To my mind it was because, even though Watterson had brothers and sisters he perfectly portrayed what life as an only was like leaving us with memorable images and one-liners that have stood the test of time.
Like when Calvin, borrowing a page from Schultz’ Lucy character decides to set up his own self-help booth. Only, unlike Lucy who offers psychiatry help for five cents a visit, Calvin is offering from his booth, “Opinions on your face” for a quarter. Hobbes comes up to him and asks, “Making any money?” To which Calvin replies, “No, but I am giving away lots of free samples.”
There is truth here because booth or no booth some people give away free samples of their opinion unsolicited and absolutely free of charge.
Sometimes they are funny. Like the Muppet Shows’ Statler and Waldorf who perched in their balcony stage left were known for their cantankerous opinions and shared penchant for heckling whatever act they had just witness or, in their case endured. As the website Silver Screen Hub called them the “self-appointed kings of criticism.
Statler and Waldorf are not just grumpy old men—they are the embodiment of every cynical, sarcastic, and hilariously brutal critic ... ever encountered. With a wit sharper than a razor and an attitude that makes even the toughest performers cringe, these two Muppet legends ... turned heckling into an art form. Their laughter—often more menacing than joyful—is infectious, proving that even negativity, when done right, can be a source of hilarity.2
Sometimes opinions are only funny in retrospect.
A friend of mine, who was one of the ministers at a large United Methodist church in Minneapolis, tells the story of one of his more opinionated members who came up to a wedding soloist privately after the ceremony and said, “My dear, I know no one else will tell you this, but it is time you stop singing in public.”
I can’t imagine what the reaction was at the time but when my friend Chris told the story at her memorial service, he reports that there where gales of laughter.
Opinions, solicited and unsolicited, contain no small measure of danger which i is why I have come to believe that there had to be more than a few opinions expressed in and about the little dinner party that we have before us in today’s gospel.
The first may have been expressed by those who received the invitation to dine at the home of Lazarus.
“Lazarus?” those who weren’t in the know might have said to each other, “Lazarus? I thought he was dead.” “Well, if he is and he’s still sending out invitations we’d better save the stamp because some day that is going to be worth a lot of money. But if he was but now, isn’t we better go because this is going to be a party for the ages.”
Indeed, it was because we are still talking about it to this day.
There was Lazarus cleaned up and looking fit as a fiddle. He’s walking, talking, laughing perhaps harder than he has ever laughed before. One witty bon mot after another from this guy who has literally been given a new lease on life.
His sister Martha was busy doing what she did best. She was busy serving her guests making sure everything was going well. I always pictured Martha as one of those hostesses who took the place closest to the kitchen and sat side-saddle through the entire meal in order to leap up at a moment's notice should anybody need anything. Every good party needs someone like Martha to keep things going.
However, if you want to have the party be controversial and you want the get the opinions flowing then Mary has to be on the guest list. She’s impetuous. She’s bold. She does things that no one else would ever think of doing.
Even now she is the one squirrelling around at Jesus’ feet pouring outrageously expensive perfume on them and then {GASP!} wiping them with her hair.
Dr. Craig R. Koester in his book Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel tells us:
In this context it would appear that Mary's action was a gesture of gratitude for bringing her brother back to life. A slave was virtually the only one who could be expected to wash and anoint the feet of another person....washing or anointing the feet of another person remained identified with slavery. The act of anointing Jesus' feet, when taken in its literary and cultural context, displays Mary's utter devotion to Jesus.3
That is exactly what makes Judas’ unsolicited opinion so telling. While others in the crowd may have put down their drinks and stared with faces agog Judas speaks out. While others in at table might have waited until they were outside to offer their opinions quietly to one another.
“Did you see that?” “What was that all about?” Judgement, to be sure, but judgement spoken quietly and in private which may be the worst kind.
Judas’ opinion is right out there in the open and spoken loud enough for everyone to hear. “That perfume was worth a fortune. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.”4
He didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean it at all.
