In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
My beloved, today, we take a moment to reflect on the events that the Church places for us in the calendar of Holy Pascha on this day of Wednesday. Today, the Church places before us two very specific characters, two characters that, when you consider how they began their journey and how they ended their journey, we are astonished to see that things don’t end up the way we thought they would.
We are presented with a sinner woman who in one of the Gospels is called Mary, sometimes even attributed to Mary, the sister of Lazarus. And Mary is a person who has been living a life that others look down upon. She lives a life that is filled with sin. And when she hears that Jesus, the one whom she loves, the one that she looks at and is inspired and filled with hope, when she finds out that He is nearby, she decides to do something that is extremely bold. A woman who would normally hide herself from the public, a woman who would naturally feel like she should avoid the crowd, she decides to pursue Him at every cost and she finds out that He is having supper at a nobleman’s house, a house that she would never dare enter into, a house that she knows full well that she is not welcome there.
But because her Saviour is there, she decides to simply not care. She decides that she will not give in to the pressures of the crowd. She takes a flask of fragrant oil, a very costly spikenard, and she decides that she’s going to take that and fulfill an act that demonstrates a tremendous amount of honour. She wants to anoint her Saviour. She wants to honour Him. She wants to raise a level of dignity by showing this love towards Him. And so, she decides that she is going to completely ignore the stares. She's not going to care how people look. She will not care if she's judged. She does not overthink it and think to herself: What if they stop me at the door? What if they prevent me from approaching Him? What if they kick me out of the house? Instead, she boldly gathers her things and she rushes towards her Saviour.
And in doing so, she manages to grasp everything she was hoping to get a hold of. She holds on to Him; she places herself at His feet; she anoints Him with the holy oil; she weeps at His feet; she washes His feet and she dries them with her hair. And everyone else stares and everyone else judges. And you must keep in mind that at the time of Jesus, people thought truly that, in dealing with people who were sinful such as this woman, that in touching her even, you can defile yourself. But He lets her approach. He lets her embrace. He lets her sit at His feet. He makes Himself accessible to her. He knows that she needs this healing. He knows that she needs this love.
And so, the Church remembers her, sets her on a pedestal. And we remember her act, her boldness, her repentance, her courage. And just as the Lord said that what she has done will be remembered unto the ages, so now the Church celebrates her memory, which is truly eternal. And so, we do what she has done. We come to Him. We offer repentance. We cry at His feet. We come to a church that is filled with people and we think to ourselves: But what if they judge? What if they point the finger? What if I am exposed?
Well, let me ask you, my beloved: What if? And who cares? Is He not worth the pursuit? Is your healing not worth being exposed? Is a little bit of humiliation not worth us being fully restored? Do we not bare our naked bodies in front of physicians in order for them to be able to administer the healing we need so that our health can be restored? Do we not expose ourselves in front of these strangers that are doctors in the hopes that somehow they can take away the pain and the suffering? Why would we not do the same with our Lord? Why would we not come and ask Him to heal us? Why would we not place ourselves at His feet and cry, and repent, and allow Him to restore us, to love us, and to raise us back to our dignity?
The other person that the Church places before us today is the person of Judas, the disciple. Now, Judas, he sees what happens and he thinks to himself: What a waste! That oil could have been sold for 300 denarii! And he says out loud in his hypocrisy: We could have used that money and given it to the poor! But even the evangelist testifies and says he couldn’t care less about the poor. What he cared about was his profit, his pockets, because he used to steal even from the moneybox of donations.
Judas, the disciple, the one who was chosen, the one who was sent out with the disciples, the one who cast out demons, the one who participated and saw the miracles, the one who walked with Christ thinks to himself and says: I cannot follow this man. Thinks to himself: This is foolish. He's not the leader I thought He would be. And if He is not going to be the leader that I thought He would be, then I will not be the person that I want to be. I want to follow a leader. I want to be in the entourage of a person who is successful and popular; a person that will lead with might; a person that will lead with power; a person that will have political influence; not this poor humble and righteous person who loves the poor and the sinful and the broken-hearted and the sick. I'm not interested in those things. I'm interested in following a man of power.
And so, Judas sets it in his heart that day to make a profit, even off of Christ. The oil he could have sold for three hundred denarii, he thinks to himself: Well, I can make thirty pieces of silver elsewhere. If I could not sell the oil, then let me sell Him, let me betray Him. And he sets it in His heart that night to sell His own Saviour.
One woman gave up oil and she offered it to Christ. The other offered Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Which will we be? Will we be the person who recognizes his and her brokenness and ask to be restored, to be healed, to be reconciled, or will we be the one who has always
been part of the following, but steps out and sells Him out for the smallest of amounts, for a little bit of lust, of greed, of jealousy, for anger, for our own pride?
My beloved, the Church sets it before us today and tells us: Choose wisely! And the Church encourages us and tells us: Keep your eyes on that woman. You come to Christ. You anoint Him with your offering. Sit at His feet and weep and let your prayer be: Lord, please let me lay down at your feet and accept my repentance.
To God be all glory now and forever and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.