In this last week I have had a realisation. This is that my age is 46 and I am actually genuinely in my mid-late 40s. This all happened after I went to the hairdresser. I really liked my hair cut, but when I got home I thought to myself that I look like I am in my 40s. Well, clearly this is correct, but for some strange reason it surprised me.
I was watching TV and an advert came on for a kettle. I was fascinated by this kettle, again I am my age, but it was called a calm kettle. I have never heard of a stressed kettle but this kettle boils very quietly and has a soothing light that comes on when it is boiled. I liked the look of this, it looked nice and comforting.
When I looked at the gospel reading for today (John 12:1-8) I thought of comfort. Jesus was at the home of his friends. I always really like to think of the relationship of Jesus with Mary, Martha and Lazarus as the comfort of being with your closest friends. The type of people you can sit and talk with, laugh with, cry with. In the reading today Jesus had an unusual experience but it was one of comfort. Mary anointed him for his burial.
This may sound like an odd thing for a friend to do, but in this beautiful and intimate moment, Mary prepared Jesus for what would come next. She had heard Jesus talk and she knew what was going to happen to Him at some stage.
By wiping his feet with her hair she was showing true intimacy. It is a beautiful moment of friendship and love for her Lord. Mary, the friend of Jesus who had sat at His feet listening to Him, now had the chance to do something for Him as she anointed Him and wiped His feet. Rather than telling Jesus that there was no way that He was going to die, she did something wonderful. Mary had a realisation which was that she could help Jesus in a new way as she helped Him on to the next stage of His life.
Judas had another realisation and that was how much the ointment that she used cost. John the writer of the gospel makes it clear for us that he has background information. This was that Judas was a thief and not necessarily a person to be trusted with the money the disciples had. Of course we can see forward in time and we know that Judas was a definite baddie who was going to betray Jesus for money.
Back to today. It is passion Sunday and there are a number of realisations that we may be arriving at. Firstly, it is only one week to holy week. Secondly, that means our lenten disciplines are nearly at an end. I am thinking that a really good realisation would be like the one that Mary had when she anointed the feet of Jesus. This is that we have a week to prepare for holy week and what might God ask of us in this week ?
Perhaps to prepare ourselves for the continuing journey of lent and as we come towards the end, to start thinking of what have we learnt in this time about God and our relationship with Him and others.
Through my lenten discipline I have realised that I have wasted hours looking at YouTube reels on the internet when I could have been reading. I want to keep reading more after Easter.
Maybe in the last weeks of lent we could think of something that we might have liked to have done and do it. I used to give up certain behaviour patterns in lent, this went well and I have stuck to the changes. Would it matter if I hadn’t though?
Yes, it would. This is because lent can be a time of transformation. In the reading from the letter to the Philippians (3:4b-14) we heard about the changes that had happened for the apostle Paul. He had been a Jew, and in the letter he was explaining how much he had changed. Not just this, but through this how he had come to the realisation that all the things he had gained and learned were nothing compared to knowing Jesus.
This is brilliant, Paul knew that he had begun a journey of faith with Jesus and he had not come to the end of it yet. This meant that for him the end goal was heaven and to be with Jesus. However, whilst he was waiting for this, nothing was going to stop him from trying to be more like Jesus.
I am not going to suggest that we live our lives always looking forward to being with Jesus in heaven. However, imagine if the most important thing in our lives was to be more and more like Jesus. This is a challenge that we can all try day by day and it is what we are doing.
The realisation for us must be that as we have been taking time to get closer to God through lent, this is not something that should end. We can continually look to God to change us.
I know that I am still 46, and I know that one day I may have a calming kettle. I want to know even more that I am trying to be more and more like Jesus every day. If we all did this just imagine how prepared we would be for holy week, Easter and always.
In the reading from the prophet Isaiah (43:16-21) we heard that God was doing a new thing. I have admitted that I like things to be comfortable, however I do not want to miss out on God doing a new thing in my life and in the world around us. Mary could have just treated Jesus as normal and missed out on the new thing that was going to happen which was that He was going to be executed but then come back to life. Paul could have stayed as he was and missed out on all that God was offering.
I have the realisation that not only is lent not over yet, but that we need to be alert and awake to see what God wants of us, and if He is doing a new thing. May we always be alert to God. AMEN
