But Jesus, the greatest robber in history, pulled off still a greater caper. You might call it the “great soul robbery.”
Jesus often contrasted the sanctimonious, self-righteous Pharisees and the contrite, confessing sinners (such as tax collectors and prostitutes). He robbed all the smug, proud, and pious of their self-sufficiency. Selfreliance hung helpless on the cross with Jesus. Only God’s grace and mercy can redeem our past and redream our future.
That was the Third Thief ’s most audacious theft. Through His sacrifice on the cross, in His descent into death and hell, Jesus showed just how weak self-sufficiency really was. And conversely He showed just how powerful dependency on God could be. Jesus, crucified among thieves, performed His greatest robbery after His execution. Jesus robbed satan of his power over sin and death. Jesus robbed death itself of its victory. Jesus ripped off the grave and stung the sting of death’s futility and finality. The Third Thief on Golgotha committed His greatest robbery after He was cut down and buried. He robbed death of its power when He rose again to new life.
The most important decision every human being ever makes is this: Will you give Jesus the license to steal? Jesus wants to steal your heart. The story of Calvary asks each of us: In whom will you ultimately put your trust? Will you trust only in yourself—your powers, your strength, your goodness? Or will you give Jesus the license to steal? Will you confess that you are, at your most basic level of self, a sinner in need of God’s mercy and utterly dependent on God’s goodness?30
The Third Thief on the cross wants to rob every day . . .
the arrogant of their self-sufficiency;
the selfish of their self-centeredness;
the contented of their complacency;
the humorless of their solemnity;
the untouchables of their invulnerability;
the sick of their disease and doubts about the future;
the atheists of their skepticism;
the control freaks of their fears and obsessions.
But what is the biggest heist Jesus wants to commit on a daily basis? Jesus wants to rob satan of his power over you and to rob the grave of sin and death. To paraphrase an old gospel song that went global shortly after it was written in 1855, “What a thief we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to steal!” That Third Thief stole our grief and our sins and our hurts and our sorrows and all the things He bore on that cross. And as we shall soon see, He replaced them with, of all things, a song.
That’s what it means that the Prince of Peace came bringing a sword. Jesus disturbs our peace before He distributes His peace, the peace that passes all understanding.31
JESUS’ ACTIONS ON THE CROSS
We have mistakenly reduced Jesus’ six hours on the cross to His “seven last words.”32 This formulation of Jesus’ dying moments is really nothing more than a guesswork montage of Jesus’ actions on the cross as presented variously from the four Gospels. But Jesus’ time on the cross resists such neat, facile organization.
Jesus’ first act on the cross was to preach forgiveness—“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”33 As thief of sin and death, Jesus removes impediments to healing, reconciliation, and life. Jesus not only forgave those who killed Him but also made excuses for them.34 We aren’t expected to make excuses for those who are hurting us. But we can at least forgive them, which Jesus made explicit in His first act following His resurrection. He commissioned His disciples to preach forgiveness: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”36 Henri Nouwen calls forgiveness “the well at the center of God’s village.”37 At the heart of a godly life in the Jesus story is this grace of forgiveness.
..............................................
The discoverer of the role of forgiveness in the realm of human history was Jesus of Nazareth.
—HANNAH ARENDT 35
..............................................
Jesus’ next acts on the cross revolve around reconciling brokenness. As a thief in the night, Jesus removes the shackles that bind us down and instead binds up the broken pieces of our lives into wholeness and forms us anew. Even before the resurrection, Jesus was birthing and conceiving new life. At the moment He was in His body repairing and redeeming the four broken universals of human existence—our relationship with God, with ourselves, with each other, and with creation—Jesus also set about repairing and redeeming the particular brokenness that existed between His birth family and His disciples. Notice the change in terms: Jesus did not call Mary “Mother.” He said, “Woman, behold your son!” Then to John the Beloved, “Behold your mother!”38
It is a major peephole into Jesus’ first thirty years that He did not appear to choose anyone from that time to be a part of His team. Almost all of His disciples seem to have been chosen after Jesus’ encounter with John the Baptist. None from Nazareth. Either Jesus did not confide in any friend the nature of His identity and mission and lived a life of sacred solitude, or that friend died before Jesus began His public ministry. You can sense Jesus’ problems with His family, not only in His antifamily statements39 but in what happened to Him when He returned home to Nazareth with His disciples. People in His hometown refused to recognize Jesus for who He was, and they even deemed His claims crazy, prompting some to want to conduct an honor killing to protect the reputation of the town.
