Let Her Alone

“Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.  Then saith one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray Him.  Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?”  John 12:3-5

Jesus had come to Bethany six days before passover.  Bethany was the town in which His friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus lived.  Lazarus had recently been sick, died, and was brought back to life by Jesus (John 11:33-44).  It was just a matter of days before Jesus would go to the cross and give His life a ransom for the souls of men and women.  Martha prepared for Jesus and His disciples a supper, but no one, other than Jesus, had any idea at all that this would be the last time that He would come to visit them in their home.  This was believed to be a different supper than the one where Martha complained that her sister, Mary, was not helping her.  However, Mary, as Jesus pointed out that day, had chosen to do a much more beneficial thing in sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to His word.  I have all ideas that this time, as Martha scurried around in the kitchen preparing the food, she kept her ears open to hear whatever Jesus had to say.  After all, He had brought her beloved brother back to life.

At some point either before or after supper, Mary took some very expensive ointment, called spikenard, an oil extracted from an East Indian plant, and poured it over Jesus’ feet and then wiped it with her long hair.  This was her way of respecting and worshiping Jesus.  Martha, Mary, and Lazarus believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but they weren’t aware of His ultimate mission in coming to earth.  The spikenard had a very strong and pleasant fragrance so that it permeated the entire house.

Judas Iscariot was appalled that this expensive ointment was, in his opinion, wasted on Jesus’ feet.  He wanted to know why this ointment wasn’t sold for 300 pence, and the proceeds given to the poor.  I suspect that Judas was including himself as one of the poor.  He was the one who kept track of the money that was used for the expenses of Jesus and His disciples as they traveled around Galilee and Jerusalem.  I suppose one could call him the treasurer of the group, but he was more like a greedy thief.  I wonder if he had been embezzling from the money bag all along.  Because of his greed and selfish nature, he was the one most likely to betray Jesus.  However, none of the other disciples seemed to suspect him of any wrongdoing because when Jesus told them that one of them would betray Him, none of them suspected Judas (Matthew 26:21-22).  I Timothy 6:10 tells us that “the love of money is the root of all evil”.   Have you ever heard the statement, “Follow the money trail”, used to explain the reason for certain ungodly policies and procedures such as abortion and transgender surgery.  There is big money to be made by those who sell their souls in these horrendous industries.

After Judas made his remark, Jesus said for him to let Mary alone because what she had done in anointing His feet was in preparation of His coming death and burial.  Matthew Henry wrote that Jesus “was perfectly mortified to all the delights of sense”, but He acted pleased with her efforts.  In other words, Jesus had so much self-control that He could prevent Himself from taking any pleasure in such a service done to Him.  He clearly foresaw this as symbolic of His future death and burial.  However, Mary didn’t intend for this to be an embalming ceremony, but sometimes God leads folks to do things that fit into His plans, but they are not aware of the real reason why they are doing a particular act.  They think they are doing something for one reason, when the real reason is in carrying out God’s plan.

Jesus told the people gathered in the house that they would always have the poor which they could serve at any time, but He was only going to be with them for just a little while longer.  If they were going to serve Him, they better do it now.  When word got around that Jesus was in Bethany, many came to see Him, and they also came to see Lazarus, the one who was raised from the dead.  Some came to honor Jesus, and some came out of curiosity.  It would be interesting to hear from someone who had died and came to life again, but nothing is recorded that Lazarus spoke about his experience.  The chief priests not only planned to kill Jesus, but they were also going to kill Lazarus because his coming to life again had caused many folks to turn away from the Pharisees and their traditions and to turn to Jesus.  Therefore, the religious leaders felt justified in killing Lazarus as well.  How could they say that they loved and honored God when they desired to kill one that God had brought back to life?

The next day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people, who had come into Jerusalem from other areas for Passover, spread palm branches in His path, crying “Hosanna, Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the LORD”.  They had heard of the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead and wanted to honor Jesus.  However, the Pharisees, in seeing the excitement and adoring eyes of the people upon Jesus, only became more anxious about this One whom they deemed a real threat to their power.

Next time:  One Has to Die to Live