'She is a bit over the top.' 'He takes it all a bit too seriously.' Perhaps we may all at times be somewhat wary of those we feel are a bit too enthusiastic about their faith in Christ. It can all seem rather embarrassing.
We might then be unsettled by our readings today. It could seem that Paul takes everything a bit too seriously in his words to the Philippians about the significance of Christ in his life, and Mary (Mary of Bethany, one of Jesus' close friends) goes over the top in her embarrassing public expression of devotion to Jesus.
Paul's words and Mary's action confront us with the question: 'What is of greatest value to us?'
Writing to the Philippians, Paul stresses the central significance of Christ in his life. Indeed, in contrast with knowing Christ, nothing else in his life has value, he says. When we really ponder his words, they are very shocking. But first, we need to understand the background to what he says. His concern is to warn the Philippians against those Christians who insist that they must be circumcised and follow the Jewish Law. So, to begin with, he outlines to the Philippians his own religious credentials as a Jew. Look, he says, I have as good a pedigree as others, if not better. Paul was born a Jew, circumcised on the eighth day as the Law required, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, the only son of Jacob who was born in the promised land. More than that, he dedicated himself to an especially careful observance of the Law in becoming a Pharisee. BUT, Paul says, all these top religious credentials mean nothing in comparison with knowing Christ.
'Yet, whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.'
Then Paul goes even further, and says that everything else he regards as 'rubbish' in comparison with knowing Christ. The Greek word is in fact much stronger than 'rubbish' and means something more like 'dung', 'waste food', or 'excrement.' 'Shit' as we might say. Bible translators tend to play down the coarseness of Paul's language here, but he is deliberately using such shocking language to make his point.
Paul has reassessed his whole life and what is important to him in the light of Christ. The things he used to take pride in and base his identity on are now set aside. Paul realizes that pride in national and religious background can result in blind self-confidence, self-justification and competition with others. And as we see in our world today this can be very dangerous and lead to terrible violence.
For Paul, even his past religious credentials are nothing; what matters is knowing Christ. He's not here talking about knowing Christ as a theological topic to be discussed but as a person to be loved. He knows Christ not just as Lord in an abstract sense, but as 'my Lord.' Paul is speaking of a relationship with Christ, a personal intimacy with him, and this relationship is ongoing. It's not just a matter of a once off reassessment of his life, but an ongoing choice to put his relationship with Christ before everything and to ground his life on nothing else.
This governs the future direction of his life too. His knowledge of Christ is not static but growing. Paul is aware there is more to know, more to learn, more to receive, from Christ and this is his goal. 'Forgetting what lies behind' he will keep 'straining forward to what lies ahead' as he grows in knowing Christ.
'I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,' Paul says. Knowing Christ is more than just knowing about him and his teaching, it also includes sharing in his life and becoming like him; being joined to him in his death and resurrection. This is what we celebrate when someone is baptized: that our lives are joined to Christ's life. Christ's death and resurrection are played out in our own daily lives as we slowly die to our old self-centred life and are re-made in his image.
Paul does not speak in a measured and controlled way about his faith in Christ; he speaks passionately and wholeheartedly, proclaiming that knowing Christ is more important than anything else. Paul has been captivated by Christ; he has been so overwhelmed by what Christ has done for him that he seeks to build his whole life, his identity, his relationships, his ministry, on him. Christ has made Paul his own and now Paul wants to press on to know Christ more completely.
Perhaps we are unsettled by Paul's passionate testimony. Can we say the things that he says: that our status in society, our education, our work in the church, our spiritual achievements are of no value in comparison with our personal knowledge of Christ? We may feel embarrassed by Paul's extreme words; his single-minded devotion is so uncompromising. Doesn't he take it all too seriously; can't we take a more moderate, pragmatic perspective?
Let's turn now to Mary. In showing her devotion to Jesus publicly in such an excruciatingly embarrassing way, surely, we may think, she too goes way over the top.
Jesus has come to Bethany again on his way to Jerusalem, the place of opposition, the place where he knows he will die. His friends at Bethany, Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, give a feast in his honour and, in traditional fashion, Jesus is reclining at table with Lazarus and the other men; and Martha is waiting on them.
