Anointing At Bethany
ANOINTING AT BETHANY
MATTHEW 26:1-13
A woman anoints Jesus for the task of his atoning death.
Jesus’ teaching ministry is over: his passion is about to begin. The Sanhedrin (or at least its “steering committee”) resolved, at a meeting convened in the high priest’s palace, to arrange for his arrest and execution, but felt that his popularity, especially with the visiting pilgrims, was such that their plan could not be carried out until after the seven days’ festival of Unleavened Bread (which was inaugurated by the Passover meal). An opportunity was unexpectedly given them to carry it out much sooner.
We cannot be sure why the incident at Bethany (26:6-13) should have stimulated Judas to offer to put Jesus into the chief priests’ power (26:14-16). He seems to have voiced the disciples’ indignation at the “waste” of ointment which would have cost a laborer’s wages for a year (cf. Mark 14:5; John 12:4-6). Perhaps, in addition, he took the woman’s anointing of Jesus to be a form of coronation (cf. 1 Samuel 10:1; 16:13; 2 Kings 9:1-13) and was dismayed that Jesus should lend himself to this display of popular messianic enthusiasm. Whatever the woman’s motive was, Jesus accepted her devotion as “a beautiful thing” done in anticipation of his burial: if she saw the cross looming ahead, she would know that it was not always practicable to perform the last rites for those crucified as criminals. The prediction of 26:13 has been fulfilled by the very inclusion of her act in the Gospel narrative; there may be the further thought that when the worldwide proclamation of the gospel was consummated (cf. 24:14), her good deed would be recorded to her credit on the great day.
Notes “Simon the leper” 26:6—meaning possibly “the former leper”—may have been the father of the well-known family at Bethany, if we put this Matthaean narrative (and its parallel in Mark 14:3-9) alongside John 12:1-8 (Mary and Martha appear only in Luke and John, and Lazarus only in John). 26:11: “You always have the poor with you” does not state a binding economic rule; it simply means that the poor would still be available as recipients of their charity when he was no longer there.