What would you do for love?

Christian Dior is one of the top fashion houses. It is known for its glamour and elegance…and of course the pricey price tags. Christian Dior.

One of their top selling products is not clothing, but a perfume called appropriately enough, Miss Dior. And their whole marketing campaign is built around a question

And that question is: and you, what would you do for love. And you, what would you do for love…

Well…I answered that question: I would do everything and anything. For you see I am Mary. Mary from today’s Gospel.

Look. My brother Lazarus was dead. Dead as a doornail. He had been sick for awhile. Of course we called for Jesus, our friend, to come right away. We knew Jesus could save our brother, but Jesus had not come and Lazarus had died.

Jesus finally showed up…after the fact…after Lazarus had been in the tomb for days.That’s when Jesus came.

We were mad, steaming mad…but then Jesus did the most incredible thing. He brought my brother back to life. Back to life, I tell you.

Well you can imagine my happiness. To have my brother back. Lazarus, my big brother who had taken care of me. His being alive was a miracle all right.

Not only did we have Lazarus back, but you also have to remember that I was living in my brother’s house…if he died…I was going to be homeless. You see woman could not own property…so the with Lazarus dead, the house would have been sold and my sister Martha and I would have been put out on the street..force to pan handle, to beg for enough to buy a loaf of bread.

Having Lazarus alive meant so much. It literally changed my life. I was beside myself with joy.

And so were Martha, my sister, and Lazarus…he sure as certain did not want to be in the grave for ever. We wanted to somehow say thank you to Jesus. To celebrate him for all he had done…and so we threw a dinner party.

April 7, 2019

April 7, 2019 Luke 7:36 - 8:3 What would you do for love

Look. You know I am not too fond of the kitchen…so while Martha was slaving away…I went to the temple to buy our passover lamb. You heard how passover was in six days, and by our tradition we buy the lamb six days before…and

bring it home to check it over, head to foot to make sure that it is unblemished.

Yes, little lamb hangs out with us for 6 days before getting….prepared to be eaten.

And when we bring it back to the house, as a sign of respect, as a sign of thanksgiving, as a sign of thanksgiving to God for what this lamb represents, we anoint its little lambie feet with oil.

That’s right with oil.

Now you all remember the story about the passover lamb.

And in case you are a little foggy, let me refresh your memory. A long time ago we Jews were slaves in Egypt. Moses told Pharaoh to let God’s people go…but

pharaoh refused over and over. Each time pharaoh refused, God sent a plague..frogs, gnats, and grasshoppers and other creepy things. Finally, God had had enough and said, “Pharaoh, let my people go or this time all the first born in the land will die. But Jews, get a lamb, a lamb with out blemish and kill it. Paint your doors with its blood.”

Now here’s the thing. We Jews, we knew, we knew God was poking the Egyptians in the eye with these instructions. Because to kill a lamb was a capitol offense in Egypt because lambs were considered sacred to the Egyptians. By killing them, we would be in trouble big time.

But God said, “Take the blood of that lamb, and paint the frame of your doors…and I will passover your houses and you will be safe.”

Our ancestors did what God said. And sure enough, it worked. That night we were passed over…our first born lived, while all the Egyptian first born died.

Pharaoh let us go and we ran into the desert…freed from slavery….all because we had been passed over.

So you see, that’s why every year we re-enact, we commemorate this passover by sacrificing a lamb. We even call the holiday Pass Over.

And that’s why I brought our lamb home in anticipation of the passover meal and anointed his feet…and then I got a brilliant idea.

I ran out of the house. I took all our money out of bank and bought….a jar

of pure nard….imported all the way from India. Import fees and tariffs had jacked the price way up. I did not care that it was expensive. I knew I had to do this thing.

And when Jesus came to dinner…I lavished it all on him. I anointed his feet.

MMMMMM……ahhhhh.

The whole house was filled with the aroma. The smell was so lovely, so fragrant…it covered up those smelly old lentils Martha was cooking. I did not care that I spent kaboodles…I wanted to show Jesus, I needed to show Jesus how much he meant to me.

He had saved me. He saved me from grief, he save me from the slavery of poverty, he saved me from death.…just like the lamb I had just bought. Why not treat Jesus to the same luxury and more. What would I do for love…everything..anything.

Thinking back on that moment…for that was a few years back now…I see things a little more clearly. We all know what happened to Jesus…just 6 days later. Jesus died….Jesus died on the cross.

At the very same time all the lambs were being slaughtered. Jesus died on Golgotha at the same time lambs were being killed in the Temple.

Coincidence?

I think not.

For after all, Jesus was raised from the dead….

Not like Lazarus who would die again, Jesus walked right out of the tomb…filled with new life. New life he shares with you and with me.

Christ our passover was sacrificed for us.

By his blood, we were passed over…passed over from staying in the tomb…passed over to live free…passed over to live forgiven…

Easter was a pass over to beat all pass overs.

That pass over we were promised that no matter what we endure, Christ is with us….promised that no matter what we do, we are forgiven and we are freed…freed from sin, freed from death…truly and completely freed…we are loved so much that Jesus died for us.

It is his blood, God’s own blood, on the doors of our lives.

Hmmm…seems to me the question we asked in the beginning…God too was asked.

And you God, what would you do for love…and God replied….everything and anything.