ANOINTED AT BETHANY
John chapter 12 v.1 to 11
If the crucifixion was on Wednesday, as seems certain from a close analysis of Scripture rather than tradition, six days before would be the previous Thursday after sunset. Bethany had become a place of danger after the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the consequent rage of the Sanhedrin (John 12:9-11).
This episode is also told in the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 26:6-13) and Mark (Mark 14:3-9); they do not mention Mary by name, and there are some small differences which are, however, easily reconciled. They add that the supper took place in the house of Simon the leper, probably a man who had been healed of his leprosy by the Lord, and gave this feast in His honour.
Simon was a very common name, and some commentators hold that it was Martha's house because she served (John 12:2) and that Simon might be either the father or husband of Martha; yet they might just be friends and neighbours and Martha was following her tendency to be of service. The guests were the Lord, the twelve apostles, and Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
Such meals, or suppers, were family banquets common at the time of the three annual festivals at Jerusalem, and were partaken of toward the close of the day. The guests were first provided with water for washing and fragrant oil for anointing their heads (Luke 7:38; Mark 7:4), then they reclined at table and the master of the house presided over the meal. If there were servants, they helped with the washing, anointing and serving the meal.
As Martha served, there were probably no servants there. The Lord would have been the guest of honour, and Mary anointed His head (Mark 14:3, Matthew 26:7) and His feet (verse 3) with not just the ordinary fragrant oil, but a pound of oil of spikenard (very costly nard) kept in an alabaster cruse, which she broke to pour it out (Mark 14:3). This was so costly, that it used to be a present for a king. Mary then dried His feet with her hair. Its fragrance filled the house, and all must have been very impressed.
Judas Iscariot (man of Kerioth in the tribe of Judah - Joshua 15:25) was the only one of the twelve who was not a Galilean, and John adds that he would betray the Lord. This knowledge came later, of course, and it must not be inferred that, because it is mentioned here, he was predestined to betray the Lord. He had his own responsibility for his guilt as the Lord said later (Matthew 26:24).
Although Judas was not alone in his astonishment at this apparent waste (Mark 14:4, Matthew 26:8), he was the spokesman for the group who chimed in and agreed with his protest and is mentioned by name for speaking out, and because of the vile motive for doing so. The amount here spent by Mary would equal a day labourer's wages for a year.
Clearly the disciples did not know then that Judas was a petty thief. That knowledge came later after he took the bribe of thirty pieces of silver for betraying Jesus (Matthew 26:15), for the disciples did not suspect Judas of treachery (John 13:28), let alone small peculation. Temptations usually come through our particular weaknesses, and, being trusted with the money box, he used what was put inside for his own benefit. He would have loved to get his hands on the three hundred denarii this ointment was worth.
The Lord told them to leave Mary alone, and explained what, to them at the time, may have been difficult to understand: Mary had saved this very expensive ointment to use in preparing his body for burial. She was, in today's terms, giving Him the flowers before the funeral. In Matthew we read "For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial".
We can hardly take it that Mary did not use all of the ointment, for she broke the container (Mark 14:3). She must have had some glimmering comprehension that He would not be with them much longer, but would give His life for them and rise on the third day. The disciples would have been so wrapped up in their own notions of a political kingdom that they failed utterly to sympathise with Jesus as he faced the cross, but Mary did begin to understand and this was her way of expressing her high emotions, gratitude and loyalty.
The Lord did not discredit gifts to the poor, but credited Mary with the sacrifice made by her in His honour, and declared her action would be remembered wherever this gospel was preached in the whole world, in memorial to her ( Matthew 26:13, Mark 14:9). Her noble deed has in truth become part of the Gospel and is remembered by us even today.
Matthew, Mark and Luke follow this scene with the visit of Judas to the Sanhedrin offering to betray Jesus for money, as if he were exasperated by this rebuke. A theologian adds "Mary in her devotion unconsciously provides for the honour of the dead. Judas in his selfishness unconsciously brings about the death itself".
Applying His saying that "the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always" to our days, we can always be of service to the poor, for they are always around us, but this must not be a substitute for our devotion to Him: to learn from Him, to glorify Him in our speech and conduct, to witness for Him, and to provide sacrificially for His work with our means. There comes a day when it is too late to do this.
A great number of people from the religious Jews, not all hostile to the Lord (as they were in John 5:10; John 6:41, etc.), knowing that He was there came to over to seek Him, and also to see Lazarus, now famous for having risen from the dead. Some of the very witnesses of the raising of Lazarus would bear witness later (verse 17).
It was a tense situation for the whole Sanhedrin (chapter 11:53) had decided to put Jesus to death and had demanded information of His whereabouts that they might arrest Him. The Sadducees were specially active now to accomplish the death of Lazarus also, perhaps arguing that, if they could kill both Jesus and Lazarus, then Lazarus would remain dead.
The raising of Lazarus had brought matters to a crisis. Lazarus, alive, was the evidence of this great sign, which was still inducing many of the religious Jews to break away from their leaders and to believe that the man Jesus was, in fact the Messiah. There was danger of a mass movement of the people to Him. Most of these people were probably curiosity seekers, and the faith described here could be very much like the faith exhibited when the Lord first came up to Jerusalem. At that time, although they apparently believed on Him, He would not commit Himself to them. It was a belief based on curiosity and impulse.
R David Jones
1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead.
2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him.
3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
4 Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said,
5 "Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"
6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.
7 But Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial.
8 "For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always."
9 Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.
10 But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also,
11 because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.