“Thankfully Jesus has Judas’s number and calls his bluff.”5
He knows “there always church people, and certainly skeptics outside the church, cockily pronouncing upon what others should be doing for the poor? Which poor is Judas intending? Or which poor do critics of Christianity, or even the devout, imagine here?”6
You and I all know people who look at beautiful churches or lovely things in churches and say “Shouldn’t that money have better been spent by giving it to the poor.” Sometimes that criticism is valid and churches become so inwardly focused that they forget about people outside of their doors. However, it has been my experience in people that I know that, while they are offering opinions on how the church should spend its money, they give very little, if anything, to a church or any charitable institution.
Opinions need to be backed by deeds. As Dr. Tom Long wrote in a Christian Century article.
John wants us to go to this ordinary dinner party in Bethany, but not to miss the hint of resurrection we can see in Lazarus. He wants us to hear Judas’s pious speech about caring for the poor but also to discern in those words the treachery that lies in the human heart. He wants us to see Mary not just as hostess but as prophet. He wants us to see her anointing of Jesus not as a mere impulse of indulgence, but as a costly act of worship.7
Judas can’t see that. Those whispering in the parking lot about what just happened can’t see that. Even those offering good natured ribbings from the balcony may not notice what is going on, but we can. We can see this party as something else.
It is worship in its fullest and finest.
I had a Quaker friend who said that there was a little bit of worship in every dinner party. And to that, I would add, there should be a little bit of a dinner party in every worship. It had been my experience that all too often church has been a place where joy goes to die.
But in front of us this day we have a story.
John ends his gospel with a story about human extravagance. Mary anoints Jesus with perfume that's worth a year's wages. The anointing of Jesus at Bethany is the last event in John before Jesus's "triumphal entry" and the ensuing passion narrative.
So, John ends his gospel with a party where it began with the wedding at Cana in Galilee which, if you remember, was a wedding banquet that lasted so long that Jesus had to save the day with an extravagant outpouring of new wine.
“So, from start to finish in the life of Jesus ... is characterized by excess and extravagance, both received ... and reciprocally returned back ... by us.”8
Dr. Dan Clendenin writes a column every once and awhile for the website Journey with Jesus. Recently he told of seeing a bottle of whiskey at Costco {of all places} on sale for $36,999.99. After texting a photo of it to his family, He had this sort of fantasy of buying the whiskey and drinking it with his friend Chris who was dying from a glioblastoma, and had called him to say, "Dan, it's time to drink the good stuff."
I don’t know whether Dr. Clendenin bought the bottle and drank every last drop with his dying friend. I don’t know whether I would have bought the expensive stuff or looked around at Cosco for something cheaper. After all, this was Cosco, there had to be something cheaper.
But if they did. If he bought the wine and then drank it as a toast with and to his friend I am sure that Calvin, Hobbes, Stattler, Waldorf, and even my friend’s outspoken member in Minneapolis would agree that it had to have been quite a party.
Quite a party indeed.
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1. Chris Suellentrop, “The Appeal of Calvin and Hobbes.,” Slate Magazine, November 7, 2005, https://slate.com/culture/2005/11/the-appeal-of-calvin-and-hobbes.html.
2. Silver Screen Hub, “Statler and Waldorf.” Facebook page. March 30, 2025
3. Craig R. Koester, Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel: Meaning, Mystery, Community (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003).
4. St. John 12:5. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. (Carol Steam, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971)]
5. Stephanie Perdew, “A Rite of Spontaneous Love. April 6, 2025: Fifth Sunday in Lent,” The Christian Century, April 1, 2025, https://www.christiancentury.org/sunday-s-coming/rite-spontaneous-love-john-12-1-8?
6. James C. Howell, “What Can We Say? April 5. Lent 5,” James Howell’s Weekly Preaching Notions, accessed April 5, 2025.
7. Thomas G. Long, “Gospel Soundtrack: Sunday, April 1 John 12:1-8,” The Christian Century, March 14, 2001, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/gospel-sound-track?
8. Dan Clendenin, "In Memory of Her." Journey With Jesus essay, March 30, 2025.
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