The Gospel from Monday of Holy Week is taken from John 12:1 11. Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there and Martha served while Lazarus is one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine Aramaic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one who would betray him, said, why was this oil not sold for 300 days wages and given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, leave her alone. Let her keep this day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came not because of him, but because they wanted to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too.

Because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him. I want you to focus on two people in this Judas and Mary. And see them as the tension that we have in this world between good and evil. Between people who have welcomed goodness into their lives, as Mary did in response with an act of hospitality. Washing his feet with oil was a sort of symbol of the way people would welcome guests to their home by washing their feet. And in this Judas, angry, judgmental and a liar.

So the question is, what do we do with evil in the world? Do we struggle with it? Do we give into it? That’s a question that’s worth thinking about. Closing prayer Father, you have given us the hope of a goodness that is flowing into us on a consistent basis of God dwelling inside of us, freeing us from the power of evil. Bless us with an awareness of the gift of redemption, the gift of power over evil.

And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.