There Will Be Blood

Scripture: The Fifth Sunday in Lent, A.D. 2016 C

Homily:

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the ancient city of King David and prophesied birthplace of the Messiah, God’s Anointed. It was in Bethlehem that shepherds raised the lambs that were destined to be sacrificed at the Passover festival in Jerusalem. And so the very moment of Jesus’ birth points to the nature of His death. Christmas points us to Easter. The cradle points to the Cross.

The Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of our Lord are the climax of Jesus’ ministry and of the Christian year. This is what it’s all about. Everything we do here, everything we are together, revolves around Easter, the Passover of our Lord. Holy Week is the great Sabbath festival of our entire year. And today, brothers and sisters—today our job is to set the stage.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as befits the Lamb of God, but He was raised far to the north in Galilee. Galilee was what we might call rural Israel, small town Israel: not terribly appealing to big-city Jerusalem, but a nice place to raise a family. Here Jesus spent most of His life in anonymous, quiet labor, like most all of us. His adoptive father, respected for his piety and wisdom, taught Jesus both a trade and the faith of His people. His mother, a woman with an extraordinary upbringing of her own, told Him astonishing stories of His youth and their adventures in Egypt.

The region of the Galilee centers around a great lake, the Sea of Galilee, ringed by various towns: including Tiberius, a pleasure resort for Roman soldiers; and Magdala, an Israelite town whose girls had a reputation, deserved or otherwise, for fraternizing with said soldiers. In Magdala lived three siblings, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We know that they must have been wealthy, because they owned a second home down south in the town of Bethany, just two miles east of Jerusalem. It seems that their family knew Jesus growing up, as they would prove vital to His life and His later ministry.

Around age 30, something changed for Jesus. We don’t know what, exactly. Perhaps it was that the time had come for the Messiah to appear, according to the prophecy of Daniel. Or perhaps it was, as I suspect, that His father Joseph died at peace. Whatever the cause, Jesus traveled to the Jordan River to be baptized by John, who proclaimed Him as the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world. Thus began three and a half years of public ministry, during which Jesus traveled about the Galilee healing, preaching, and proclaiming to the world that in Him the Kingdom of God had drawn near. He settled in Capernaum, a city along a major trade route, so that stories of His ministry and miracles traveled all throughout the land. His fame grew continually.

On holy festivals, He would travel to Jerusalem, as had been His custom since His youth. And when He arrived to celebrate whatever holiday, He would stay in Bethany, at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, His friends from the Galilee.

It was a volatile time. Tensions were high. The Israelites desperately awaited the coming of the Messiah, who would surely liberate them from the yoke of the Roman Empire. Several such would-be Messiahs had arisen already, only to be crushed. The Romans understood Israelites to be a rebellious and unruly people, and so reacted to any perceived insurrection with immediate and decisive force. Jerusalem, as the center of Israelite faith and identity, was kept under particularly close guard.

Now it came about, after more than three years of Jesus’ ministry, that Lazarus grew deathly ill. The Passover was nearly upon them, and Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus pleading with Him to come early, that their brother might be healed. Yet Jesus, knowing that this would be His last Passover in Jerusalem, tarried. And by the time He arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead in the tomb four long days.

The whole town was in an uproar. Lazarus must have been prominent indeed, for great crowds had gathered all about his tomb in mourning, large groups having come from Jerusalem. And Jesus saw their grief, and wept. Then He did something remarkable. Something powerful. Something foolish. He called for the stone to be rolled away from the tomb. “Please,” the sisters begged, “it’s been four days. There will be a stench.” But Jesus opened the tomb and called out, “Lazarus! Come forth!”

And before all the crowds, before all the mourners, before all the great men of Jerusalem and the priests and scribes of the Temple—Lazarus came forth. Still wrapped in his winding sheet. And Jesus unbound him and let him go.

Keep in mind that this was not the first time that Jesus had raised someone from the dead, but never before had He done so in such a blatantly public display of His power. The others had been private affairs, dismissed as waking someone from sleep. This was the raising of the dead from four days of rotting in the tomb, in full view of the powers that be, not two miles away from Jerusalem, hardly a week before the Passover. And they all went nuts.

Look what He did! Look what this famous Rabbi has done! Look where and when He has chosen to reveal Himself! Don’t you see? He must be the Messiah, the Son of David! He has come to Jerusalem to set His people free!

It’s all out in the open now. Jerusalem has seen. Rome has seen. The people are ready to revolt. And no matter what occurs, by God, there will surely be blood. Jesus can no longer be ignored by the Legions of Caesar and the priests of the Temple. Now He must be dealt with. Now He must be killed.

And all that brings us to our Gospel this morning. It’s Friday night. Jesus is staying in Bethany, with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Lazarus says not a word, perhaps still in shock. It’s an unnervingly quiet scene, given the frothing hullabaloo that has only recently occurred. There’s literally an ex-corpse in the room. People are wondering what Jesus will do now. Surely He won’t come into the city for the Passover, will He? Surely He must flee, or else be arrested and executed. But Jesus has no intention of running. He will ride into Jerusalem Sunday morning.

Enter Mary Magdalene, carrying a pound of fragrant ointment costing 300 denarii, a full year’s wage. And weeping, she anoints His head and feet, mixing oil with her tears, and drying His feet with her hair. It is an astonishingly intimate act of humility, of thankfulness, and of grief. Her brother has died and been brought forth from the grave. Now, she knows, her Lord must die as well. And who will be left to raise Him when He is gone?

Judas, perhaps the most enigmatic of Christ’s Apostles, and the one who will betray Him, berates Mary for this obscene overindulgence. Who is she to waste such wealth? Who is she to lavish opulence upon the Lord in this passionate way? We know about the girls of Magdala, after all. Where did she even procure such riches? Judas seems disgusted by the depths of her gratitude, and of her pain. And he seems thoroughly unnerved by the genuine, gut-wrenching love that she has for Jesus.

Jesus, however, rebukes Judas’ petty attacks. “We will always stand with the poor,” He says. “But she has prepared Me for My burial. Don’t you see, Judas? Mary has anointed the Anointed One for death.”

And that, right there, is the crux of the matter. That, I think, is precisely why Judas is so upset, and Mary is so beside herself. Jesus has crossed the point of no return. If He enters Jerusalem, there will be blood, and it will almost certainly be His. This is what Judas cannot stand: a Messiah, a King, a God, who would go meekly unto death rather than raise the sword and burn Rome to the ground. And this is what Mary cannot stand: that the Lord who has shown her such astonishing love and mercy would suffer so because of the grace that He has poured out upon her and upon her family.

And so the stage is set. The die is cast. Come Sunday, the King will march on Jerusalem for the final Passover cup. Jerusalem, the very heart of God’s promise to His people. Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones the messengers of God. Jerusalem, where the whole world shall be remade.

And we shall greet Him as the King. And we shall lay palm branches before Him. And we shall nail Him to a Cross to die.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.