The group of friends was back to together — the group being Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus. In the previous chapter, John 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. If that wasn’t foreshadowing enough, in John 12, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with perfume — an action Jesus says foreshadows the preparation of his body for burial. The text says the scent of the perfume filled the house.
In the sermon for March 13, I wondered about that perfume, and how things linger in our lives. The story in John 12 is supposed to linger in our lives and take form and motion so that we serve others. And while we can recall things that linger (a touch, a scent that immediately pulls us back to an emotional time in our lives), God doesn’t linger — God is more direct and permanent. God in Christ is near, very near, and stays with us, in the darkness of Good Friday and in the light of Resurrection.