How does LOVE SMELL…
What do you think that LOVE smells like? Tastes like? Feels like? Looks like? Sounds like?
Does love taste like: Homemade chocolate chip cookies? An ice cream sundae on a hot July day? Apple pie..OR?
What Does love feel like: A hug, an embrace, a hearty handshake, or snuggling a baby..OR?
What Does love look like: A sunrise, a family gathering, a soup kitchen…Or?
What Does love sound like: A symphonic orchestra? a baby’s first cry? Silence? Or?
What Does love smell like: A dozen roses? Bread baking in the oven? A bottle of exquisite expensive perfume?
In our Gospel lesson, love smelled like pure nard.
To put our story into context, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead and so his sisters, Martha and Mary, threw a celebration to honor and thank Jesus and to celebrate the new life of their beloved brother – who they once thought was dead and now is reclining by the table.
To celebrate, “Martha served” – and while we may remember the story of Martha serving and COMPLAINING that Mary wasn’t helping— this time all we hear is that Martha is doing what Jesus calls all his disciples to do – serve the other. I bet, under Martha’s experienced hands, love tasted delicious? Martha reveals her love through the smells and taste of good food – a feast of fresh bread and wine along with all of the special foods created just for this day. For Martha, love looks like humble service. Of course Martha served. She was in her element.
But Mary was different. Mary was at Jesus’ feet again. This time, not as a listening disciple, drinking in Jesus’ words. This time… Mary pours a whole pound of expensive perfume – they say it was pure nard - over Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair. The smell must have been overwhelming. I opened this little tiny bottle and the smell wafted out. And it was expensive – especially for a woman in Bethany. It cost a year’s wages for a man. How did she even come up with it – and then to pour it on Jesus’ feet?
This display of extravagant expense is made even more shocking by the intimacy of Mary letting down her hair right there at the dining table. Women did not do that outside of the bedroom. But Mary didn’t seem to give a fig about the rules she was breaking as she massaged the oil into Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair and ignored the stares and rude comments of Judas. What does love smell like? What does love look like? What does love feel like? Mary’s love looks, smells and feels extravagant, intimate and personal.
It also made everyone in the room take notice. I mean, how could you not notice the smell which filled the room. How could you not notice a woman on the floor untying her hair and massaging Jesus’ feet?
Judas noticed – and couldn’t refrain from rebuking Mary. He sounds a bit self-righteous in suggesting that “the money could have been given to the poor.” As readers, we are given a little aside suggests Judas has an ulterior motive – rumor was that he helped himself from the community funds. So, while Mary and Martha demonstrate the love of that we, as disciples, followers of Jesus should emulate, Judas who was chosen as a disciple, is shown as the opposite, the anti-disciple that everyone loves to hate. But, in a way, he’s right, the perfume could have been sold and given to the poor.
Jesus’ response to Judas is worth exploring. Jesus quotes Leviticus 15 which states that you will always have the poor with you – AND – that this means you should always care for the poor. Jesus’ command to love one another includes loving and caring for the poor. Caring for the poor remains our duty, our obligation and our command from Jesus. That doesn’t go away.
AND, not but, AND, Jesus supports, honors and interprets Mary’s action as being greater than she perhaps even imagined. Mary gave out of love – and she gave all that she had – her money, her hair, her self. This was an act of extravagant love, gratitude and selflessness.
Love is extravagant. This is the kind of love that God gives to us.
John begins his Gospel with another story of extravagant love. Jesus was with his mother Mary and the disciples at a wedding. The wine ran out. And remember what Jesus did? He turned water into wine – lots of wine, an over-abundance of the best wine to celebrate a marriage. It was extravagant. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But at that wedding feast, love tasted like rich wine – the best wine – and the response to this gift – was to share it with the whole village - rich and poor.
God’s love is generous – not stern or stingy. As theologian Dan Clendenin writes, again and again we see in the Bible that God is “like a manager who pays a full day's wages for one hour of work. He's the God who asks Jonah if he's angry because he is generous to the pagan Ninevites. He's the waiting father who welcomes home a wayward son with a ring, a robe, and a party.”1 God’s love is generous and surprising.
In our Gospel today, Jesus declares that Mary’s action is not only generous and surprising, but it is also prophetic; Mary is anointing him for his burial. For Jesus is the Messiah; Messiah means the anointed one. Jesus is anointed by GOD at his baptism and he is anointed by Mary in this last act of love before his arrest, death and resurrection.
This is what love looks like: Jesus loved you so much that he was willing to suffer, to be ridiculed, and even to die – in the most shameful manner - on a cross.
Today’s Gospel story from John might be a bit out of order in our journey to the cross. Mark places it on the Wednesday of Holy Week. It certainly points to the passion of Jesus.
But… regardless of the timeline, this story gives us an opportunity, while we are still in the midst of Lent, to ponder: How do we love Jesus? Or rather – make it personal, like Mary does: How do you love Jesus?
As we see from the two sisters, love can take many forms. Love can be shown in acts of service, like Martha does. Love can be shown in acts of devotion and adoration like Mary who uses her whole body to express her love – much to the surprise and alarm of others in the room. I dare say that most of the people in our culture – or at least the culture in which I grew up - would react much in the same way. My grandmother – whose name happens to be Martha – would be much more comfortable in the kitchen than on the floor wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair. How about you? How would you express your love, your gratitude, your adoration of Jesus?
Again, Love takes many forms. Love is generous and extravagant and Love is also open to something new. As our reading from Isaiah says, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive I will make a way…for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people… so that they may declare my praise.”
Brothers and sisters, I do not know how God is making a new way in our world today. Too often I see only the sorrow and the pain and the challenges of our world. But… I do believe that God is active in our world. And I believe that Jesus shows God’s way through the gift of love, a love that sometimes surprises us with how it smells, tastes, feels, looks and sounds.
In these days of Lent, and as we come to the time of Holy, I ask you to receive the surprising love of Jesus given FOR YOU. And then ponder: How do we – as a church, as a community, love Jesus? And then… don’t be afraid to make it personal - How do you love Jesus?... Amen.
1 Dan Clendenin, Journey with Jesus, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay/ 2025
April 6, 2025 + Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane