She Has Done What She Could

Holy Week
Week of April 5, 2009
Mark 14.1-15.47

“She has done what she could” (Mark 14.8)

The Jesus portrayed in the gospel of Mark is concerned that his disciples take up the cross and follow in his way. This is what he takes great pains to explain to them. While they are bickering about who will be first and who will sit next to Jesus and how much money is being wasted on expensive ointments, Jesus keeps calling them back to what is needed, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant…” (Mark 10.39).

The disciples are to follow in the way Jesus has shown them—to do what Jesus has done…heal the sick, comfort the afflicted, cast out demons. To do what they can to bring about the reign of God, to be signs of God’s intentions for the world—to bring God’s mercy and justice to the world.

This is what the unnamed woman with the alabaster jar of nard does for Jesus. She does what she is able to do with what she has been given. And this is the good news. It is what all of us can do—what we are able to do. With respect to the injustices being suffered by Israelis and Palestinians, we cannot all do the same things. Rachel Corrie traveled to Gaza and stood in front of a bulldozer, trying to prevent a home from being demolished. Jeff Halper travels all over the world telling about the expansions of settlements while Palestinian homes are demolished in the same Palestinian neighborhoods. Dennis Healy has been the captain of the Dignity on several recent voyages to break the blockade of Gaza and bring medical supplies, humanitarian aid and international visitors to witness and report what they have seen in Gaza.

The farmers of Jayyous, a village I visited in the West Bank last June, are doing what they can—this week they are planting trees as a way of demonstrating against the Israeli security wall which has been built between their village and their farmlands, and against the permits needed to travel between the village and the farmlands: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10448.shtml

The photo shows two farmers from Jayyous planting a tree.

We cannot all do what Rachel and Jeff, Dennis and the farmers if Jayyous are doing, but we can do whatever it is that we have been given to do—read the news about what is going on in occupied Palestine, write letters and send emails and visit our elected officials, telling them what we have learned. We can talk to our friends and neighbors about what we have learned. In the U.S., there is a gaping black hole of accurate information about the lives of Palestinians; we are not paying attention. We often hear a great deal about the suffering of Israelis, but we do not hear about the suffering of the Palestinians. This is where each of us can make a difference, where we can anoint the suffering with costly ointment—for the healing of the world.

O God, in your suffering and death on the cross you showed us what it means to follow in your life-giving way. Give us the strength and good courage to go out, bearing your name and your holy cross to the world you loved, even to death. Amen.