Jesus Is Anointed At Bethany
JESUS IS ANOINTED AT BETHANY
JOHN 12:1-11
Martha was as busy as ever while Mary extravagantly and sensitively expressed her love for Jesus.
Now there begin the momentous events of the last week of the ministry of Jesus. While the ordinary people are divided and the Roman authorities have not yet been asked to show their hand, the Jewish leaders are inexorably committed to getting rid of him and well aware that they must take action at the time of the Passover festival.
Jesus still goes calmly on his way and enjoys a meal with Lazarus and his sisters. The domesticated Martha sees to the arrangements while Mary, in an act of extravagant devotion, anoints his feet with expensive ointment and wipes them with her hair. Sensitive people. whose capacity for grief and sorrow is great, have the compensation that they can also rise to great heights of love and devotion. Judas fails to see the point of such seeming waste. Far better use the money for charity, though his idea of charity seemed to be concerned more with himself than with the poor. But Mary had kept the ointment for this significant and unrepeatable moment, in preparation for the burial of Jesus. There would be many further opportunities of helping the poor, many of them inspired in fact by his death for mankind.
News soon got round that Jesus was after all in the vicinity, so the crowds turned out to see him. They were also interested in seeing the unusual phenomenon of a dead man who had come to life again. This living evidence of the truth of his claims was winning supporters for Jesus, so the chief priests decided that he too must be got rid of.
Notes 12:1: the raising of Lazarus is emphasized again, as being a major cause of the crucifixion. 12:3: the story relates the same event as that recorded in Mark 14:3-9, but a different one from that in Luke 7:36-38. 12:6: it looks as if Judas had been made treasurer of the band because of financial ability, but his strength was also his weakness. 12:7: a very difficult construction. Most probably it means: “Let her alone (she has not sold it for the poor) that she may keep it for the day of my burial” (which she was here anticipating). 12:10: a natural reaction from Sadducees to remove a man whose very presence refuted their disbelief in resurrection (Mark 12:18).
To ponder If, as we have suggested, temptation frequently comes to us along the lines of our greatest gifts and sin is often the perversion of our ability, how can we ensure that God is in complete control of all our abilities?