This week in Crisis Counsels we are reflecting about what took place on each day of Holy Week. On Wednesday, the major event was an anointing of Jesus by an unnamed woman, described in the gospels of Matthew and Mark as follows: “It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread [i.e. Wednesday]. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him . . . . While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’” (Mark 14:1–9)

In the days of Jesus it was customary to anoint the body of a deceased person with perfumed ointment prior to burial. When this was done, it was also a tradition to break the flask in which the ointment had been held. This is exactly what the woman does. Her action was misunderstood by the others in the house. They assumed she was practicing another tradition, whereby one would anoint guests on the head with perfumed ointment. In that case, only a very small amount was used, and so it seemed quite excessive when she poured the whole jar over Jesus’ head! Moreover, both the ointment she had and the jar were very expensive, so what she did seemed to be a complete waste. But Jesus recognized exactly what she had been inspired to do; as he said, “She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.”

The woman’s actions stand in sharp contrast both to the people who were at Simon’s house and to Jesus’ opponents, who are described in the opening verses. The bystanders are calculating. “Hmm,” they say, “this ointment could have been sold for 300 denarii – almost a year’s wages for the common worker! – just think what we could have done with that!” The woman, in contrast to them, is extravagant. Meanwhile Jesus’ opponents – the chief priests and scribes – are stealthy. They are in the shadows plotting to do Jesus ill. The woman, in contrast to them, is totally open in her loving act.

Jesus lifts up the woman as an example for the ages. She recognizes the purpose in Jesus’ coming death, and she responds to him with extravagant love. In our time, while some around the world plot evil, and others are grudging and guarded in their commitment to do good, Jesus invites us to her kind of extravagant love, for it is through boundless self-giving that we fully connect with Jesus’ self-offering for us.

Related posts:

Crisis Counsels from the Scriptures #14 Crisis Counsels from the Scriptures #2 Crisis Counsels from the Scriptures #6 Crisis Counsels from the Scriptures #4