Pongal

In Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, people celebrate a festival called Pongal. In Tamil, pongal means “boiling over.” Rice with milk is cooked until it boils over the pot onto the floor. This is considered a blessing of abundance dedicated to the sun god, who gives life to plants. This harvest festival lasts four days. One day is dedicated to the animals that help in the harvest (like bulls and buffalos), and another is dedicated to machinery, like tractors, that help.

Several cultures have festivals that last for days. The Hungry Ghost festivals in SE Asia last for a month. The Hebrews’ Passover festival lasts seven days in Israel and eight days elsewhere.

Before Passover festivals began, the Hebrews did spring cleaning. The law demanded that all mold in the house be removed, including leavened bread. Then the celebrations began.

In the mind of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, he was a “mold” or “leaven” that needed to be cleaned before they began the Passover festivals.

“When the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away, the high priests and the scribes were seeking how to cunningly arrest him for killing him. They didn’t want to arrest him during the festival lest there would be an uproar by the people.” (Mark 14:1–2)

The leaders wanted Jesus out but did not want the people’s anger. In the meantime, another parallelism was happening.

The Hebrews celebrated the Passover on the 14th of Nissan, but they selected the Passover lamb four days earlier. On the day they cleaned the house of mold and yeast, they washed the lamb that would be killed for the Passover meal.

Jesus was in Bethany, at the house of Simon, the leper, reclining to eat a meal.

“Just then a woman came, carrying an alabaster jar of genuine and expensive ointment of nard, and crushing the alabaster jar, she poured it on Jesus’s head.” (14:3)

Her action mirrored what the Hebrews did to their Passover lambs, preparing them for their deaths.

Sometimes, a sacred moment gets interrupted by something mundane. At Simon’s house, instead of everyone understanding and grieving over the immensity of her action – dedicating him to death, they were materialistic and pseudo-generous. They argued how much money they would get if she had sold that nard and how they could have benefited the poor. They were harsh with her for wasting that nard.

Jesus rebuked them:

“Leve her alone! Why are you increasing her labor? She had done a good work for me . . . She had done what she could. She poured the ointment on my body for its burial.” (14:6,8)

She was doing the best labor she knew to do. Going and selling the ointment and distributing them to the poor were too much for her. Instead, she chose what she could easily and necessary do – prepare Jesus for burial. She did that.

This was the second time a lady chose something contrary to what was expected of her. Martha wanted her sister to help her cook, but Mary chose to sit at Jesus’s feet (Luke 10:38–42). Now, they want this lady to sell the ointment and distribute the profits to the poor, and she chooses to serve Jesus instead.

Serving him is easy labor and good work. Sometimes, that’s the best we can do.

P.s. I’ll speak on the importance of caring for the poor tomorrow.