Whether Mary and the apostle John wanted to be together or not, Jesus gave them to each other as family. And the feud between Jesus’ two families was reconciled in that moment when John agreed to take care of Jesus’ mother as his own and join her family, and Mary agreed to receive John as one of her own. Just as the first Adam’s side was split and a bride was conceived, so the last Adam’s side was split and a bride was conceived—the church, which was birthed when Jesus breathed on His disciples and came fully alive when the dove of the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost.40
In the last hours of Jesus’ life, He remembered a whole and healed body of Christ, reversing sin, misconceptions, preconceptions, and wrong perceptions, and initiating new life, a new order, and new perspectives. The “remembering” of the unknown woman who anointed Jesus before His death is a reversal that we still struggle with today. The in-remembrance-of-her story inaugurates the Triduum, which in Latin means “three days”—the Great Three Days or Three Holy Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, including Easter Vigil. The Triduum is regarded by many to be the holiest time of the Christian year. The story inaugurates Mark’s account of the last hours of Jesus’ life. For Mark, Jesus’ Passion began with the story of the anointing woman and her deed of deep love and devotion. The Passion narratives in Mark that detail the last few days of Jesus’ life feature one of the last kindnesses Jesus received while on this earth.
To give this story and the anointing woman the attention Jesus said they deserve, we have to keep some things in mind.
First, whenever Jesus was under stress or trying to discern God’s will for Him, He headed for the hills, the water, or the desert. Unlike Freudian psychotherapy, which advises people in distress to go inward, Jesus went outward to go inward. Depending on where His soul was situated, Jesus advanced to three landscapes of the sacred: the mountains, the desert, or the water. In fact, the entire gospel of Mark is in many ways structured around these advances of Jesus.
Second, Mark loved reversals almost as much as he loved retreats. In a reversal of ancient storytelling, women are key to the Jesus story in Mark—from the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law41 to the appearance of the divine messenger, all the way to the three women at the very end of the gospel. The Passion story begins with a woman anointing Jesus’ body, a woman who is presented as a model disciple. The Passion story ends with more women anointing Jesus’ dead body for burial.42
A STUNING REVERSAL—JESUS ANOINTED BY A WOMAN
One of the gospel’s biggest reversals is stories of wonderful women an
d villainous men. Mark 14 is even framed by two sets of stories contrasting holy women and evil men. Men of rank and privilege conspire against Jesus and attack Him. Anonymous women and powerless others espouse Him, embrace Him, and care for Him. In contrast to the faithful women, there are a faithless Peter and the fearful Twelve. This anonymous woman is loyal; one among the innermost core of disciples is disloyal.43
There is another reversal deserving mention and attention. Have you ever noticed where this story took place? Jesus was reclining at the table with His own people “at the house of Simon the leper.”44 The religious establishment objected to Jesus’ table manners. He ate with social outcasts and sinners. Once again, Jesus was found in the house of “Simon the leper,” against the official banning of anyone with the disease of leprosy from worship in the temple and full participation in the community of Israel.45
..............................................
Ointment and perfume delight the heart.
—PROVERB 46
..............................................
Picture the scene. The disciples were reclining on the floor, probably on mats, around a low table, eating from a common bowl, dipping chunks of bread into olive oil. Suddenly a woman crashed their party and crashed on Jesus’ head a flask of perfume. She broke the expensive vial (or “snapped off the neck,” meaning she used the entire flask) and poured out all the costly ointment. The magic of spikenard,47 the pleasure of this perfume, is made clear in this simple phrase: “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”48
Given spikenard’s high price tag, the reaction of Jesus’ disciples to the alabaster jar being broken over Jesus’ head is understandable: they were irate at Jesus and indignant with the woman.
Here was a woman who broke into the company of men, not carrying food from the kitchen, which was a woman’s rightful place, but carrying the most expensive perfume of the ancient world. Here was a woman who took it upon herself to anoint Jesus during the meal—not before it.
It was the disciples’ last straw.
Jesus had said, “Let the children come.” So the disciples learned to share meals with children.
Jesus said, “Let the poor come.” So the disciples learned to share meals with the least and the lowest.
Jesus had said, “Let the disabled come.” So the disciples learned to share meals even with lepers.
But to let the woman come, to entertain the whim of this woman who disturbed their meal and mocked their frugality, was too much for the disciples. What was she thinking? What made her believe that the person of Jesus was more important than any principle of justice or practice of charity?
Here was a woman who believed Jesus, whereas the disciples didn’t. On three prior occasions, Jesus tried to teach His disciples that there would be trouble ahead, even suffering and death. Each time, the Twelve dismissed His warnings and proved so clueless that they got into a squabble over the power structure of the church (who is going to sit at Jesus’ right hand and His left?49).
Here was a woman who got what Jesus was saying when He called us to live incarnationally in the midst of pain, in the midst of poverty.
Here was a woman who knew she was living not in chronos time (“the poor you have with you always”) but in kairos time (“Me you do not have always”).50 In a fallen world, there will always be the pains of life. Injustice, disease, prejudice, and despair we will always have with us. Opportunity to deal with issues of poverty will always be present. Not until God’s kingdom comes will we have a perfect world with no social and economic disparity.
Here was a woman who understood that what is appropriate at one time and place may not be appropriate at another time and place. Jesus calls us to respond to the challenges of our day in ways that are appropriate to the time we are given. The right moment for doing certain things passes quickly. We must not miss our moment.
