The Anointed One

Series: Vantage Point
Sermon: The Anointed One
George J. Saylor
March 23, 2008

You probably do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. A Russian Communist leader, he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. The story is told that in Kiev in 1930 he addressed a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. He aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it and especially the resurrection. For he knew to take away the resurrection was to take away all the power of Christianity.

An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the
smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin
demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man
approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church:

"CHRIST IS RISEN!"

En masse the crowd arose as one and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder:

"HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

I hold that there is no sweeter sentence in the whole of language. Three little words say it all. So of you here already believe he is the Christ, and he is risen. Some of you are here because you’re trying to figure it out. But I invite all of us to say together those words that capture the promise of our faith- CHRIST IS RISEN…HE IS RISEN INDEED.

I think there is an unwritten rule in advertising that states that all perfume ads have to be totally bizarre. Maybe some have you have noticed this too. Doesn’t it seem that perfume ads are without exception…strange. I think it all started with the Calvin Klein ads from a few years back, but from there is has only gotten worse. Now I can hardly think of an actress or singer that doesn’t have her own perfume- Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, pretty soon Hillary Clinton is gonna have her own perfume. It’s even seeped into men’s ads- have you seen some of these ads for AX cologne? Talk about feeding men’s’ fantasies- put on some cologne and women will throw themselves at you- what a lie- I know, I’ve tried, it doesn’t happen. I finally realized the genius of these ads- the weirder they are, the better I remember them.

Well if the goal and standard of perfume advertising is making it memorable, one perfume ad stands out above all the rest. It is so memorable it has endured to some 2000 years, capturing the attention of men, women, and children. More than just capturing attention, it has even capture the affections, the hearts and minds and devotion of millions.

I want to read this “ad” for you from John 12:1-7.

1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint^[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.^[b]" 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. " It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

The anointing of Jesus takes place the week before Easter, the Passion Week as the church has called it. A surface reading of this text makes it sound like Jesus’ anointing begins Passion Week. But what we see is that John is really highlighting the anointing, which takes place later in the week, at the beginning of his narrative on the last week of Jesus’ life. Apparently, it seems, the anointing was so important to John, so vital to understanding the events of this last week, that he brings it forward to the beginning of the story. Now, the anointing highlights everything that week read about the Passion Week in John. It shades our glasses in reading and understanding the text. So let’s take a closer look now at this anointing, why it is so important, and really, what it is telling us about Jesus, and Easter.

First we take note of who is hosting this dinner party- Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Jesus is in the home of a man he raised from the dead. We talked about that last Sunday. The mere presence of Lazarus, being a guest in his home, underscores the fact that Jesus has the power to raise people from the dead. Whether you love him or hate him, and there were both sides, his power was undeniable.

Here also is Martha, who is remembered from another story as being the sister who busies herself with being a hostess. Here we find her serving once again in verse 2. It seems that old habits diehard. But Jesus doesn’t chastise her, and neither should we. It was a party; someone had to serve, she was happy to do it, in fact it would seem it was her gift.

And we also find Mary, who as the story unfolds, come tso Jesus, anoints his feet with about a pint of nard, an expensive perfume, and she wipes them with her own hair.

Today I want you to understand deeply what it means that we call Jesus the Christ, the anointed one. Our first week of the Vantage point series we talked about Jesus being the Christ, a title given to him. When Jesus asked who do you say I am, his friend Peter said you are the Christ. That is what Christ means: the anointed one. It’s something we say so often, but few grasp or understand what it really means. But if we’re going to call Jesus the Christ, if we’re going to call this a Christian church, if we’re going to call ourselves Christians or you today are going to consider embracing the Christian faith and world view, and I’m primarily going to speak with you this morning, then I think its pretty important to fully understand what being the Christ, being the anointed one, is really all about.

Anointing was a common practice in ancient Israel, and it was done for a varied of reasons- common purposes for cleanliness, medicinal purposes for healing, sacred purposes like the installation of a king. And the word has worked its way into our common language. We talk about Christening babies and Christening ships, though the two should not be confused because it wouldn’t be a good idea to whack babies with bottles of champagne. Anyways, Christening served many purposes in ancient times.

IN our text we read that Jesus was the honored guest of the dinner party. As such it would have been customary, it would have been expected, that he would be anointed with perfume. Guests would have travel miles on the dusty roads, working up a sweat most likely, and they didn’t have the soaps and deodorants like we do today. But they did have perfumes, and it would have been expected to anoint the guests, especially the guest of honor, to help them freshen up. Well Jesus is clearly the guest of honor, but surprisingly this is not why he was anointed, or why we call him the Christ.

