Foot-Washing Mary Foils Purse-Snatching Judas--John 12

<p>In this Bible Bash episode, Don invites us into a closer look at what is going on with Judas when he rails at Mary for wasting expensive perfume on washing Jesus’ feet. In other gospel versions of the story, the woman who washes Jesus’ feet is unknown to us, but in John’s version of events, it is Mary, sister to Lazarus, who performs the intimate act of foot washing. And it is Judas, Jesus’ eventual betrayer, who complains. </p> <p> Listen as Don has some things to say about Judas, stealer of the community purse, his self-serving agenda, and Liam offers some thoughts about his own research into this well-known, often superficially read Bible story. In closing, Liam shares some lines from a poem he is working on, “What Place Might Hold Us?,” in which he imagines speaking to his ancestors. </p> <p> </p> <p>(Poem text if you need it/want it)</p> <p>What Place Might Hold Us</p> <p>If we could gather ourselves</p> <p>together somewhere </p> <p>between </p> <p>your time and mine,</p> <p>what place might hold us?</p> <p> </p> <p>Where, and what, is the space between</p> <p>my world and your worlds</p> <p>near enough to bridge the distances</p> <p>and differences, familiar</p> <p>enough for each, and all,</p> <p> </p> <p>to find footing, make a way,</p> <p>carve a seat from earth and stone, </p> <p>grass and shrub, clover and trees, </p> <p>from all our lingering </p> <p>undiscovered longing and, at last, rest?</p> <p> </p> <p>Because I am who I am—</p> <p>alive, walking as I do with a catch in my right hip,</p> <p>struggling these days to work, create, or even open a jar </p> <p>as my Brockman thumbs weaken more and more at the main joint,</p> <p> </p> <p>like my mother’s, and my uncles’ and their father’s</p> <p>(and, likely, his father’s and his father’s, and his before him);</p> <p>because my left eye squints more than my right </p> <p>when I smile; because I sometimes hear lizards,</p> <p>see wind, grow things, and walk with deer;</p> <p> </p> <p