Grace at the Table: "The Extravagance of Love"
What is your response to God?
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Text: Matthew 26:6-13
A few weeks ago, I read a story about continuing poor sanitary conditions in some of this city's restaurants. Apparently even good restaurants can be haunts of rodents, cockroaches and countless other undesirable critters. It reminded me of a time when I had eaten at a place that I really questioned. It wasn't a restaurant, but the home of someone I knew a little. We were moving from one part of the country to another and I had asked Billy if he would mind helping and drive the truck for us. He had some experience with truck driving and I offered to pay him for his trouble. He agreed and, on the day of the move, we got packed up in the morning and set out.
Billy and his family lived in a small town in between our old house and our new house and he suggested that we stop off at his place for a rest and a bite to eat. I, of course, thought that would be fine but was totally unprepared for what I was getting myself into. When we arrived at his house, I could not believe my eyes. I had never been in a house that was such an absolute and utter mess. The filth on the walls was pathetic. There were dishes piled high in the sink and on the counter. Junk was everywhere; grime and black stuff seemed to cover many surfaces.
Billy was a nice guy. I pretended that I didn't notice, made light conversation, but my heart sank when Billy opened a couple of cans of Campbell's soup and poured them into a very grungy looking pot. When heated, we were served at the table in what looked like half-washed bowls and we were given hardly washed spoons. To be polite we had to eat, because he was eating. I plunged my spoon into the steaming hot soup, hoping that if I left it there for a while any germs would die in the heat. More odd looking food came out of the fridge. It was amazing how quickly we had lost our appetites. You have never met anyone so glad to get back on the road on a moving day as I was. I prayed that we would not get ill … and God was gracious. Needless to say, I have never been back to Billy's place for a meal.
The Story
One of the things we find in the Gospels is that sometimes Jesus goes for meals where no one else dares. One of these was in Bethany, when he entered the home of Simon the leper. While he sat at the table, a woman opened a flask of expensive perfume and anointed his head. It was a perfume only affordable to the rich and the disciples, who had listened to Jesus' teaching about helping one another and helping the poor, were naturally indignant. “Why not sell the perfume and give it to the poor?” they asked. Jesus, aware of their questions and his fast-approaching date with a cross, replied, “Don't bother her, she is doing a lovely thing for me. The poor you will always have with you, she is preparing me for burial.”
I. God's Grace
I don't know about you, but I have always found these words of Jesus difficult to understand. This morning, however, it is not these words that I would like us to focus on; I would like us to focus more on the broader story and the grace and love that is so evident at the table of Simon the leper.
Grace is evident here, first of all, because Jesus is eating in no ordinary house, Jesus was eating in the abode of a leper. In the first century, leprosy was a dreaded disease. It was incurable, it carried a stigma. Individuals with leprosy were considered unclean. They were cut off from normal, everyday contact with people. The healthy were so afraid that they would catch the disease that lepers were quarantined, sent outside of their towns and villages lest they infect others. Of course, they had to come to town sometimes to get supplies, and when they did, they had to stay a certain distance away from others. They had to proclaim themselves, “unclean,” as they walked and the oral Jewish law actually prescribed varying distances that they had to keep from others, depending on wind conditions. And so we see that lepers were isolated - isolated from family and friends, largely isolated from society altogether.
When we read in this story of Jesus - that he went to Bethany, to the house of Simon the leper - all sorts of things come to mind. It means that he went to a residence that was outside of the town. It means that he went to a place that was isolated from others. It means that he went to a person who was isolated and alone. It means that Jesus showed Simon a level of grace he had not known since he had lost his health. Few others would have dared go to the home of a leper, let alone eat with him - Jesus ate with Simon. Jesus brought the grace of God to his table.
Jesus was like that, he brought grace everywhere he went. Jesus opened up salvation to those who needed it most: To lepers, to the blind, to the lame, to the sick, to widows and orphans, to non-Jews, to those to whom others gave nasty labels, to people considered to be the wrong crowd, to the tax-collectors, to the sinners. Jesus was a bringer of grace and as the supreme revelation of God, Jesus shows us that no matter how messed up a person is, no matter where a person has been or how isolated a person feels, no one can ever be too far from the grace of God.
One aspect of this story reveals Jesus' grace to Simon and, by extrapolation, God's grace to all.
II. A Response to Grace
But this story goes on and we can note that as God's grace goes forth to human beings, some respond with great love. The woman in this story anointed Jesus' head with an expensive perfume. In Matthew's and Mark's accounts she is just described as a woman. She has no name and perhaps because she was at the home of a leper, she either would have been a leper herself or a close, loving family member who had brought something to Simon outside the city.
