A Heart In Sync With His

Read: John 12:1-8

She did this in preparation for my burial.

John 12:7

NOT LONG BEFORE Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus’ feet, she had directed a very pointed question at him: “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). Her grief and the weeping of others made him angry—not at her or them, but at the devastation of death that had long ravaged humanity. Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying, of course; observers watching this scene accused him of missing an opportunity to do just that (John 11:37). But as we have seen, Jesus knew what he was doing and how he would reveal his glory in this tragic situation. Mary took note. Her doubt at Lazarus’s tomb turned into faith as Jesus approached his own.

No one else seemed to be convinced that Jesus meant what he said about dying in Jerusalem. But Mary, seemingly aware of the meaning of her actions, took an expensive bottle of nard perfume and anointed Jesus with it. Whether she knew the significance or not, he certainly did. She was preparing him for burial, he said. She was displaying her devotion in the face of the world’s fickleness, her affirmation before the time of his abandonment, her belief in the power and life of Jesus’ words even in the time of his death. Her heart was going with him to the grave.

That’s the highest possible justification for our Lenten focus on the temporality of this age. We are connecting our hearts to Jesus and letting him take us with him to the grave. We are not in denial about the fleeting nature of this world, and we have no illusions about escaping it. No, we face the Cross and death in full knowledge that we, with him, will overcome. The way out of this broken world is not in fleeing from it but in going through it. When we do that wrapped up in the unquenchable life of the divine Son, we inevitably come out unscathed.

We can’t physically anoint Jesus for burial as Mary did, but we can submit our hearts to the path of his obedience. While most of the world aims for an upward trajectory, we know the only way up is to go down. We humble ourselves, we carry a cross, and we enter the tomb with Jesus. Buried with him, we come out in his resurrection—fully alive, healed and whole, victorious and unassailable. The world would never have figured out this path, but like Mary, we listened to Jesus. His words have set us free.

PRAYER

Lord, I know that if my heart is with you in death, it remains with you in life—flourishing, growing, fully alive with joy. Bind me to yourself in every way, that I might experience your life in every way. Amen.

REFLECTION

How does our focus on the temporality of this age connect us with Jesus’ mission at the cross? How does it deepen our experience of the resurrection?

Further reading: Colossians 2:9-15

Awake, O heart, the morn is bright,

All doubt and fear is o’er!

The Lord is ris’n in power and might,

He lives forevermore!

“AWAKE AND SING,” ALICE JEAN CLEATOR