Sex and Death - John 12:1-8

Spikenard (Nardostachys grandiflora or Nardostachys jatamansi; also called nard, nardin,and muskroot): a flowering plant of the Valerian family that grows in the Himalayas of China, India and Nepal.

Worth a year's wages - so it's expensive.

"While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance." (Song of Songs 1:12);  "Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard" (Song of Songs 4:13) - so it's sexy.

You can even buy it as part of a 2nd Temple Incense Kit. Popular for making Hypocras, some say.  And some say it's good for age-old griefs and the transition from life to death.  Some say.

And the scent filled the room.  But which scent?
The sweet smell of the perfume, to be sure.  But that's the top notes to what lies beneath.
The stench of deception?
The vulgar aroma of money? Those 300 denarii that could buy food for a family for a year?
The smell of poverty?  Of rubbish and dirt and unwashed bodies?
The smell of death?
Or the smell of sweat and blood and fear?

It's a sexy thing to do, pouring perfume on someone's feet and wiping it with your hair.  Did Mary know this? Did Jesus?
And it's a reckless thing to do.  That perfume could have been sold.  The money could have been spent on the poor.  Your offering could have gone to Christian Aid - not towards the restoration of the aumbry.  The time you spent sweeping the church floor - you could have visited Old Mr Jones.  If you love God first - well, he doesn't really need your money, does he?  And you're to love your neighbour as well.  And if God loves your neighbour too.... If you love Jesus - that's great - but why does he need such expensive perfume?

It's all upside down.  It's a funeral wake.  But whose?  Lazarus's, who sits here alive?  Or his death whose time is soon to come?

And the perfume poured out - the anointing he should have received on Easter Sunday.  Would have been wasted then - he wasn't there.  But  now - now's the time when it's meaningful.
You can't be an anointed one without an anointing.  But he didn't receive one from a priest.  He was anointed by a desperate woman, who maybe had just a streak of prophecy.  Not anointed as king.  Crowned with oil and perfume for his death.  A waste of money?  Better for the poor?  Maybe.  But maybe, just this once, not. 

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*Should that be fora?