Love Has Its Reasons
Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8
"…This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
The ancient city of Philippi was located along a main trade route between Rome and the East. Philippians had the luxury of being considered Roman citizens, which afforded them some handsome benefits. They were allowed to buy and sell property, exempted from land and poll taxes, and entitled to protection under Roman law. For all intents and purposes, they spent their days living in MORE—more wealth, more possessions, rights, and presumably more happiness.
Howard Hughes’ was a man who firmly believed that MORE of everything would lead to happiness. You might even say that more was his middle name. "He wanted more money, so he invested his enormous inheritance and increased it in just a few years to a billion dollars. He wanted more fame, so he went to Hollywood and became a filmmaker and a star. He wanted pleasure, so he used his fabulous wealth to buy women and any form of decadence he desired.
Howard Hughes may have been counted among the wealthiest of people on earth in his day, but in the end he could be numbered among the poorest of souls. For all that Hughes had gained from his relentless pursuit of MORE, not one thing was "significant enough to bring meaning to his life."1 He died emaciated, drug addicted and horribly disheveled.
1 Wilkinson, B and DM. The Dream Giver for Parents. (Sisters, OR: Multonomah, 2004), pp 45-46.
Paul says that not one fleshly ambition we might pursue in our lives will ever come even close to the value of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord…and Paul should know; he had it all. "If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh," he writes, "I have MORE..." (Phil 3:4b). At first glance, Paul appears to be more of a braggart than anything else, and nobody likes a braggart. Yet, Paul has good reasons for his boasting, and he goes on to list all the ways he believed he had been made righteous by the Law.
It’s not that the Law is a bad thing, because it isn’t: today, people are still willing to fight battles all across this nation to keep monuments engraved with the Law outside their courthouses, village greens and public buildings. What Paul wants us to realize is that the Law cannot save us, only the love of Jesus Christ saves. The Law does not make us perfect; only the love of Jesus Christ does. The Law can
never breathe life into the dead, only Christ’s love can resurrect the dead.
Paul’s message to the church at Philippi and to us today is that knowing Christ is the only way to be made righteous before God. We must not fool ourselves into thinking that our rituals, rules and regulations are true faith. The law and all the other pursuits we seek in the name of the "church" are likely religiosity, look-alike impressionists masquerading as faith. In the end such practices are worthless.
Such actions cannot bring about righteousness or secure salvation any more than money can buy happiness or fame can buy true love.
Knowing Jesus Christ surpasses the value of everything else we could ever hope to gain in this life. Paul prayerfully pleads before the Philippians, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (3:10-12).
Paul yearns for his beloved Philippian church to chase after no fleshly thing, only to turn all its focus and energy, its hope and its mission upon the "surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus" as Lord.
Say these words to yourself, "Christ Jesus has made me his own." Frankly, friends, I am at a loss to conceive of why Christ would make me his own: I do not deserve his love, yet he gave it for me on Calvary. I may not be able to understand the why of his love this side of heaven, but I do know that divine Love has its reasons. So in feeble gratitude for Christ’s making me his own, how else can I respond but to pour out the very best of me upon the Lord.
And that’s what Mary is doing with the expensive nard, pouring out all of it upon her savior’s feet. I think as the fragrance of Love filled that room she knew the gift was hardly enough to thank him for raising her brother Lazarus from the dead, for being her teacher and protector, for being the Lord, the Messiah, come personally for her.
So Mary leaned down and wipe her savior’s feet with her hair and her tears. I am at more of a loss to explain what was happening to Mary in that moment, I can only say she did what she did because that kind of Love has its reasons.
As Christ is nearing Jerusalem and the Crucifixion, we are nearing the cross as well. Are we making the effort during this Lenten
season to know Christ Jesus as our Lord, or are we merely going through the religious motions that accompany this season? Are palm branches waving, flowers blooming, and Easter-basket filling the sum total of faith in our holiest week of the year? Not if we know Jesus.
Knowing Jesus IS a strange thing for us who are used to being self-sufficient, organized, ruled by Roberts, and independently minded—outspokenly so—because this knowing means heeding his voice like sheep following a shepherd, loving one another like a master washing his servants’ feet, or abiding in him like branches on a vine. Knowing Jesus does not mean changing who we are; it simply means knowing whose we are.
We belong to Jesus Christ; he made us his own by dying in our place upon the cross and thus making us righteous before God. We could not accomplish righteousness on our own, but we can express our gratitude by living as he lived: healing, visiting, teaching, feeding, clothing, releasing and proclaiming his love. And if anyone should ask you why you are doing those things, if you really know Jesus, you might simply respond, "Love has its reasons." Amen.
March 17, 2013/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/Rev Donna Lee Muise,
