Title: Maria's Fragrance of Nad
Maria's nard balm
text description
The writer of the Gospel of John accurately conveys the location and date of today's events. Just by reading this report, you can accurately catch up with the situation at the time. It was one day six days before the Passover. The Passover here refers to the very Passover where Jesus was crucified. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast. Jesus arrived in Bethany, about 3 kilometers from Jerusalem. The writer of the Gospel of John describes Bethany this way: “It was the home of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.”
A supper was held to welcome Jesus in Bethany. At that time, Judaism's core forces, centered on the Pharisees, had already begun to decide that they had to kill Jesus because of the Lazarus incident. According to John 11:57, the high priests and the Pharisees commanded that anyone who knew where Jesus was living should report it. It was a sort of wanted order. It is surprising that the table was prepared for Jesus in those days when the atmosphere was so bad. It seems that the owner of the house had a special relationship with Jesus. Although the text does not explicitly mention it, it is likely that Lazarus was the owner of the table. Lazarus was sitting at the table with Jesus, and his sister, Martha, was at the service.
Imagine that scene. Isn't it beautiful? With Jesus as the center, close people sat around the table, just like a scene from Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'. In the center, there must have been a lamp that gave off a soft light. Bread, cheese, mutton, and fruit, which the Jews enjoyed, must have been on the table. The people gathered there must have had some sense of foreboding that something unusual might happen to Jesus on this Passover. As pointed out earlier, the outright hostility of the priests and Pharisees was already widespread. That wouldn't have made them panic. Rather, wouldn't you have experienced infinite peace just by sitting at the table with Jesus now? In this moment of darkness, fear and intrigue prevailed ‘outside’ Bethany Lazarus’ house, but ‘inside’ the house was full of love and peace. It looks that way to my eyes.
If they had eaten with Jesus and just parted ways, this table would have been a very precious place, but it would not have been recorded like this in the Gospels. An incident with a qualitatively new meaning has occurred. Mary, the sister of Lazarus and brother of Martha, poured a pound of nard oil on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. Its scent shook the whole house. Mary's ointment is also recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The three texts are slightly different. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew describe a woman without the name of Mary pouring perfume on Jesus' head, not on Jesus' feet (Mark 14:3ff., Matthew 26:6ff.) However, there is no difference in the overall framework. It is clear that a woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus.
If today's event had ended at this point, it would have only been remembered as a very moving scene. Here comes another incident. Jesus' disciple, Judas the Cariotite, asked why he wasted such expensive perfume. The price of the perfume, three hundred denarii, was equivalent to the annual salary of the workers at that time. In today's currency, it's at least 20 million won. Judas' logic is very clear and rational. That money should be used to help the poor.
Jesus said: “I am doing this for my funeral, so do not meddle in this woman’s affairs. The poor will always be with you, but I will not always be with you” (John 12:7,8). It is supplemented. Although they differ slightly in their expression, the common emphasis of these three Gospels is that the woman's balm prepared for Jesus' burial, and that it is wrong to associate it with helping the poor.
pour perfume
Let's turn the film back and look again at the scene where Maria comes out holding the perfume. My brother and the guests were seated at the table with Jesus, and my sister Martha was serving. Maria would have helped prepare these meals before the guests arrived. After some work had been completed, Maria came to the table with an alabaster jar of nard perfume that she had prepared to take with her as a dowry to the wedding. And sat down at Jesus' feet. People must have wondered why she did that. Everyone was amazed to see Mary pouring perfume on Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair. Why the hell is that kid doing that?
Jesus had a very special relationship with the Mary brothers and sisters. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept. According to one tradition in the Gospel of Luke, Mary and her sister Martha followed Jesus fervently. In particular, Maria seems to have been a very sensitive spirituality. When Jesus and his companions visited their house, Martha was busy serving guests while Mary listened to Jesus (Luke 10:38 and below). Today's text is a similar situation. Just as Martha was waiting for the guests, Mary poured perfume on her.
