Not around forever

John 12:1-11

         If the message of Easter is dying and rising to new life, the message of todays passage is intimately related to it in respecting life and everything we are graced with.

         The trio of Lazarus, Martha and Mary still some of the best friends (and disciples) Jesus has and Mary has gone and anointed Jesus' feet with costly perfume. Anyone could easily say "what a waste of money". Jesus rightfully points out that he will not be there much longer and so it is fitting. There will always be a time for being practical. To our embarassment, the poor are still with us today and it is not as simple as go "get a job" or that they are lazy.  Jesus points to something fundamental to life as humans and another parting messagge to us as if dying for us is not enough.

          I have been close to many people over the years and there are a few that trouble me. In one case I spoke to the person on the phone and was asked to come and visit which I never got a round to accomplshing. Then that person died. It certainly was a message to me. Sadly it was a message revisited many years later. In the second instance I let fear of being present to a person whom I knew was facing iminent death from cancer.  Opportunities lost becasue they were 'not around forever'.

          When we resepect life and the people God has graced us with in our lives, it means not taking them for granted. How many stories are you aware of where people died suddenly when a loved one did not have a chance to say goodbye or show them the love that was in their heart. If we appreciate the gifts that God has graced us with, we need to break the jar of expensive perfume on them. We need to show them in every way we can how much they are loved and before it is too late.

        This is not limited to the human relationshis in our life but also God. Sometimes we put off that intimate relationship with God we are constantly being called to. We put it off for this or that. Our lives are too busy, our obligations get in the way. But just like any human relationship that needs attention and communication to survive, so does our relationship with God.

        What a great week to rekindle the flame of love, the relationship with your creator who calls to you every day.

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.