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After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people."
And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.
- Mark 14:1-11
Jesus is now in Jerusalem, and has been teaching the disciples about the destruction of the temple and also the end of the age; the two teachings are mingled in this section of the Gospels. (See readings from Saturday and Monday.) In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued: "Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near -- at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming -- in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning -- lest, coming suddenly , he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"
After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people." My study bible says, "The Feast of the Unleavened Bread begins with the Passover meal on the evening of 15 Nisan and lasts seven days (Exodus 12:12-20). Both feasts commemorate Israel's liberation from Egypt. The word 'Passover' does not refer to the crossing of the Red Sea, but to the angel of death 'passing over' Hebrew homes when killing the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:13). Unleavened bread is a reminder of the haste with which the Hebrews left Egypt. It also symbolized holiness unmixed with evil. Passover prefigures the new deliverance of humanity by Christ from the power of sin and death."
And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me." My study bible tells us that "knowledge of religious things is good, but devotion to Christ is more important. Here a woman who knows less about religion than her critics expresses her deep love and devotion to Christ, devotion He accepts with gratitude. Those who were indignant are the disciples themselves, according to Matthew 26:8, while John 12:4-5 specifies Judas Iscariot."
"For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." Again, my study bible tells us helpfully: "Often we do not fully understand the implications of what we do for Christ. This woman was expressing her love for Jesus; she may or may not have known that she was anointing the body of Jesus for burial (see Matthew 26:12)."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him. The Gospels teach us that after this incident of the woman pouring the oil and anointing Christ with it, Judas went to betray Him. In John's Gospel, we're specifically told that Judas criticized this woman because he was a thief (see John 12:6). It may also be that Judas' rebuke openly by Christ, in defense of this woman, was what decided him to betray his Master.
In the Gospels, we're given many paradoxes -- themes that seem in some sense contradictory. But in all cases, they are teaching tools used by Jesus to get us to think about and to live in and participate in our faith. He tells us about hypocrisy; this is one of His biggest criticisms He will make of anyone. That is, those who do things for a show, especially religious practice, when their hearts aren't really in the same place. Hypocrite, we remember, is a word that means "actor" in the Greek, someone who wears a mask, who is "under" a mask. "Following the rules" in this sense, if they allow us to remain hypocrites, just isn't good enough. Our faith isn't about an ideology. It can't really be broken down into a kind of set of rules to follow, except insofar as we understand the law as written in our minds and hearts. It isn't that we don't have formal teaching or understanding, far from it. But it is that there is a deeper rule that we follow and that really makes our faith just that -- faith. It is the relationship between ourselves and God: Father, Son and Spirit, and the extension of this relationship to neighbor. Over and over again, we come back to those two greatest commandments which Jesus named to the scribe as He taught in the temple in Jerusalem, in last week's reading. And even more deeply, if we think about it, those commandments are ranked clearly through this teaching in today's reading: Judas and the others ostensibly criticize this woman for failing to love her neighbor, in essence, by not selling her expensive ointment and putting it in the treasury, the distribution for the poor. But Christ teaches about love of God first. It's important to understand Jesus' words that "the poor we have with us always" because what He's saying is that nothing keeps this woman from also helping the poor directly, and that we, too, always have those around us who need our help in one way or another. But the relationship with God who is love comes first, and out of that comes truly our loving behavior and actions. Out of that relationship comes a kind of discernment that leads us to what is truly needful. We can't be broken down in our faith to following a set of rules as if we simply live as robots, and not as human beings who were created for relationship, for love, for growth. Here, what is needful is an anointing for His burial. Whatever way in which the love of God is working in this woman, it has led her to do something truly needful, a gift to the whole world; so much so, that Christ teaches Himself that wherever the Gospel is preached in the whole world, this story will be told as a memorial to her. He, in turn, exalts her. Whatever we do in the world, let us remember that the law written on hearts and minds may not work in ways that we can logically justify to others except perhaps in hindsight. The law of love just doesn't work like a cold code, an ideology of "one size fits all." On the contrary, in the loving embrace of God we each of us are called as unique beings to fulfill the potentials (the talents) God has assigned to us, and we each have something to contribute. It's the failure to heed that particular call that gets us into trouble, a spurning of that grace. We may all think we know better, that whatever ways in which we've been taught will give us more than would a simple relationship with God. But this is arrogance. It's God's love that trumps everything else. When we think we always know what that looks like, we, too, may be the ones who think they know, but can't see the forest for the trees. Judas cannot get over his own failure here, and he fails to learn what Christ has to teach. His love doesn't get that far. Neither does his faith in Christ's love for him.