Well we also find in scripture that anointing was a common practice in the installation of a person to the offices of prophet, priest and king. We know that the people understood Jesus to be a prophet. We know from the story of Jesus entry into Jerusalem that the people were ready and willing to crown him king if he would lead a rebellion against the roman oppressors. The crowds had gathered for the Passover and went out to meet Jesus. They spread out palm branches before Jesus’ feet. This was a symbol of victory. They shouted “Hosanna” which means to save us, because they through Jesus would be the one to save them. They shouted, “Blessed is the King of Israel!” The people were still convinced, after all the rotten kings of Israel and Judah, that they needed another earthly King to save them from oppression. Well Jesus would be King, Scripture is very clear on this. But not in this way, not in the earthly sense that the crowds imagined. This is not why Jesus was anointed either.

This anointing also gives us a special foreshadowing of Judas betrayal. John give us more insight into Judas’ character than any of the Gospels, and he ads a vital note on Judas’ response to the anointing. When Mary anointed her she did so with about a pint of nard, and expensive perfume that had to be imported from India. That small pint was worth about a year’s wages for a common laborer. It was probably a family heirloom, or something Mary had worked a long time to save up for herself. To give some perspective, the average income for Canadian family households was over $65,000.

Judas complains about this extravagant waste. He says the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Doesn’t that sound so good, so Christian? I can just hear myself saying something like that. But Judas’ intentions were not noble. John tells us that Judas was a thief and a traitor. And when the opportunity would present itself, Judas would betray Jesus for not even a year’s wages, not even half a year’s wages, but for 30 pieces of silver, worth a few thousand dollars by today’s standards. In this passage John reveals Judas’ true character as a thief and a traitor, but again, that is not why this story is told, or why Jesus was anointed.

SO why was Jesus anointed? It wasn’t for his place of honor, or to coronate him as king, or to reveal Judas’ character. In Jesus’ own words, he was anointed for his burial.

If the band was still up here this is the spot where we’d have the keyboard come in with some tense music. For his burial?! Jesus wasn’t even sick, and this is a party, Jesus is the honored guest, the crowds adore him, he has demonstrated he ability to turn water into wine, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, free the captives, feed the multitudes and even, even raise the dead, as underscored by his presence in Lazarus’ home. Jesus is the most alive man the people have ever known. This was his hour!

But Jesus had not been keeping his immanent death a secret. He had told them on numerous occasions that he was going to die. His followers knew that the religious leaders of Israel were trying to kill him. The word was out that if anyone should find out where Jesus was they were to report it so he could be arrested. The disciples were even moving about in secret so they wouldn’t be discovered.

Jesus had predicted his death and told them his hour was about to come- the hour of his crucifixion. Yet no one put this together, no one except maybe Mary. WE can’t say for sure that Mary knew Jesus was going to be killed, for the text never says that. It merely says that she anointed him. It says that Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened and learned. This is the same Mary, who had buried her own brother, only to see him raised from the dead by Jesus, and to now sit and eat with him again. This is Mary who calls Jesus her teacher, her Lord. Now Mary takes a pint of nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wipes them with her own hair.

This was the kind of thing that ruins men’s careers and women’s reputations. But that doesn’t seem to matter to Mary now. She lavishes on Jesus what is perhaps her life savings, maybe a family heirloom. The text says that the whole room was immediately filled with the fragrance. There was no exchanging or returning this gift to Jesus. Mary offered it completely and unabashedly.

Then she takes her own hair, a woman’s glory, and wipes Jesus’ feet, the part of a person. What humility. Her glory was nothing compared even to his dirty feet. This would have been completely scandalous. You see, in Jewish culture, women were never so forward, and more, women never let their hair down in public. A woman’s hair was her glory; it was a sign of her womanhood. To let it down showed complete intimacy and vulnerability. It showed absolute love and commitment.

I’ve read that of all the senses, the sense of smell is the strongest trigger for memories. I have no idea how they would study that, but I’m sure that no one in that room would ever smell the aroma of that perfume without immediately remembering this moment. This moment where Jesus is prepared for his burial.

Mark and Matthew add a final remark in their accounts that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what Mary did would be told in memory of her? John doesn’t repeat the command, he simply follows it. He tells Mary’s story. And now, once again, we have too.

But I thing there is another way that we tell Mary’s story. Every time we speak of Jesus as the Christ we proclaim him the anointed one? Every time we say “Jesus Christ” we give him the title the anointed one. Every time we bestow on him that title we remember that he was anointed to die. And Jesus’ death and burial are central to his mission. In fact, so central, so vital, so important is to grasp the significance of Easter that the nearly one quarter of the gospels, these stories about Jesus, talk about this last week of Jesus’ life. They breeze over the birth, the completely skip his childhood and coming of age except for one verse. Three years of ministry and teaching comprise only about half of what they wrote, a few chapters pick up the week just after Easter, but more than anything else, they pour over the significance of this week, and this day. If we are going to understand the biblical vantage of Jesus, then we have to understand the centrality of Jesus death and burial.