And then something unexpected happens. While Jesus is reclining at table, Mary approaches. She is holding a bottle of the most expensive perfume available; and she kneels down and pours it over Jesus' feet. Then she shakes her hair loose – something women usually did only in times of deep grief – and with her hair she wipes Jesus' feet.
For Mary, it is an expression of intense, personal devotion. To the onlookers, it's an extravagant, excessively emotional and frankly very embarrassing thing to have to witness. After a pause, Judas breaks the silence, expressing what many of those present may well have been thinking, and it's a reaction with which, if we are honest, many of us may well sympathise: 'That's all very well,' says Judas 'but do we really have that kind of money to throw around? Couldn't it have been used more sensibly to help the local poor?'
But Jesus himself doesn't seem to mind. In fact, he seems strangely moved, as if Mary's action has struck some deep chord within him. Jesus brushes Judas' objections aside and makes a cryptic comment linking what Mary has just done with the day of his burial... Meanwhile, the rich, beautiful fragrance of the perfume has spread throughout the whole house.
This event made a great impact on those who witnessed it. Perhaps what was especially striking was Jesus' approval of what Mary had done for him. It's not often in the Gospels that Jesus expresses such approval. More typically he seems to feel a sad frustration that even his closest disciples fail to grasp what he is really about. But Mary here has got it right.
Jesus sees in what Mary has done a sign pointing ahead to his death, now only days away. Dead bodies had to be anointed before burial. And Mary has anointed Jesus. So had Mary, unlike the other disciples, really grasped that Jesus must die? It may not be quite that simple but perhaps in some intuitive way Mary senses, much more than the others, that Jesus is a man of sorrows, that suffering is an unavoidable part of his mission, and that this suffering is now coming to a head. Mary may not fully understand what she is doing but she has shown herself to be deeply, instinctively attuned to the mind of Christ. And it moves Jesus deeply that one of his friends, rather than trying to block him on his way to the cross (as they usually do) actually seems in some sense to be with him on that way. It's perhaps fitting that it is a woman who does this; this is one of many incidents in Jesus' passion which emphasise women sharing in painful solidarity with Jesus, just as the women stand by the cross and weep by the tomb.
Mary glimpses something of the costly self-giving of Jesus. In contrast to the calculating words of Judas who is focused simply on the monetary value of the perfume, Mary's action points to the costliness and beauty of Jesus' self-giving love seen supremely in his coming death. And her extravagant act of devotion suggests her desire to somehow join with him in that journey of costly love. Mary has seen something of the surpassing value of knowing Christ and sharing in his sufferings which Paul speaks of.
The words of Paul and the action of Mary may both seem to be over the top to us. Judas' self-interested and calculating perspective may be more familiar to us, and perhaps more often the attitude of our own hearts. But the attitudes of Paul and Mary are a challenge to us. They respond in such seemingly extreme ways because they have grasped - or rather have been grasped by – something of inestimable value. We will only be able to respond wholeheartedly to Christ, to yearn to press on to know him more and more, if we have grasped the depths of his love and all that he has done for us.
It's not simply about knowing about Jesus Christ and his teaching, but knowing him in an intimate personal way and allowing our lives to be joined to his. As we approach Passiontide, Holy Week and Easter, do we want to know Christ more deeply? Can we dare to open our minds and hearts to enter into the story of Christ's passion, death and resurrection, and to truly take it to heart? Like Mary and Paul, can we allow ourselves to be captivated by Christ and his love?
This may change our sense of what is important and valuable in life. Ultimately those things which we may cling to as giving us our identity and our status: our education, our social standing, our achievements, our ministry in the church may simply lead us to a blind self-confidence and competition with others. All our credentials are nothing in comparison with what Christ has done for us and the call to respond and grow in his love.
May we all this Holy Week and Easter have a fresh sense of the 'surpassing value of knowing Christ' and a renewed desire to allow our lives to be shaped by our Crucified and Risen Lord. Then, as the beautiful fragrance filled the whole house, our lives will be filled with the fragrance of Christ's self-giving love.
Helen Marshall