April 2, 2007

Holy Monday

Monday of Holy Week brings us to the anointing of Jesus at Bethany. He must be anointed, because he is to be a king and will soon reign from the throne of the Cross. Recall the charge against him, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

The kings of Israel, and of the ancient near east generally, were always anointed with oil. But there are two aspects of Jesus' anointing that make it special. First, in every account we have, he is anointed by a woman. Typically, the kings of Israel were anointed by someone with authority, like a prophet or priest. In contrast, Jesus' royal anointing comes from someone without authority, with a lesser place in society. It is the poor and oppressed who can recognize the Lord in the world, and everyone else when they can at least admit of their inner poverty and vulnerability.

Second, at least in Luke and John's versions, Jesus is anointed on his feet. Kings were anointed on their heads. The kingdom of Jesus will be one of service and humility, not power and authority.
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1 comment:

  1. D'artagnan6:06 PM

    Wow, thanks for those insights, especially the last paragraph.

    mike

    ReplyDelete

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

If you raise a disagreement with something I say but I do not respond, please do not feel slighted or insulted, or imagine that this automatically means I disagree or agree with you. It's just that I don't find the comment box to be a constructive medium for certain forms of debate.