Lectionary Commentaries for April 6, 2025
Fifth Sunday in Lent

The opening scene in John 12 boldly claims the enduring power of life and love in the face of death and hostility. The author is careful to name all three siblings at the heart of the previous chapter: Mary, Martha, and the formerly dead Lazarus. The anticipated stench of death in chapter 11 is now replaced with the extravagant perfume of Mary’s grateful devotion. But death is not yet finished. The leaders are plotting to kill Jesus (11:45–53). They are also planning to put Lazarus back into a tomb (12:9–11). Surrounded by these movements toward death, we find this celebration of the life that Jesus has given.

Mary’s actions are the center of attention here, but we should not ignore the other siblings. Martha is described as “serving,” as a disciple of Jesus should (12:26). Lazarus is described as “reclining” with Jesus at the table, a description that reappears in 13:23 to describe “the disciple whom Jesus loved” at the last meal. All three siblings have been transformed by Jesus into faithful disciples. Yet it is Mary’s action that is the focus of wonder and scandal. She is at Jesus’ feet as she was in 11:32, but the grief (and anger?) of that previous scene is now replaced with overflowing gratitude.

One of the challenges of preaching this passage is that hearers and preachers may confuse it with accounts from the Synoptic Gospels. The author of this Gospel seems to have known and drawn on other stories about a woman anointing Jesus, but we need to be careful not to conflate this story with similar scenes in the other Gospels:

Except for the story in Luke, all these accounts include Jesus declaring that this anointing has been for his upcoming burial. This claim takes on an added dimension in John’s account because Jesus has just raised Mary’s own brother from the tomb, undoing that burial. Without denying the reality of the upcoming death, Mary’s presence here also points to the upcoming resurrection. She knows the brutality of death, but she also knows that the grave cannot hold against Jesus.

It is a bit surprising that Mary anoints not Jesus’ head (as in Matthew 26:7 and Mark 14:3) but his feet. As Culpepper notes, Jesus will enter Jerusalem as the Anointed One, but anointed not on his head, as was expected for a king, but on his feet. He is anointed not by the high priest but by a woman.¹ Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his identity as Messiah will not fit neatly into any preconceived expectations.

Even though Mary’s action here is not described as “washing” Jesus’ feet, we should see her as an image of the discipleship and the love that Jesus will model and command for his followers as he washes their feet in John 13. The verb for “wiping” the feet is used in John to describe only these two scenes (12:3; 13:5). Mary engages in this kind of service even before the command is given. “The power of the witness of Mary’s discipleship in this story is that she knows how to respond to Jesus without being told. She fulfills Jesus’ love commandment before he even teaches it.”²

Mary pours out about a year’s salary onto Jesus’ feet. She pours it all out, withholding nothing. Indeed, there is so much ointment that she needs to soak some of it up with her hair. No wonder Judas is shocked by the “waste.” Mary has to remove some of the very expensive ointment that she had just poured out. She does not put it back into the bottle but will now carry her act of discipleship with her on her own body.

Mary is the image of faith just as Judas is the image of unfaithful deceit. On the surface, Judas seems to have a good point. He taps into the deep biblical concern for the poor, but the author indicates that Judas does this only because he would like to line his own pockets with some of those denarii. It would not be difficult to come up with current examples (religious, political, and commercial) of those who claim to be on the side of the poor while actually siphoning resources away from them. In the end, even characterizing Judas as a thief is not enough for this Gospel writer to account for his betrayal of Jesus, though it does point us ahead and prepare us for how the devil will possess Judas and set in motion that act (13:27).

Too often Jesus’ reply to Judas in verse 8 has become an excuse for not trying to do more (or anything at all) to alleviate poverty or help the poor. That is hardly Jesus’ point. If Judas cares so much about the poor, he will have plenty of opportunity to show that with the same kind of surprising dedication Mary has shown to Jesus. The same is true for us (note that the “you” in verse 8 is plural). Yet such work can often seem futile. How can our meager efforts work any real change?

Mary may lead the way for us. Her action had greater meaning than she probably realized. It was loving and extravagant, but its meaning is finally given by how Jesus takes it up and makes it a part of his own mission. Because of the life that is ours through Jesus’ death, our actions too may be taken up into God’s purposes and so be filled with worth and meaning beyond the waste they sometimes seem to be.

Notes

1. R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel and the Letters of John (Nashville: Abington, 1998), 193.
2. Gail R. O’Day, “The Gospel of John,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 9 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 703.

“There is nothing new under the sun,” says the wise Teacher. “History repeats itself.” These are adages reminding us that epochs of history are almost cyclical with the rise and fall of empires. Wars will come (but never seem to end), inventions will be celebrated and superseded, disasters will befall us and we will rebuild. These and more occur repeatedly with each generation. Without hope and knowledge of what God can and will do, the banality of human existence can overwhelm us as we take stock of all that is happening in our world.

Isaiah 43 is a salvation oracle. It is a text about who God is and what God has done (and will do). It was first addressed to the exilic community who had long accepted and settled into their lot. Lest the people forget, the prophetic voice reminds them of who their God is. God is identified as the one “who … (does something)”¹ three times in the chapter:

• In 43:1, the Lord is the one “who created” and “who formed.”
• In 43:16 (which introduces our lectionary text), the Lord is the one “who makes a way in the sea …” and “who brings out [the enemy] …”
• In 43:25, the Lord is the one “who wipes out our transgressions …”

The salvific acts of God that encompass past, present, and future are encapsulated in Isaiah 43. God has acted because the Lord is “the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (verse 3). More importantly, God’s work cannot be understood apart from God’s special relationship with the people. Again, lest the people forget, the prophetic voice reminds them that God has done these things for them because they are precious in God’s sight, are loved by God (verse 4), and are God’s chosen ones (verse 20). They are God’s children, called by God’s name, created and formed by God (verses 6–7). God is in their corner and rooting for them.

Our lectionary text, verses 16–21, is a section set against this larger backdrop. Verse 16 (cited above) unmistakably refers to the exodus tradition, specifically the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. In that act of liberation and deliverance, God created dry land through sea for the Israelites to pass safely while Pharaoh’s army gave chase on their horses and chariots. The sea waters closed in on the army (after the Israelites had safely crossed the sea), and the prophetic poet recalls that “they are extinguished, quenched like a wick” (verse 17).

This event has become paradigmatic of God’s salvation in the cultural memory of the Israelites. However, the past is a mere prologue to what the Lord is doing now and will do in the future. After evoking memories of the exodus, the prophetic voice charges the people not to remember the former things, nor consider the things of old, because God is doing a new thing (verse 18).

The exodus of the past will not be the only salvific event God’s people can speak about. God’s salvation and liberation for them are continuous and contemporary. The people need not rely on memory; God’s people can speak of their very own present experiences of God’s salvation. “A new thing” is happening here and now for this generation of God’s people.

“A new thing” is also a reminder not to limit God’s salvific acts according to past events. It is often observed that the new thing will be greater than the old. The new thing will also be different. The contrast between the old and the new is the point of this section. God will make a way through the wilderness, and water will spring forth from the most harsh and arid conditions of the landscape. This is the converse of what God had done before—that is, making a dry way through the waters.

Now, the wilderness will be tamed and become habitable. Even the wild animals will receive sustenance and be drawn to honor God. This is reminiscent of a new creation where wild beasts will be tamed and all creation can coexist. In God’s salvation and restoration, our uninhabitable world will be healed and we can thrive.

If we read this section (verses 16–21) as a whole, there is yet another homiletical point. God triumphs over all that causes fear and chaos in our lives, and over all that threatens our existence, be it water, war, or wilderness. The Lord makes a new way. It is a fulfillment of the promise made in 43:2–3:

When you pass through waters, I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

This text reminds us of who God is—our Savior; and of who we are to God—precious and loved. Our present realities might feel like mighty waters or the wilderness, but we can wait in confidence and expectation that God’s salvation is at hand. Remembrance and recollection continually renew our confidence that God is able and mighty. However, such salvific acts do not remain in the past. God continually acts, and a new thing will spring forth.

As the poet says, God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). Do we perceive it?

Notes

1. These phrases are translated from substantive participles in Hebrew.

Commentary for this text is forthcoming.

Commentary for this text is forthcoming.