The reading that I'm reflecting on today in John 12:1-12. Mary anoints Jesus with expensive perfume whilst in Bethany, Lazarus is at the table eating and Judas is horrified at the extravagance of the act. I reflected a bit on this last year and so I want to explore a different focus this year.
I'm struck that Lazarus is a man who has been dead. A man whom Jesus raised from the dead and so this is not an ordinary meal. I wonder what they are discussing? are they asking Lazarus about those days that he was dead? Is Jesus getting some 'death tips' off the only man alive qualified to give them? Or is it a moment where they are simply celebrating life in all it's fulness, laughing at the joy of human company. Or is Jesus aware that just around the corner is his death, can he smell it is the air? Can Mary sense it and hence the anointing.
This could be a sad text, one that is a preparation for death or it could be one where the stench of life, rather than death, surrounds it. It's a text that looks both ways - It has a dead man walking and a resurrected man eating - it's looks to life and looks to death. It strange prequel for the emotions that are to come, yet within it somehow is an aroma, the aroma of the perfume bringing life to a situation that death could kill.
The song for tonight is by Spiritualized. J. Spaceman, the lead singer, was in a coma for a number of days during which he medically died a number of times. Prior to being in a coma he had written the album 'Songs From A & E' - I think my favourite album of the last two years. The album is eerily prophetic of what is to come and one song that sums that up is the song Death Take a Fiddle.
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