But there are a couple of other accounts in the Gospels that bear a striking resemblance to this story, although there are some differences, and sometimes it is useful to compare all of the Gospels to learn more about what was going on from the other authors. We'll skip John's account here, but in Luke's Gospel, Luke tells us that this woman was a “woman of the city, a sinner.” And what is really interesting here is the tone and the emotion. Luke describes a woman coming with an “alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment (7:37f.).” People there began to ask why Jesus was letting such a sinner near him, and Jesus never lost an opportunity to teach about grace. You see, here was a woman who had been ostracized by others but accepted by Jesus and she was so overcome by his acceptance that she responded in the only way she knew how. The woman gave back something that was very precious to her - her costly ointment. Jesus said to Simon and the others who were questioning her sinfulness, “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little (7:47).” Here was a woman who experienced grace and responded in love.
III. An Extravagant Response to Grace
As we move back to Matthew's account, we find that what she showed was not just a response to grace but an extravagant response of love to this grace. Historians tell us that many women in Judaea carried with them a little alabaster flask of perfume but the perfume that this woman had is said to be exceedingly expensive (Mt.26:7).
On Friday, I went in search of what an expensive bottle of perfume is worth these days. I never cease to be amazed at the cost of some things that ladies don. A few years ago, I remember picking up a tiny makeup “thingy” for my daughter. I waltzed into Shoppers' Drug Mart and asked the woman in the makeup area, “What would you recommend for a teenage girl?” she showed me a variety of things for the face, and for the eyes and for the hair and I wound up with a very small “thingy” that cost $45. I was appalled. I was just looking for a little thing to top up the main gift, something in the price range of chocolate. But I was rushed for time, so I lost my $45 and grumbled to myself until I saw my daughter's face light up on the morning of her birthday. That little gift was more important to her than the main gift.
Having a daughter is a great education for a man. We go for haircuts and it costs $12 or $20; women go for haircuts and it costs $120 or $200! That's 10 times more. What's with that? Some friends of mine were complaining about losing some luggage as they left Azerbaijan a couple of months ago. “And the worst,” said the woman, “was losing $1,000 worth of makeup.”
“A thousand dollars worth of makeup!” I almost said, but stopped myself in time to say, “Of course, that's awful. How could they? Those airlines!”
My knowledge of perfume goes about as far as a deodorant stick that costs $3.49. So I asked Sonya, our administrative person, “What does an expensive bottle of perfume cost these days? $50? $75?”
“Let me check,” she said, and came back a few minutes later to declare that the most expensive bottle of perfume costs, $215,000.
“$215,000?” I exclaimed. “Good grief, I could buy a couple of Beamers for that! $215,000! Disgusting, that is!” But, yes, there it is - for just $215,000 you can have Imperial Majesty, a limited edition, Clive Christian Signature Scent that features 16.9 oz (I don't know why they couldn't spare 17 oz) of Clive Christian No.1 in a Baccarat crystal bottle, with a five-karat diamond in the 18-karat gold collar.
I know this is hard after that shocker, but getting back to Matthew's Gospel, again, is it any wonder that the disciples were indignant and grumbled, “Why this waste? This ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor.” Mark suggests that it could have gone for 300 denarii, which would be today's equivalent of about $25,000(Mk.14:5). Even that is an incredible amount. This was some bottle of perfume! It was the most precious thing this woman had and she gave it to Jesus. He had shown her grace and she was responding with a love that was extravagant.
Love is like that. Love is not something that asks how much. Love does not calculate cost. When it has given all it has to give, it still thinks the gift too little.
There's a story of a young American couple (I think it was during the depression). Della and Jim were very poor but very much in love. Each had one unique possession. Della's hair was magnificent. When she let it down it almost served as a robe. Jim had a gold watch which had come to him from his father and which was his pride. It was the day before Christmas, and Della had exactly $1.87 to buy Jim a present. She did the only thing she could do; she went out and sold her hair for $20. With the proceeds, she bought a platinum fob for Jim's precious watch. Jim came home that night, and when he saw Della's shorn head he stopped as if stupefied. It was not that he did not like it or love her anymore. She was lovelier than ever. Slowly he handed her his gift - a set of expensive, tortoise-shell combs with jewelled edges for her lovely hair - and he had sold his gold watch to buy them for her. Each had given the other all he or she had to give. Says William Barclay, “Real love cannot think of any other way to give.” Such is the extravagance of love.
Conclusion:
At the table of Simon the leper, grace comes, and we see a response to grace. It is a response of love, an extravagant love. A love that gives the best it has to the bringer of grace.
In a few moments, we will move into a service of Holy Communion. The word “communion” suggests an encounter, an encounter with the bringer of grace. It is an encounter made possible by a self-less act, by a cross, by a sacrifice. As we enter into these moments, one wonders if we have responded to the bringer of grace in a fashion similar to this woman? God has given much for us. In Christ, he has given us his all, his Son, the best he had to give. One wonders if we have responded with our all? Have we responded like this woman? Have we given him our time? Have we given him of our resources? Have we given him our very lives? Or are we too busy? Do we say, “This much I will give you, Lord, and no more.” One author writes, “We have not even begun to be Christian if we think of giving to Christ and to his Church in terms of as little as we respectably can.”
We can learn something from this woman's response to grace at Simon's table and as we approach another table at which the Lord is present, perhaps we should ask, “How have I responded to the grace of God?”