Today's Gospel

The Pharisee Infection

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we take a few minutes to reflect upon the gospel together and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to live the gospel more fully each day. Today's reading us from the Gospel of John 12:1-11. "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had risen from the dead. There, they made him supper. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with Jesus. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was to betray Jesus said, 'Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?' This, he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and he had the money box; he used to take what was put into it. And Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. Let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.' When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only account of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priest planned to put Lazarus also to death because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus."

What is it that jumps out at you today? Judas has got a problem with Mary anointing Jesus with this oil of value. And of course, he points out the hypothetical beneficiaries. And in Judas' argument, the hypothetical beneficiaries of Jesus not being anointed with his oil would be the poor. And of course, the reading points out that they are only hypothetical beneficiaries because, in fact, Judas wanted the money for other purposes and quite possibly for himself. And so was Judas aware of that? Was Judas mindful of that? Or was he unconscious of that? And what do we see in the words of Judas and the actions of Judas today? So not in the betrayal, but in the words and the actions of Judas today, what we see is that he's been infected by the spirit of the scribes and the Pharisees, right? He's been infected by the spirit of Jesus' critics. And that spirit of the scribes and the Pharisees, the spirit of criticism toward Jesus is coming now through Judas, one of the inner circle, one of Jesus's 12.

And it's tragic, right? It's disheartening. It's almost unbelievable, right, to think that, okay, you could live and minister with Jesus for three years and then catch this critical spirit from the scribes, the Pharisees, and Jesus' other critics, but it happened, right? And so we've got to be careful of that. We've got to be careful that we don't catch the critical spirit of the scribes and the Pharisees, that we don't become critical of other people, of the church, of institutions in that way that is critical but not helpful. It's critical, but not willing to get involved. It's critical, but not willing to do anything about it. It's just criticism for its own sake, and very often self-aggrandizing. And so let's ask ourselves today, have we been infected by the critical spirit of the scribes and the Pharisees? And if we have, let's ask Jesus to cast that critical spirit out. Have a great day. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.