Love Extravagantly

Gifts, even the carefully chosen and most precious gifts, are signs or tokens of something even more precious. You can plan a gift for a dear person in your life, and you know deep down the gift only points to the more precious thing behind it: love. The person is the treasure; the love is the treasure. The gift is the symbol; the love and esteem are of incalculable value. I can put this more simply, perhaps. When you give a gift, you care about the gift, but you care inexpressibly more about the loved one receiving it.

A story of extravagant giving and unfathomable love comes to us through the Gospel According to John:

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." (John 12:1-8)

The ugly part of the experience is Judas’s devaluing of love. Sadly, this is what people do so commonly. It puts us in acts of accusation, judgment, and jockeying for power. This is not giving; it is taking. The most beautiful part of this story is about the love and generosity of Mary of Bethany. She goes overboard with her gift to Jesus, anointing his feet with perfume that would cost wage earnings of an entire year. Way over-the-top…she loves Jesus enormously.

This Gospel for 5 Lent in Year C follows the Gospel from the week before, The Prodigal Son. In the story of the lost son, we see extravagance in the father’s love and forgiveness for his boys. This father’s gift too is over the top. In the story at hand, Mary, her sister, brother, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany, all dearly love Jesus. Mary loves Jesus so completely she is lost in this gift-giving. Such an expression of her enormous love: she “took a pound of costly perfume, …anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair.”  In offering this, “the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Imagine being so aware of our love for the Savior we lose ourselves in expressing it. We would find we are beside ourselves with love. As with the fragrance, traces of our worship would be all about us in actions and relations. The meaning of “beside yourself” is built into the meaning of “ecstatic.” Our modern cultures coach us hard toward toning everything down, settling ourselves, chilling out. Things are safer that way. The love of God is made to surpass all that control. What about giving in ways that match the love? We might let go, crack open the pound of pure nard.

Let’s challenge each other to love Jesus Christ beyond the tame and nominal levels. Day by day, quiet-time by quiet-time, let’s open up the Author of Love, and feel our love swell. In the weeks to come, in Holy Week and Easter, perhaps even today, give the gift of yourself. Open up and love extravagantly.