Anointing Jesus’ Feet

John 12:1-11
By Jean L. Keller-Thau
Associate Pastor, Dillsburg Brethren in Christ Church

In the last few years, I have had the privilege of meeting a number of folks who would not normally cross my path, folks that I might walk past without ever noticing or, in noticing, I might avoid connecting with, I might possibly walk a bit faster to avoid. They have come through the doors of the church in a variety of ways.

One young man came to my office late one afternoon because of his need to have a warm place to sleep and a meal. He had been on the streets for the last two nights and had not eaten during that time. Another came to the door one afternoon, sharing with me that his wife and child were in their car and they needed money for gas in order to travel to the grocery store for food and back home. Another man came during a choir practice, hungry, needing help with gasoline and food.

Another young man was brought to my office by Dr. Musser at the Dillsburg Family Health Center. Dr. Musser had seen this man as a patient, prescribed medication for his physical problem, but felt there was a deeper need for him to connect to a community of caring people. I asked John Long to partner with me in reaching out to this young man, and we had the opportunity for him to come to the Galilean service last summer.

I met a woman who lived alone, was wheelchair bound, and was afraid that evil demons were in her apartment. She was looking for love and support, and to use prayer as the vehicle to rid her home of this presence. Although she had very little material wealth, her focus was really on connecting with the church for prayer to deliver her from this fear of being alone in her apartment. A group of women had the opportunity to take her to my office one Sunday morning in order to pray with her.

I received a call from New Hope regarding another woman who lived in the Dillsburg area and was desperately in need of community. She was disabled by a back injury and unable to work, living on $900 a month. I had the opportunity to visit in her home on several occasions, and to have her attend the church on at least two Sundays.

A young man came in one Wednesday evening looking for someone to pray with him. He, too, had financial needs, but was more focused that night on his desperate loneliness after his girlfriend left him, taking their daughter with her. He attended a few services here at the church.

I received a call from a woman in Virginia who had a relative who worked at New Hope and heard about a family who was in need and taking care of a daughter with multiple medical problems. The church, during our Journeying Together time last Fall, was able to reach out to this family who had both financial needs and a need for a praying community to come around them to show love and compassion.

Over the last few months I have felt a level of anxiety, mixed with joyful anticipation, as well as uncertainty. I have felt God’s voice calling in the midst of these encounters that I have shared with you, but I haven’t been able to clearly grasp what that means for me personally, or what that means corporately for the ministry here at Dillsburg. The one word that penetrates most deeply is “community,” not the “community” of believers here at Dillsburg BIC, but the “community” that sits right outside the walls of this church.

The scripture this morning is not one you would normally choose in wanting to understand how we connect with the community around us. There are over 2,000 accounts in scripture that speak to us about caring for the poor and those in need, but as I struggled to hear clearly where God was leading, this passage kept crossing my path.

My first encounter with the passage in John 12 was in leading a Women’s Bible study titled “On the Front Lines.” The focus of that study was to understand how we are connected together in this journey with God. The study was based on where Jesus was in his journey to the cross and how Mary, in her willingness to give of her most expensive possession, ministered to him in a very personal way as she anointed him with her perfume and then let down her hair to wipe his feet. Because of her care for him, he was ministered to as he contemplated the cross. Through her ministering to him, his burden was eased somewhat and his heart soothed. In Mark 14:6, Mark shares this same account, as Jesus says to the guests gathered, “She has done a beautiful thing for me.”

Mary stepped aside from concern in regard to how this act would be received by those attending the meal. She didn’t focus on what she was giving up in using this very expensive perfume. She didn’t focus on whether this was an appropriate thing to do. The simple act of letting down her hair would have caused great disapproval because of the customs and culture of that time. But she was more driven by her need to express extravagant love to this man who had raised her brother from the dead, this man who allowed her to sit at his feet and learn of his heavenly Father, than she was of the misunderstanding and disapproval of those attending the meal.

In the previous chapter the story is shared of Jesus raising Mary’s brother, Lazarus, from the dead. In verse 35, Jesus weeps with Mary over Lazarus’ death. It is in his weeping Mary learns that a true image bearer of Christ enters the struggles of others. Jesus faces the cross. His disciples are in denial, but Mary comes alongside him in this extraordinary act of anointing his feet.

I realized as I read this passage that there was an element of envy in me that Mary had the opportunity to serve Jesus in this way. I was envious because I don’t have the opportunity to walk with Jesus in his physical body and provide this kind of love and caring to him. As I considered these feelings, the Lord spoke to my heart in showing me how I could anoint his feet. My caring for him comes from opportunities given to me by those individuals I shared with you coming into my life in order that I might express to them extravagant love. In expressing extravagant love to them, I am truly able to anoint Jesus’ feet. I was awed at a deeper understanding of the passage we find in Matthew 25:31-46 as Jesus speaks regarding those who are hungry and thirsty; those who are in need of clothing. Let me share that passage with you from Eugene Peterson’s The Message:

When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.”

Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, “Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?” Then the King will say, “I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.”

Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, “Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because—

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.”

Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, “Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?”

He will answer them, “I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.”

Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward.
Can you remember a time when you were struggling and someone unexpectedly reached out to you, or how it felt when no one noticed or cared and you carried a burden alone? 

When I was in my early twenties, I made a number of choices that created financial ruin for my family. I was in an abusive relationship and determined that my only recourse was to leave, taking myself and my two infant children to my parents in Ohio. I had no job, and the decision that I made put my husband into a downward spiral that ended in his making bad financial decisions. He quit his job and came to Ohio to ask for a second chance. I agreed to travel back to Maryland to begin our life together again. I wasn’t aware that he had no job and that the bills we had made as a couple had gone unpaid, and we literally had no money. My husband eventually found a job, but we only had enough income to afford a security deposit and first month’s rent on a small apartment, but had no furniture. We were able to find cribs for the children, and my husband and I slept on the floor. We found a large spool from the gas and electric company to use as a table to eat our meals. We had no car and very little money for even the necessities. I was too ashamed to even allow my parents to know the conditions we were living in. Christmas came and there was no money for even the simplest gifts for the kids.

When I began my journey back to the church and a deeper relationship with Christ that Christmas was one of the memories in my life that allowed that to happen. A woman from the church we had attended during our youth visited us in our home and realized the conditions we were living in. She contacted Santa Claus Anonymous and had Santa deliver toys to the children. She also extended love to us and helped us in other ways. She didn’t judge; she simply loved. We were undeserving in the eyes of the world, but she looked past our mistakes to see God’s creation, and through her love for God was able to reach out in God’s care and compassion.

I realize that in some cases, people have become quite adept at working a system that provides them with resources such as warm beds, food, gas, etc. But I believe that God calls us away from judgment, and simply asks that we extend love and compassion. Mother Teresa is quoted as saying, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” I also believe that God will give us discernment in regard to how much we provide before it becomes an enabling of bad behavior. However, we can never become an enabler of bad behavior by praying and expressing God’s love. This work is in God’s hands. Only he can bring to completion the good work he has started.

We should never allow our desire to reach out to others who are lonely and in need be driven by guilt or duty. Jesus was not concerned over the cost of the perfume poured out on his feet. His focus was the heart and the motivation behind the gift.

This demonstration of care and compassion should extend to anyone we encounter, not only those who have obvious significant need, but those who have needs that are hidden, locked inside the heart. William Penn says it well. “If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”

God is equipping us for ministry to others as we study and struggle to know him. We should not simply be filling our heads with information, we should be learning about Jesus in a way that changes our hearts and translates into ministry to others. Moses in Deuteronomy 15 very clearly told the people, “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor…you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be…You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake… Therefore I command you, ‘Open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.”

When we show kindness to people that demonstrates the love of God, something deep inside is touched and God’s presence is felt. The mere offer to serve others holds great power. Jesus came as the suffering, humble servant. It is humility that gets the attention of the human race. When we reach out to care and to serve without any expectation of receiving something in return, people take notice.

The side-effect of serving others is evangelism. In Conspiracy of Kindness, Steve Sjogren tells us that “Servant evangelism = deeds of love + words of love + adequate time. Following this sequence of deeds of love before words of love practically communicates that the experience of God’s love precedes the understanding of that love. The scriptural record of God’s activity among the human race reflects this pattern. God does something wonderful with people, and only later-sometimes years later-do they understand or make sense of what he did. The disciples experienced the works of Jesus for three years and then spent decades making sense out of those works.”

God’s love must be communicated from person to person. Deeds of kindness get people’s attention and often cause them to ask us questions. We must follow our actions with words or they will only know us as nice people, not that God loves them. We need to allow time for deeds and words of love to have their effect on the hearts of people. As people connect to the love of God that motivates the care and compassion extended to them, they become more open to this journey of seeking to become a Christ-follower. We must then allow the Holy Spirit to do his work in his way and in his timing. When we step out to do simple deeds of love, God shows up to bless our efforts. Time and again he converts our simple acts of service into powerful and unforgettable seeds planted in people’s hearts. People don’t always remember or accept what they are told of God’s love, but they rarely forget what they have experienced of God’s love. An experience of love opens a person’s heart to a message of love.

The lives of those individuals I shared with you, who have walked through the doors of this church, I believe, were impacted by just having someone to listen and care, to take notice. I don’t have any wonderful stories to tell you about someone in that group who was transformed by how our church reached out to them. But we are told in Ecclesiastes 11:6 to “Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will.” The woman who cared for my family waited a very long time to see God’s work in my life. I don’t know that I have ever shared with her how her love contributed to my changed life. I think I need to do that.

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