What a difference a few verses makes. The gospel appointed for today is John 12:1-11. All of the propers for the day are here. We read much of the same gospel two weeks ago, on the fifth Sunday in Lent. That gospel is here.
The key difference is that the Sunday gospel concludes with “You always have the poor with you. You do not always have me with you.” Today’s gospel added three verses that put it into the context of John’s theme highlighting the increasing conflict between Jesus and “the Jews.” Here are those verses:
When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.
The addition of these three verses completely transforms the gospel reading from a story about a woman anointing Jesus, modeling discipleship, to intense, and intensifying anti-Judaism. I never preach sermons on weekday services (unless it’s a major feast, of course) so I rarely do more than begin to struggle with the text and with what preaching the “gospel” from this text might be.
I suppose, if pressed hard enough, I might be able to come up with something, but given that tonight is the first night of Passover, all I could do was mull over the anti-Judaism of the Gospel of John, and the Jewishness of Jesus.
Preaching Grace on the Square 