For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever and Ever

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, April 6, 2025
John 12:1-8

    If you knew someone very close to you was going to die within the week, what would you do?  How would you live your life differently if you knew your life would be changed forever, very soon?  In our gospel for this morning, we encounter Mary, the sister of Martha & Lazarus.  Her brother has just died and been resurrected by Jesus.  And she knows that Jesus will die very soon, also.  It is six days before the Passover, John tells us – six days before the Last Supper, a week before Jesus’ death on the cross.  Mary’s decision, in light of her recent past miraculous resurrection of her brother and the anticipated death and resurrection of Christ, is to pour out a pound (!) of perfume sitting at the feet of Jesus.  We anticipate that this amount of pure nard cost probably a year’s worth of an average laborer’s wages.  She is overcome with emotion, understandably.  What does she want to do knowing that Jesus is only with them a little while longer? She wants to sit at the feet of Jesus, pouring out her love and gratitude for all he has done and will do for her – for all of us.  Knowing he is going to die, Mary chooses to pour perfume on Jesus’ feet and wipe them with her hair.  What would you do, if you were Mary, out of gratitude in knowing all that Jesus has done and will do for you?
    As you may remember, the rest of the disciples including Judas have also witnessed Lazarus’s miraculous resurrection from the dead, but they don’t seem to get it.  Jesus has told them several times that the Messiah must suffer, die, and be raised on the third day, but Judas is more worried about the money and considers it a waste to pour out a whole pound of pure nard on Jesus’ feet.  “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” he asks.  Still worried about money, Judas is about to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, a sum much less than 300 denarii.  Judas, like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, is a close friend of Jesus, but he thinks there are other things, like money, that are more important to worry about.  He doesn’t understand the big picture of what Jesus is trying to do in his death and resurrection.
Now, as an aside, sometimes Jesus’ response to Judas that “you always have the poor with you” has sometimes been misused to justify NOT caring for the poor, or that giving to the church institution is better than giving to the poor.  In fact, Jesus is actually quoting Deuteronomy 15:11, which says in full, ““For there will never cease to be poor in the land; therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brother and toward the poor and needy in your land,” the Lord says. John reminds us that Judas doesn’t actually care about the poor but is stealing money for himself.  Jesus is not presenting a binary choice – giving to the poor OR giving to Jesus.  Jesus spends most of his ministry caring for the poor, in fact.  Caring for the poor IS a faithful response to caring for Jesus.  Rather Jesus’ point is that in this moment, Mary is focused on the matter at hand and the big picture of Christ’s death and resurrection.  God is doing a new thing, a big thing – the most important thing – for us, and for our salvation.  Mary’s outpouring love and gratitude for Jesus teaches us to face death honestly, but to trust in this new way of God saving us through death.  Mary helps us trust in God’s future for us that beyond death is the hope of life.  Resurrection is coming!  Life itself is in Jesus’ hands, yet Judas wants to argue over a pound of perfume.  In the grand scheme of things, even that amount of money doesn’t really matter.
On this last Sunday in Lent before we come to Holy Week, I want to wrap up our reflections on different portions of the Lord’s Prayer with the conclusion – “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen.”  If you have ever been at Roman Catholic mass or praying this prayer in a mixed crowd with Catholics you know that not everyone prays this last part of the prayer.  If you have ever read the Lord’s prayer directly from the Bible, you know that it is not in Matthew or Luke’s gospel where Jesus teaches this prayer to the disciples.  However, in the Didache, which is the oldest known book of Christian worship written around 110 AD, we find that early Christians prayed the Lord’s prayer right before receiving Holy Communion and included this conclusion or “doxology,” if you will.  It is an appropriate bookend so that our prayer begins and ends with praise of God:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”  We begin and end our prayer praising and trusting God.  
I have said many times that prayer is a conversation with God.  Prayer is also fundamentally about trusting God.  We pray because we trust that God WANTS to be in a conversation, in a relationship, with us.  We trust that God hears us, and that we can listen to God and hear ways God is responding to us as we go about our day, these “God sightings.”  Mary shows us how to trust God extravagantly with a heart full of love, devotion, and thanksgiving.  She trusts the big picture, that everything is ultimately in God’s hands – the kingdom, the power, and the glory.”
All of us are like Judas sometimes, whether you’re a big-picture ideas person (like me!) or a details person.  I am confident that I am not the only person who sometimes has restless, sleepless nights worrying about things that when I wake up seem like very small matters (what was I worried about?!) What will I wear tomorrow?  What will we eat for dinner?  Why did that guy give me that look – is he mad at me or is something else wrong?  Judas is caught up in the details of the moment – ack! That perfume is worth a lot of money, the poor could use that money, I could use that money.  But these details distract him from the big picture of what God is doing right in front of him – Jesus is preparing to die and to be raised for all of creation!  To redeem all humanity for all time!  Judas has put a number on that big picture of 30 pieces of silver.  Mary knows and understands that actually what Christ is doing for us is priceless – there is no cost too great, no greater gift she can give.
So this concluding doxology of our prayer centers ourselves to be more like Mary to recognize the big moments amidst the details, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever!”  Then we pray, “Amen.”  “Amen” is a universal word which is the same in almost every language on the planet.  It does not mean, “the end, I’m done praying now” or “Goodbye God, talk to ya later,” or “Sincerely, Rebecca” as if signing a letter.  Amen means “let it be so,” or as we learned from Luther’s Small Catechism, “Yes, yes it is going to come about just like this.”  “Amen” is a prayer of faith.  Mary pours nard, a perfume used for burial and anointing of dead people, because she believes that what Jesus has said is going to happen will happen.  She believes that what she witnessed happen to her brother Lazarus will happen to Jesus, and actually will happen to her and to us, too.  And so we head into Holy Week praying this same prayer – Amen: yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.  Amen!