“At the intersection of death and life, we encounter Jesus. Not only at points of death, not only in the fullness of life, but at times and places where the two brush up against one another, where we meet ourselves on the narrow bridge between hope and despair, are we most apt to meet him.
Jesus comes again to the home of Lazarus,* in whom death and life once wrestled while his sisters worried and waited for Jesus to intervene. Because of the faith of their friend, they found they could bear the weight of their doubts. Now it is Jesus whom death is stalking. Mary senses looming loss and seeks to quench death’s thirst by anointing Jesus’ feet with precious nard. Her lavish offering stirs the shadows in Judas, who calls it wasteful and a terrible cheating of the poor. He desecrates the bridge Mary is building for true encounter. His greed separates him from the essence Mary intuitively understands.
We are to some degree both Mary and Judas, are we not? We both build up and tear down, nurture and diminish the essence of God in our midst. We always will have such contradictions within us. Pray that we might see them more clearly, lest we make a mockery of what we say we believe, lest we miss the places of true encounter with the holy in our midst.
-Kayla McClurg, Passage by Passage: a Gospel Journey
To ponder:
- Where have death and life come close in my life?
- In what ways have I known the presence of God there?
- How do I sometimes both build up and tear down?
