Friday
Friday
The Anointing by Mary
She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.
Mark 14:8
Another dramatic, well-remembered incident took place in the village of Bethany one evening during Holy Week. Jesus was having dinner as the guest of one known as Simon the Leper, whose leprosy had, of course, been healed. As Jesus was reclining at the meal, a woman approached him from behind. Mark preserves her anonymity, but John identifies her as Mary of Bethany, one of the two sisters of Lazarus, who had recently been raised from the dead (John 12:1–8). Mary had brought with her an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke the jar and poured the perfume over Jesus’s head. Is it possible that her anointing of him was her way of acknowledging him as the Messiah? But the bystanders were indignant over the waste. The ointment, they protested, could have been sold for a whole year’s wages and the proceeds given to the poor. They rebuked her sharply.
But Jesus came to her defense. From his words we can learn five truths of rich significance. Firstly, she had done to him not a wasteful thing but “a beautiful thing” (Mark 14:6), expressing her wholehearted devotion to him. Secondly, she was not in any way demeaning the poor but was daring to put Jesus above them. Thirdly, she had done what she could, according to her resources, while recognizing that other people serve Jesus in other ways. Fourthly, she had poured perfume over his body, anticipating the anointing it would receive at the time of his burial. Fifthly, she and her act of generous love would be remembered wherever the gospel would be preached throughout the world.
Mary’s act of self-sacrifice is deliberately set in relief by Mark against the dark background of Judas’s act of treachery, to which we come tomorrow.
For further reading: Mark 14:1–11