St. John’s Lutheran Church
6 April 2025 + Lent 5c
John 12:1-8
The Rev. Josh Evans
Pop quiz!
The woman who anoints Jesus is…
A) Mary Magdalene
B) Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha
C) Mary, the mother of James
D) an unknown woman
E) all of the above
There’s technically no wrong answer
because the answer is indeed…
E) all of the above.
It’s a story found in all four gospels –
all of which tell the story differently.
If you were in Bible study last week,
you know exactly what I’m talking about.
In Mark (14), the oldest gospel and first to be written down,
the scene takes place during the events of Holy Week,
in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper.
An unknown, unnamed woman anoints Jesus’ head,
and without skipping a beat,
the rest of the dinner party starts to make a fuss about it:
“Why was the ointment wasted in this way?
For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii
and the money given to the poor.”
The woman is silent,
but Jesus rushes to her defense:
“Let her alone; why do you trouble her?
She has performed a good service for me…
She has done what she could;
she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.”
Matthew (26) pretty much tells the same story,
only replacing the unnamed dinner party guests for Jesus’ disciples,
who object to the woman’s seeming wastefulness.
Meanwhile, by the time we get to John (12),
our scene has changed quite dramatically –
still in Bethany, in the home not of Simon
but of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus,
who, one chapter before, Jesus has just brought back to life.
It is no longer an unnamed, anonymous woman
who anoints Jesus’ head,
but his dear friend, Lazarus’ sister, Mary
who anoints Jesus’ feet
and wipes them with her hair.
And it is no longer “the disciples” at large who complain,
but Judas – that Judas – whom John singles out, as John so often does.
So which one is right? (And are the others wrong?)
Maybe…it happened more than once.
The most compelling case for multiple anointings comes from Luke,
whose timing of the story is quite different –
not during Holy Week, or even in Bethany,
but months before, in Galilee,
long before Jesus starts moving toward Jerusalem.
On the one hand, it sounds like three against one…
but I’m not so sure.
Luke, by his own self-admission,
is a thorough investigative reporter
whose gospel is, in his words, “a well-ordered account” (Luke 1:3).
In Luke (7), we are still in Simon’s house –
but a Pharisee, not a leper.
The woman is still unnamed –
though with the distinction of being “a sinner.”
And there is still grumbling among the witnesses –
only Simon’s silent mumbling to himself,
not out loud, except apparently still just barely audible enough
for Jesus to hear it before he responds.
It is also from Luke that we often associate this story with Mary Magdalene,
even though she never appears in Luke’s version – or any version – by name,
and, in fact, it is not until the next chapter
when she is named
among a handful of women who followed and supported Jesus.
“But wait, Pastor Josh,
wasn’t option A in the pop quiz Mary Magdalene,
and didn’t you just say there are no wrong answers?”
Correct.
Because in fact there is yet a fifth anointing,
the second in Mark’s gospel,
when three named women –
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salóme –
come to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus’ body –
except they’re too late –
Jesus has already been anointed in Bethany –
not to mention there’s no body to anoint
because “he is not here!”
Are you dizzy yet?
Welcome to Biblical Studies 101.
New Testament scholar Dr. Amy-Jill Levine,
better known to some of us as “AJ,” reminds us,
“The Gospel writers sing the good news with their own rhythms,
and we should appreciate them all.” [1]
Yes, there are four different versions of the same story –
or maybe four different instances of a similar event.
But we need not compare and contrast them
to determine who’s right and who’s wrong.
At the same time, we also shouldn’t conflate the stories to tell our own version
in order to advance our own agenda –
I’m looking at you, Pope Gregory I,
who decided these stories are all about Mary Magdalene,
who must be a prostitute,
when, in fact, none of that is biblical.
But we can take the variety of the biblical witness as a gift.
Diversity is a good thing!
These stories of the woman –
or women, some named, some unnamed –
who anoint Jesus
open the door for us to examine the stories of all the women –
named and unnamed –
who followed Jesus,
many of whom appeared to have the means
to financially support his ministry.
They weren’t there to escape a repressive religious culture,
nor out of necessity because they had nowhere else to go.
They were there because they wanted to be there –
and because they thought Jesus had a message worth believing and supporting.
These stories also invite us
to explore our own faith stories –
and I want us to take time to do just that this morning.
Why do we follow Jesus?
What about the Jesus story and movement compels us to follow?
In Mark and Matthew’s telling of the story, Jesus remarks,
“Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world,
what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
(Mark 14:9; Matthew 26:13)
Who do you remember when you remember your own story of this good news?
The teachers, mentors, preachers, friends, parents, and caregivers
who have helped you along the way?
Who has supported you in pivotal moments,
like Mary of Bethany supports Jesus
and “loves him into his future,” as one writer puts it, [2]
whose act of beauty and devotion and love
blesses him with grace and the strength he needs
to face his coming passion?
Who has loved you into your future like that?
Wherever the good news is proclaimed,
we remember and we tell these stories.
Let us pray:
God who blesses us with community,
We give thanks for the people whose names we have spoken.
We give thanks that we do not walk this Lenten journey alone.
And we pray that we may take the risk of blessing as well.
In Jesus’ name. Amen. [3]
[1] Amy-Jill Levine, Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2018), 105
[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/loved-into-future
[3] Prayer from Alex Joyner, Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week—Leader Guide (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2018), 46.
