Faith

There is something about Mary…Mary of Bethany
Holy Week – Monday
John 12: 1-11

Betrayal is written all over the next three days; and Judas, the betrayer is at the heart of it. But then again it all depends on what you want to see, betrayal or love. Because within the gospel texts, from today to Sunday, we also see people of faith, people like you and me who love the Lord, yet struggle; Peter, John, Nicodemus, Veronica, Simon of Cyrene, the women who followed Jesus , Mary the mother of Jesus and then there is Mary of Bethany.

Most likely, the reader of today’s gospel will breeze over the text and settle on the Judas interaction. He seems to somehow, get our attention; the Lords betrayer, thirty silver pieces, the man who tainted the word ‘kiss’. But look carefully, there is another character whose most seemingly simple action would merely get a ‘that’s nice’ nod from us. She is Mary of Bethany and she deserves much of our admiration and attention.

What do we know about Mary? For starters she loves Jesus and she loves to be at his feet. When the Lord visits her home, she is at His feet, while Martha complained away (Luke 10: 39). When her brother Lazarus dies, she too with her sister tells Him, “If you had been here my brother would not have died” and then she is at his feet. (John 11:32) Watch where she is today? No prizes for guessing she is at His feet. (John 12:3)

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Faith

Palm Sunday; Faithful or Fickle ?- Gospel Matthew 21:1-11- At The Procession with Palms

Imagine a grand wedding celebration on a Sunday, and a separation and divorce on the Friday of the same week. Insane you think? Pottypadre has flipped his wig finally! Well not entirely. Think about it; you welcome the Lord with shouts of ‘Hosannas’ on a Sunday and cry ‘crucify him’ on a Friday. How’s that for irony? Fickle humans, that’s what we are.

The first time this fickle drama took place was on the tenth day of the month of Nissan, in Jerusalem. Nissan is first month of the Hebrew ecclesiastical year, also called Aviv. On this day, Jewish families flocked to the temple of Jerusalem to select a lamb that would be sacrificed on the fourteenth day of Nissan (that would be a Thursday). But the gospel of John tells us that the Passover was celebrated on a Friday, Good Friday to be precise. How do we reconcile this?

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Faith

The plot thickens- 5th Week of Lent, Saturday- John 11: 45- 56

Interestingly, more than forty five percent of the Gospel of John will deal with Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. Chapter thirteen through twenty one is dedicated only to this theme. In Chapter twelve, Jesus will enter triumphant into Jerusalem; Holy Week will begin.

The plot thickens in chapter eleven. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and “many believed in Him” (10:42). It is this growing belief in Him that causes the Jewish leaders to get rattled; rattled enough for religious leaders to plan a murder!

Jesus, by His words and deeds, has effectively got a whole Samaritan village to believe in Him (4:41). That belief spreads to the royal household when Jesus heals the royal official’s son (4:50). There is belief in Jesus after He foretells His death (8:30), after the healing of the man born blind (9:36-38), at the end of the good shepherd discourse (10:21), at the feast of the dedication of the temple (10:42), through Martha’s profession (11:27) and in the Jews who witnessed Lazarus’ raising from the dead (11:45). To top it all, many acknowledged Him as a prophet (7:40) some even as the Messiah (7:41).

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Text, context, pretext- 5th Week of Lent – Friday- John 10: 31-42

A text taken out of its context, is a pretext. That’s what we are looking at in this pericope. The Jews, like some of us, love taking the text of Jesus outside its context, using it as a pretext for their own agenda (or whoever is the target). His question is quite clear, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”

Chapter 10 opens with a new clash between Jesus and the Jews and occurs at the feast of ‘the Dedication of the temple’, three months after the feast of the Tabernacles (chapter 7). Jesus’ appeal to His ‘good works’ is rejected on the grounds that He has blasphemed, and most of this stems from the fact that in chapter nine, He healed a man born blind on the Sabbath. This is the issue for them; the rest is the excuse or pretext.

Jesus gives a scriptural argument based on the principle of “lesser to a greater.” Jesus says, “If scripture can speak of humans as gods” (Psalm 82:6- Septuagint), then how much more is the case with the consecrated agent of the Father, namely Jesus? (All references from the Jerome Biblical commentary).

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Faith

 

 

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