Stay grounded in the truth: You matter.

Lent 5C - Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:4b-14, John 12:1-8

We are one week away from Palm Sunday when Jesus will enter Jerusalem, a city in the grip of Pilate’s treacherous regime. In this Sunday’s gospel , just outside Jerusalem, Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus’ feet with a pound of expensive ointment. It was a sacrament of love and care, perhaps offered to remind Jesus that he mattered. He was loved.

The central lie of the regime with which we contend is that some people do not matter. Not women needing reproductive health care. Not refugees or Medicaid recipients. Not those in homeless shelters that depend on federal aid or people overseas who relied on USAID. Not federal employees. Not retirees on Social Security.

The lie is so insidious that we may even start to believe it about ourselves. We don’t matter, so we don’t look for ways and places to speak or act because we can’t make a difference.

But it is a lie that we don’t matter. One way to call out the lie is to try to figure out what we can do or how we help. There are protests. There are emails and calls. There are prayers which can be prayed.

All of God’s people matter, and that means us and the people we know. That’s the truth. Should someone we know need reminding that they matter, offer them some sacrament of love and care in honor of Mary of Bethany. It’s a great way to stay grounded in the truth.

Peace.

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Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

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A word about Judas. The gospel of John is a complicated bit of Scripture. Among other things, it has several layers. In one, the character of Judas probably symbolized a Jewish community which had expelled Jewish Jesus-followers. The criticism of Judas’ character may have been a reaction to the expulsion rather than a memory of an historical disciple.

Retrieving the character of Judas from the anti-Jewish rhetoric gives us an opportunity to reflect with empathy on the times when good people — faced with a crisis — have been called on to make difficult decisions.

I think of Judas as a trusted member of Jesus’ inner circle who disagreed with Jesus not on core values, but on how to live them in the chaos of the moment. Judas did what he thought was right by turning Jesus over to the authorities — a decision made with the best of intentions which went horrifically wrong in ways Judas did not anticipate.