anonymous and proud
reverend ken locke of nashville's venerable, dignified, and quirky downtown presbyterian knocked my socks off this week with his weekly e-votion. it bears amplification:
Of our four Gospels, Mark was certainly the first to be written; probably about 30 years after Jesus died. Most of what Mark has to say appears in the other Gospels, though often with a few variations. The following story, set just a few days before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, appears in Matthew and John but not Luke. I have no idea why it doesn’t appear in Luke. It just doesn’t. Anyway, it’s an interesting story with important things to say. This is how Mark presents what happened:
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Mark 14:3-9
In Matthew’s version of this story, verse 9 is missing. In John’s version the woman is given a name. She is Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the man whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
I don’t know why these versions are all different. You know how it is with family stories. They “shift” over time. Details are added and remembered. Locations are fussed about until no one is quite sure where something happened. But in their broadest sense the stories are nevertheless true.
Both Matthew and John’s accounting of this event have merit, but my favorite is Mark’s. I particularly like verse 9. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her. How marvelous is it that this woman’s story, which will be told in the whole world, never gives the woman a name? This nameless, faceless woman comes in with a jar of perfume worth about a year’s salary. She pours it all over Jesus’ head. The other people in the room, probably men, can’t appreciate the gesture. All they see is money being wasted. (Don’t you hate to go out with people like that? They can’t enjoy the movie or supper because they are fussing about the price of the ticket and the tip the whole time!) Jesus is the only one who really gets what is going on and he praises her to the skies but he never mentions her name. To this day she is only (merely?) an unnamed woman. Maybe that’s why John gave her a name.
Personally, I’m glad she doesn’t have a name. I’m glad one of these marvelous saints is conspicuously anonymous. It makes me feel better about myself.
Let’s be honest – how long is my name going to be mentioned after I’m gone? Certainly my picture will hang on the wall in our church’s history room but somehow I just don’t think that, in the year 4009, my picture will mean a whole lot to very many people. With a few exceptions most of us are going to go the way of Keats’ “Ozzymandus.” At best we’ll be a name half-buried in the sand.
The good news is our works can live on long after we are gone. All our efforts to glorify Jesus with our time and patience and love and costly perfume don’t just dry up. In one form or another they last and last and last. The first law of thermodynamics tells us that energy can change shape and form but cannot be destroyed. I firmly believe something similar is true of our efforts to praise Jesus. The praise shapes people who shape people who shape people. The praise brings hope to people who bring hope to people who bring hope to people. The praise brings comfort to people who bring comfort to people who bring comfort to people. Our praise of Jesus moves from person to person and event to event until the original form we gave it is no longer recognizable. It keeps moving until you and I are long gone from this earth. But it keeps moving and keeps shaping and keeps bringing hope and keeps bringing comfort.
One day you and I will be like this woman. Our names will have been long forgotten. But wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, the praise we have done will live on. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Of our four Gospels, Mark was certainly the first to be written; probably about 30 years after Jesus died. Most of what Mark has to say appears in the other Gospels, though often with a few variations. The following story, set just a few days before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, appears in Matthew and John but not Luke. I have no idea why it doesn’t appear in Luke. It just doesn’t. Anyway, it’s an interesting story with important things to say. This is how Mark presents what happened:
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Mark 14:3-9
In Matthew’s version of this story, verse 9 is missing. In John’s version the woman is given a name. She is Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the man whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
I don’t know why these versions are all different. You know how it is with family stories. They “shift” over time. Details are added and remembered. Locations are fussed about until no one is quite sure where something happened. But in their broadest sense the stories are nevertheless true.
Both Matthew and John’s accounting of this event have merit, but my favorite is Mark’s. I particularly like verse 9. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her. How marvelous is it that this woman’s story, which will be told in the whole world, never gives the woman a name? This nameless, faceless woman comes in with a jar of perfume worth about a year’s salary. She pours it all over Jesus’ head. The other people in the room, probably men, can’t appreciate the gesture. All they see is money being wasted. (Don’t you hate to go out with people like that? They can’t enjoy the movie or supper because they are fussing about the price of the ticket and the tip the whole time!) Jesus is the only one who really gets what is going on and he praises her to the skies but he never mentions her name. To this day she is only (merely?) an unnamed woman. Maybe that’s why John gave her a name.
Personally, I’m glad she doesn’t have a name. I’m glad one of these marvelous saints is conspicuously anonymous. It makes me feel better about myself.
Let’s be honest – how long is my name going to be mentioned after I’m gone? Certainly my picture will hang on the wall in our church’s history room but somehow I just don’t think that, in the year 4009, my picture will mean a whole lot to very many people. With a few exceptions most of us are going to go the way of Keats’ “Ozzymandus.” At best we’ll be a name half-buried in the sand.
The good news is our works can live on long after we are gone. All our efforts to glorify Jesus with our time and patience and love and costly perfume don’t just dry up. In one form or another they last and last and last. The first law of thermodynamics tells us that energy can change shape and form but cannot be destroyed. I firmly believe something similar is true of our efforts to praise Jesus. The praise shapes people who shape people who shape people. The praise brings hope to people who bring hope to people who bring hope to people. The praise brings comfort to people who bring comfort to people who bring comfort to people. Our praise of Jesus moves from person to person and event to event until the original form we gave it is no longer recognizable. It keeps moving until you and I are long gone from this earth. But it keeps moving and keeps shaping and keeps bringing hope and keeps bringing comfort.
One day you and I will be like this woman. Our names will have been long forgotten. But wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, the praise we have done will live on. Thanks be to God. Amen.
