Too Many Choices

The Gospel is not having it your way.

Apr 04, 2022

The world we find ourselves living in is layered with choices. You do not just meet a friend for a cup of coffee. No, you meet your friend for coffee at one of many coffee shops – I counted 16 choices within five minutes of where I am standing.

Then, you are not just getting a cup of coffee. Well, you could, but why would you when you can order a macchiato, mocha, latte, flat white, cold brew, cold foam brew, drip coffee, pour-over, French press, or tea (all of which are available hot or cold).

flat lay photography of eight coffee latte in mugs on round table — Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

There are 87,000 drink combinations for you to consider the next time you walk into Starbucks[1] – many of which cost more than one hour of work at minimum wage.

The number of choices available to us is staggering.

white noodle soup with green leaf vegetable in white ceramic bowl — Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The other night we took our kids to a Vietnamese pho restaurant, and there were two pages of menu options for soup.

Broth? Check.

Noodles? Check.

How many more options do I really need? Not two pages worth.

Poor me, I know.

I could barely hold it together and help the kids make their dinner choices.

There are more than 12 million products available on Amazon.com.[2] Regardless of what you feel about the company, its mission statement, “to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online,” seems to be fulfilled.

And, you can get your prized choice in just a few hours, for a fee.

“Having it your way” is no longer a sales slogan for fast food burger slingers. Having it your way is the norm for most of us.

Our scripture reading is a prelude to Holy Week. The scene set by the gospel writer is six days before Passover, and Jesus is experiencing as much “home” as he has in his ministry. When he preached in his hometown synagogue, he was nearly run off a cliff by a congregation of his neighbors and family.

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Jesus is at the home of his friend Lazarus. Lazarus, dead for three days, was raised by Jesus. This miraculous act was the straw that broke the backs of the religious leaders of the day. Jesus was drawing bigger crowds with each stop on his Messianic-teaching tour, and the raising of Lazarus was more than the religious leaders could take.

Jesus and his disciples are dining at the home of Lazarus and his sisters Marta and Mary. Martha, ever the busy body, prepared and served a meal. Mary, after dinner, pulled out a bottle of Channel No. 5 and began to anoint Jesus’s feet with the expensive perfume and her hair. Judas then fires back, chastising Mary for being wasteful. Judas was expecting a Messianic revolt out of Jesus. According to the gospel writer, this is the moment that Judas begins his movement from light to darkness as Judas’s motives are revealed after he cannot convince Jesus to make a zealot-like move.

This is an odd scene, to be sure.

Given a choice to attend a dinner party where one of the hostesses is busying herself with dinner, and the other will wash the feet of the guest of honor with high-dollar perfume and her hair, only to get dragged into a debate about fiscal responsibility and politics, I would most likely pass.

This strange choice of scripture readings sets up much of what will unfold beginning next Sunday, Palm Sunday, and all of the events leading up to Easter.

Following Jesus can present us with nearly as many choices as on the Starbucks menu (I checked, there are 87,000).

Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Evangelical, or Exvangelical.

Methodist, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Anglican, Cooperative Baptist, or Southern Baptist.

That’s the list (incomplete as it may be) to decide which community you might want to be a part of.

Then, there are the translations of the Bible.

King James Version, New King James Version, New Revised Standard Version, Common English Bible, The Message, The Living Bible, or the New American Standard Bible. Again, an incomplete list at best.

Choices abound.

While having it your way is great at a burger slinging drive-thru, it seems oxymoronic for a group of people claiming to follow one person, but that is what the church in 2022 has done.

From our scripture reading, it can appear that we are presented with three options when it comes to following Jesus.

Choice #1: Martha.

Busying ourselves with what we deem to be the work of the church, all the while failing to see what is happening before us, not realizing Christ standing before us. Throwing a dinner party but failing to enjoy the party ourselves.

Choice #2: Mary.

Adoration and gratitude to God as she draws attention away from herself and to the One she is anointing. Mary is continuing the preparation of the way of Jesus that John the Baptist began. John anointed Jesus’s body, preparing him for his ministry, and Mary anointed Jesus’ body preparing him for his death.

Choice #3: Judas.

The one worried about a year’s wages, not because he cared for the poor instead, he was interested in his cut. Becoming pessimistic because we prefer our politics, and more often than not, choose our politics over Jesus standing before us.

If I must choose, I’m going with Mary.

Adoration. Gratitude. Worshipful. That’s the disciple I want to be. I know all of you well enough to know that (most of) you would also choose the Mary model of discipleship over the Judas version. After all, Mary, not Martha or Judas, not Peter or John, will go to the tomb on Easter to finish the anointing that began at Marta’s dinner party.

If we are to have it our way, I am rolling with Mary.

Or, at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

In his book Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense, Francis Spufford points out that when given a choice between doing the right thing (mirroring Jesus’s actions) and the HPtFTU, we choose the latter. On paper, given a choice between Martha, Mary, and Judas, Mary sounds ideal. Still, all of us can sympathize with Judas’s initial concerns because our politics are continually at odds with Jesus. We’ve all been Marta, busying ourselves to the point of not enjoying the grace extended to us.

Spufford writes, “what we’re talking about here is not just our tendency to lurch and stumble and screw up by accident, our passive role as agents of entropy. It’s our active inclination to break stuff, ‘stuff’ here including moods, promises, relationships we care about, and our own well-being and other people’s, as well as material objects whose high gloss positively seems to invite a big fat scratch.”

Because in this prelude to Holy Week, we have the busyness of Martha, the faithfulness of Mary, the questionably motivated Judas, and we have good news.

You see, Jesus did not gather a perfect entourage to follow him. Next Sunday’s palm waving processing into Jerusalem will include Jesus riding a borrowed donkey, faithful and deceitful disciples, and a crowd with some shouting “Hosanna!” on Sunday, but when Friday rolls around, they will be shouting, “Crucify!”

Jesus is gathering all people into his grace. The ones who anoint his feet with perfume, the ones too busy to notice what is happening, and those who sell him out to the fuzz.

One day we might be washing his feet, and the next, we are knee-deep in church business that isn’t the business of the gospel, or we are questioning the motives of the person standing before us. The very person who was placed into our care by the One we proclaimed and worshiped just hours before.

Given a choice, I want to be Mary; I pray that I will be Mary, and often I am. But just as often, I am Martha or Judas. I’m not betraying Jesus with a kiss. Still, nonetheless, I am betraying the grace and trust he has extended to me, or I am busying myself with matters that distract me from what Jesus is doing right in front of me. Perhaps, like Peter, denying ever knowing the One who paid a higher price than a bottle of Channel No. 5.

Discipleship is a churchy paradox of being Martha and Mary and Judas at the same time.

I want to be Mary, we should all want to be Mary, but none of us are.

We are either Martha busying ourselves with work, or we are Judas, wanting to attach Jesus to our political agendas. Nevertheless, Christ gathers all to himself when he goes to the cross.

Adoration, gratitude, and worship while in the next breath being made righteous, still being a recipient of the grace of God when we reject or betray the gift afforded to each of us.

And still, Jesus is gathering us in. Jesus is gathering you in.

Grace is and always has been extended to the faithful and unfaithful – to Martha, Mary, and Judas, to you and me. Inclusive of all people, Christ is gathering us into the transforming light of his grace. A light so bright that the darkness of this cross cannot drown it out.

Too Many Choices

The Gospel is not having it your way.

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