What the hell was Maria thinking about doing this? Did she prepare for Jesus' burial in advance, as Jesus later explained? The Jews anointed the body with perfume. When Jesus was crucified, he could not anoint him with perfume because it was the beginning of the Sabbath, and after the Sabbath had passed, several women went to the tomb to anoint him with perfume in the early morning. I have a job. Now, did Mary see through Jesus' death in advance and think of such a funeral? We don't know for sure today because Maria just acts without saying anything. However, assuming that Mary had a deep spiritual relationship with Jesus, it can be said that she expected Jesus' death. “You now enjoy eating like this, but Jesus is soon to be executed. Why don't you know that?" With this in mind, maybe he was showing some kind of performance.
Even so, from a common sense point of view, nard perfume is a bit harsh. Even in terms of the death and burial of Jesus, how do you say that perfume equivalent to a person's annual salary is poured on the place? Isn't this a waste? Does it have to be like this? Wouldn't it be okay to just wash Jesus' feet with warm water instead of nard oil? This kind of behavior doesn't make much sense to anyone who sees it. If you think about it a little more soberly, this behavior seems more like fanaticism than faith.
poor
Perhaps even in early Christianity, there was a lot of controversy as to whether Mary's actions were right. Evidence of this is that each Gospel reporting the same event has a different nuance. According to the Gospel of Mark, some people who saw Mary's behavior were indignant and said, "Why is the perfume so wasted?" And according to the Gospel of Matthew, the disciples had the same reaction. This kind of reaction shows the face of early Christianity. The last recorded Gospel of John refers to the person who complained like this as Judas Cariot. Moreover, the writer of the Gospel of John gives personal comments. Judas, who complains that it is good to help the poor with the money, is not for the poor, but because he is greedy for money. The writer of the Gospel of John solved this controversial problem in early Christianity in this way. There is no direct relationship between relief and enjoyment.
Indeed, helping the poor was very important even in early Christianity. According to the book of Acts, helping widows and orphans was no less important than preaching the Word. Past Christian history has recognized helping the poor as an essential mission of the church. In order to maintain the minimum human dignity, people created in God's image should think of helping each other in terms of faith. This time we joined the North Korean rice-sending movement together, and this is not just compassion, it is the essence of faith. In the future, the Korean church must boldly shift its finances to the outside rather than the inside.
jesus burial
Although the early Christian community was committed to helping the poor, they did not risk their lives for it. They knew that there was a much more important dimension of faith than that. They remembered Jesus' words like this. The poor will be with you, but I am not. what do you mean? On the surface, it would mean that Jesus would be crucified a week later. Preparing for the burial of Jesus only happens once, but it continues to help the poor. Then, of course, you should consider the one-of-a-kind first.
Thinking more fundamentally, this issue is about the relationship between faith and humanism. Helping the poor is humanism. If Christianity shows humanism in the harsh world, perhaps the world will see the church anew. As mentioned above, Christian history has practiced this aspect of importance. However, the Christian faith is different from humanism. To be precise, faith naturally includes humanism, but it does not stay with humanism. This is the part where Christianity is opposed to the humanism of this world, and it also points to the tension between faith and ethics within Christianity.
The Christian faith places everything at the center of our relationship with God. Because we believe that the salvation of man and the world is only possible through the providence and rule of God, not through our efforts. If our relationship with God is right, we can be recognized as righteous and experience God's salvation. In a way that exceeds our expectations, God is doing His will for the world.
Don't get me wrong. Helping the poor is by no means pointless. Such things must be practiced constantly. However, it is an illusion to think that such things alone will save humans and society. No matter how prosperous this world is, even if every family receives 100 million won a year, our circumstances will only improve a little and we will be a little more convenient, but we cannot achieve true joy and peace. Freedom, joy, peace, and ultimately love, are given to us on a completely different level.
In this sense, when Mary poured nad oil into the body of Jesus, she entrusted her entire existence to the Lord. It may seem like a waste of time in people's eyes, but her actions are based on the ultimate love experience. Jesus said this to Judas, who put on the mask of thin humanism and slandered the case of Mary's perfume. “Do not meddle in this woman’s affairs.” This verse is also the confession of faith of early Christians. They believed that only the event of Jesus, that is, his cross and resurrection, was the reality of true salvation. Like Mary, we are people who live our entire existence in surrender to Jesus.