,
because many of the Jews were turning away
and believing in Jesus because of him.
Once again Jesus is in the presence of Matha, Mary and Lazarus. Lazarus is reclined at table with Jesus and Mary is washing Jesus’ feet with fine oils. Judas criticizes Mary for wasting money on ointment for Jesus’ feet which could have been used on improving the plight of the poor. But the reading suggests that Judas has no concern for the poor. He would have pocketed the money given the opportunity but acted like it went to the poor. To zoom out on Judas’ actions, one could interpret them as the times we act to feed our ego but pretend that the action was motivated by charity or thoughtfulness. What do I mean by the ego? It is all that is not divine. Russel Brand explores this in this snippet. Russell Brand: When the bible says to worship no other Gods than me, the implication I offer is we are a species that worships and if you do not access the divine, you will worship the mundial. You will worship the profane. You will worship your own identity. You will worship your belongings. You will worship the template laid before you by a culture that wants you… not wants you…that gets you distracted and relatively dumb. Focussing on God’s direction for me by exploring the Gospel each morning, is like the tonic that protects me from a culture that is constantly trying to distract me and me dumb.
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