The first song of the church is found in Philippians chapter 2 and it talks about of Jesus’ death and burial. Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider remaining equally God something to hold on to, and so he humbled himself, he became flesh and blood. He lived among us and ministered to us. He was obedient even to death, death on a cross. This is called the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and it is the very climax of his earthly ministry.

Atonement is when someone or something steps in for another to right a wrong. Jesus stepped in to set us right with God, and to begin setting to right all the world in the grand sweeping plan of renewing the creation. The work of Jesus death on the cross is to put us at one again with God- to renew and restore the relationship we were created for. On that cross Jesus did something more than just take on humanity, he took on himself all our sins- all the evil, all the wrong, all the injustice, all the sin that we’ve done and that we will do. In him is buried everything wrong in the world and in our lives.

And when Jesus rose from the grave on Easter morning he left behind all that separates us from the love and life of God. Easter morning is the great cosmic I told you so” of Jesus. Not an “In your face- I told you so.” But the open arms of our gracious God saying I told you I so- I told you I was the resurrection and the life. I told you I would come back to you. And I promise I will come again to you. This is promise and hope of Easter.

My first year as a campus minister I became very close with a student named Dan. He was a committed Christian and decided he would be a Resident Hall advisor. We decided together that this would be our in to start a bible study. So we agreed together that we would pray for the men of his dorm all summer, and when the school year began we would start a bible study.

When you arrive on campus it is a madhouse. There is electricity in the air, especially with the freshmen. They are thrilled and terrified at the same time. And to their surprise, everyone is vying for their attention: student groups, athletics, fraternities and sororities, student affair and administration. Dan and I knew we had to strike fast. Students make their commitments fast on a college campus, and early decisions can form and shape the rest of the college experience. If the church was going to play any role in these students’ lives, we knew our best bet was to hook them fast. Life has a way to building inertia, so we were going to make Christian worship, fellowship, and ministry a central part from the beginning.

The first day Dan and I were prowling his halls. We were having a bible study that night in his room. We met a number of students who genuinely expressed interest. We met a lot who genuine didn’t. It should not surprise you that many who did not express interest gave the reason that they had grown up in the church, basically knew what it was all about, and were interested in other things. One such guy was Brian Grogan. He grew up in the Catholic Church and figured he knew the deal. But he showed up that night anyways since his roommate was coming.

That night we packed out the room. It was amazing. And of course in the first few weeks many guys quickly dropped out. But we had a core group of about ten guys, and Brian was one of them. We went through the gospel of John. Brian kept coming and asking questions, kept getting drawn in more and more. He came to bible study, to our Friday night fellowship, he even signed up of our mission trip to Jamaica. It didn’t hurt that there were some really good-looking girls in our fellowship.

Towards the middle of the school year Brian comes to my office and tells me he accepted Christ. You could see the joy on his face. It was a genuine conversion experience. He was now a Christian and wanted to grow in his faith. He said he needed more, could I meet with him and talk to him more. I thought about it for about one second and said of course. SO we talked. He said he wanted more. We started to meet every week. Brian grew in his faith by leaps and bounds. He became a leader in our ministry. He became the president of his fraternity. He would bring guys to our fellowship meetings on Friday nights, before the frat parties would begin. Brian’s life was transformed, and he was working to transform his fraternity and he fellow students. Brian planned on going into campus ministry because of the impact it made on his life.

But Brian was also a computer science major in debt. And in 1999 computer science majors were a hot commodity. Brian decided he would work for a while with computers, pay off debts, then become a poor campus minister like me. In 1999 Robin and I decided it was time for me to follow the cal to seminary. The day we left Brian was one of the last persons we saw. We hugged, joked around, promised to keep in touch, and said “See you later.”

Six months later, on an icy road at night in New York, Brian’s car went into a spin. He was hit by and oncoming truck and went through his window. He held on for two weeks in a coma, but finally died of massive head trauma.

My last words to Brian were “See you later.” Had I known that was the last time I’d see Brian, what would I have said? I’m not sure. I would have hugged him, held on to him, encourgaged him to make a difference while he could, life life to the fullest, all that stuff. But as I’ve thought about those last words many times, I have no regrets. Because that is the promise of Easter- that all who give their lives to Jesus will see one another later and forever.

But the promise is not just for the great beyond. It’s to begin to taste and experience the resurrection of Jesus here and now. We don’t know how to life until we give our lives to one who conquered death.