Here was the incarnate God in their midst in the flesh. Incarnations are fleeting. Can we not laugh and love, eat and dance, in the midst of the pain?
Here was a woman who, in the midst of plots by eight chief priests, empty promises from twelve chief disciples, guile and malice on the part of the scribes, and the betrayal of one key confidant, threw confidence to the wind, emptied her heart and voided her savings, and allowed herself to become a fool for love.
Any wonder the disciples were so mad? Any wonder, when Jesus rebuked the disciples, saying, “Let her alone . . . Why do you make trouble for her?” they almost lost it? One did lose it. Judas became so mad when Jesus defended this woman that he went out and betrayed Jesus. Judas traded in his silver-lined clouds about Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.51
“Messiah” literally means “Anointed One.” There were diverse, even conflicting understandings and ideas of messiahship. But one thing was sure: when someone said “the Anointed One” in first-century Judaism, he or she was referring to the King of the Jews, whom God would raise up at the end of times. By pouring this perfume over Jesus’ head, this unnamed woman was symbolically proclaiming Him to be the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.
..............................................
She did it so liberally and profusely that “the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” She did it under the influence of a heart full of love and gratitude. She thought nothing too great and good to bestow on the Savior. Sitting at His feet in days gone by, and hearing His words, she had found peace for her conscience, and pardon for her sins . . . Having freely received, she freely gave.
—J.C. RYLE 52
..............................................
Jesus was anointed Messiah, not by kings and potentates but by an unnamed woman. The anointing of Jesus as King was performed by a woman in the house of a leper (a Pharisee in Luke’s account). Jesus was anointed Messiah, not in the Holy City but outside Jerusalem, in a place called Bethany. Jesus was anointed Messiah, not in the temple on Mount Zion but in a house, even the house of a leper. An unnamed woman branded Jesus as the Messiah—with spikenard.53
At birth the mechanism of the nose is capable of detecting and identifying ten thousand different scents. The odor receptors of the nose are more sophisticated and complex than either the eye or ear. How much of this sensory capacity have we developed? Or how many of us are functionally “anosmic,” functioning without a sense of smell? Some people are born anosmic; some people develop anosmia (often from head injuries)—people such as Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., which is why he says his ice cream has so many tactile and other sensory characteristics. Some people drill into anosmic states of being by repressing their senses of smell.
Of all our sense organs, the nose is the one that connects fastest to the brain. There is an immediate link between nose and brain. Odor information works on the brain directly, unlike the indirect route taken by auditory and visual. Olfactory neurons, unlike other nerve cells, regenerate. Each person has an odor-print that is as characteristic as a thumbprint or voiceprint.
..............................................
Preaching without spiritual aroma is like a rose without fragrance. We can only get the perfume by getting more of Christ.
—A. B. SIMPSON 54
..............................................
How do sperm wend their way toward an egg? Smell.
How does an infant find its mother’s nipple? Smell.
How does a mother pick out her newborn from other newborns? Smell.
How does a boy or girl pick out another boy or girl to date? Smell.
The psalmist said that God can smell a proud person from a long way away: “The proud He knows from afar.”55 Isaiah said explicitly that there is a stench to a proud person.56 Different spirits have different smells. If you can smell in someone the aroma of arrogance and pride, what about the aroma of humility and obedience?
THE AROMA OF THE ALTAR
The ancient Hebrews believed they could smell God’s
presence in the incense. That’s why an altar of incense was placed in front of the veil, and priests offered incense night and morning in the sacrifice of a lamb.57
We know two things about this least developed but most mysterious of all our senses. First, fragrances affect our moods. The sense of smell is wired in the brain to our emotions. Scientific research has demonstrated the power of smell or environmental fragrance to affect mental states. Things that smell good just may be good for you.
Second, the sense of smell is a trigger of memory. In fact, smell is the most powerful releaser of memory. The science of “olfactory-evoked recall” is the study of the ability of scents to transport people to pleasant faces and places. Smells are the presences that create absences. Smell chalk, and most people will recall schoolday memories. One whiff and an entire episode in one’s past is brought back to mind. Whatever our pet smell, huge histories of time are relived within the microseconds of a sniff. Nothing can bring back a time, a place, or an emotion better than an aroma.
..............................................
There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU 58
..............................................
“Ivory Palaces” is an old gospel hymn that chronicles how Jesus came “out of the ivory palaces; into this world of woe.”59 Jesus left the smells of pearly gates, jasper walls, and streets of gold, for the smells of planet Earth.
Jesus entered this world smelling what? Barnyard smells of straw, stable dung, and smelly shepherds.
Jesus left this world smelling what? Perfume.
Ancient Israelites didn’t take baths every day. They washed their hands frequently before every meal, but they washed their bodies even less frequently than the Egyptians did. In Jesus’ day, wealthy Jewish aristocrats living in upper Jerusalem had in their houses baths for purification, called mikvaot. But Jesus’ sense of purity and His reading of the Torah differed radically from those members of the Jerusalem establishment.
Jesus Page 26