March: Extravagant love - a story about jesus
Look Closer: We often show our love in the little things - saying “I love you,” a quick hug, or helping with a task. But in this story, we read about Mary showing extravagant love for Jesus. She really sees him, and shows her love in a way that reflects that. How might God be calling your family to show extravagant love? How can you see others so perceptively that you know how to love them well?
Spiral Deeper: This story is told differently in all four gospels. Each telling of the story highlights different things and together, they give us a deep and wide picture of extravagant love. Parents and caregivers seeking to deepen their understanding of the story might want to read all four versions. Here are some things to notice
John 12:1-8 puts the story in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Spiral Deeper: This story is told differently in all four gospels. Each telling of the story highlights different things and together, they give us a deep and wide picture of extravagant love. Parents and caregivers seeking to deepen their understanding of the story might want to read all four versions. Here are some things to notice
John 12:1-8 puts the story in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
- In Luke 10, we read about Martha busying herself with serving while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet. Even though this is a different gospel, there are interesting parallels here!
- In the previous chapter, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Read this story with Lazarus’s resurrection in mind and see what you notice.
- Nard is a plant. The roots were crushed to extract an oil that was used for perfume. It was one of the oils used to prepare bodies for burial.
- What’s up with bringing up the poor here? Judas is almost using the poor to denounce Mary’s actions, and Jesus seems to see right through it.
- This time she pours the oil on Jesus’s head - kings were anointed on their heads, too.
- The poor are brought up again here - referring to the rabbinic teaching that luxury items should be sold to provide for the poor.
- She anoints Jesus’s feet, bathes them with her tears, and dries them with her hair. This is an intimate gesture! Readings of the text over the last couple centuries have indicated an eroticism in the unbound hair, but that’s not necessarily the case. According to the Jewish Annotated New Testament, loosened hair indicated grief, gratefulness, and pleading.
- Later tradition names this woman as Mary Magdalene. Notice that this naming is nowhere in the text.
- Note the breaches of hospitality Jesus calls the host on in verses 44-46.
- This time instead of the poor, sinners seem to be the focus.
Read It John 12: 1-8
Pray It: Jesus, help us to see other people for who they really are, and to love them with our whole selves. Amen.
Do It Practice extravagant love!
- Start with modeling this love as parents/caregivers. What is an extravagant, not everyday sort of way to love your children? For an infant, this often means time - undivided attention, led by the infant, for an extended time. For a toddler, this may mean a long bath that includes parental play. Lavishing time and undivided attention on your child is a way to show extravagant love. Another option for the preschool-age child is to take a page from the book Yes Day, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Spend one day (and one day only!) following the whims of the child.
- As a family, choose a few ways to give extravagant love to others. Begin by really seeing people. It was Mary’s perceptiveness that led her to anoint Jesus in the way one would for burial. Practice perceptiveness. Notice the place where people’s needs and desires and your ability to give align. Maybe you see a single parent who feels a little alone and exhausted. On a hot day, invite their household to come to your house, where you’ve set up kiddie pools and sprinklers and are ready with some cold drinks. Maybe you see an older adult who needs some help with outdoor work. Invite yourselves over for a workday, putting the whole family to work in the yard. Bring along a picnic to share with them in the middle of your labors.
Explore it: Notes from Tami
Perspective taking, the ability to look beyond one's own point of view and to consider how someone else may think or feel about something, is a valuable life skill for us as well as for the children we care for. Here are a few of the benefits we all derive from being able to see the perspectives of others - have empathy, resolve conflicts, manage our emotions and behaviors, make and sustain relationships, prevent bias. Wow! Lord, help us all to be more Christ-like as we live our lives with others!
Children are not born with this ability to understand another’s perspective. It begins developing during the early years and continues to develop over time as a child’s cognitive skills and experiences promote it. The way that we adults who are important in children’s lives (parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.) relate with them greatly impacts how well they develop these skills.
These two articles clarify its importance and detail a number of ideas for helping children improve their perspective taking skills.
Perspective taking, the ability to look beyond one's own point of view and to consider how someone else may think or feel about something, is a valuable life skill for us as well as for the children we care for. Here are a few of the benefits we all derive from being able to see the perspectives of others - have empathy, resolve conflicts, manage our emotions and behaviors, make and sustain relationships, prevent bias. Wow! Lord, help us all to be more Christ-like as we live our lives with others!
Children are not born with this ability to understand another’s perspective. It begins developing during the early years and continues to develop over time as a child’s cognitive skills and experiences promote it. The way that we adults who are important in children’s lives (parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.) relate with them greatly impacts how well they develop these skills.
These two articles clarify its importance and detail a number of ideas for helping children improve their perspective taking skills.