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Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people."
And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My 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 one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.
- Matthew 26:1-16
We have been reading through Jesus' final discourse to His disciples. He taught them about the destruction to come in Jerusalem, including the destruction of the temple. He taught about His second coming. And then He gave several parables about life in this time as we await His return. See readings beginning Thursday (also Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday). Yesterday (Wednesday), Jesus continued in the final passage of this discourse: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and gave You drink" When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." My study bible says "Jesus is delivered up to His Passion by His accusers, yet He goes willingly. Unless Christ had willed to go , His accusers could never have taken Him. After His Resurrection, many saints imitated Christ by willingly going to martyrdom."
And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, . . . My study bible points out that this Simon must have been someone who had earlier been healed by Jesus, because lepers were forbidden to live in towns.
. . . a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor." But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial." A note says that Jesus accepts this honor from the woman in her newly found faith. In particular, He accepts it as a sign of His coming burial. Nevertheless, St. John Chrysostom has commented that the other disciples were not wrong in principle: mercy shown to the poor is more fitting than outward signs shown even to God (25:40; James 1:27). However they did not understand that once the gift had been given, it was a greater mercy to accept it with love. Chrysostom said, "If anyone had asked Christ before the woman did this, He would not have approved it. But after she had done it, He looks only to the gift itself. For after the fragrant oil had been poured, what good was a rebuke? Likewise, if you should see anyone providing a sacred vessel or ornament for the walls of the church, do not spoil his zeal. But if beforehand he asks about it, command him to give instead to the poor."
"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." My study bible says, "Because of her fervent faith, Jesus promises perpetual public memory of this woman. There is no consensus among the Fathers as to her identity in relation to accounts of similar events in Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-38; and John 12:1-8. Some Fathers say that there were three different women in these four accounts, others that there were only two."
Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. A note says here that Judas seeks to betray Jesus on his own initiative. "His motives have been debated, but the Fathers and the liturgical hymns declare that greed was his primary motive. This is revealed in John 12:4-6, where Judas was particularly upset about the 'waste' of myrrh in the preceding story because he was a thief (see also 1 Timothy 6:10). The phrase one of the twelve is not used so much to identify Judas, who was already known by Matthew's hearers, but to emphasize the depth of the betrayal -- that it was one of Christ's closest followers." Elsewhere, Jesus says, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70).
In today's reading, we have a deep contrast -- between Judas who betrays Jesus and this woman we can't completely identify. Yet it is the woman whom Jesus praises, and about whom He teaches that "wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." We don't know her name in each Gospel, but all the Gospels each bear witness to her memorial. It is a necessary teaching, a story so impressively essential that it is here, in every story of the life of Jesus, in every Gospel. Judas, we are told by John, was a thief. But he's also seemingly disgruntled, and perhaps angered at Jesus' rebuke (John 12:4-7). He complains about the woman's extravagance in her expression of love and care for Jesus. And I think that right there is the great opposition. Whether or not he is a thief, he's scathing about this extravagant act of love. Do we love Christ or do we not love Christ? I think everything comes down to the heart: not what we do with the material things we have, but something deeper than a mere appearance. It's not really the oil that matters here. What matters is her own extreme generosity in her expression of love for Jesus; there is care here also, for this is an anointing before burial, an act that only true concern for another can really generate. And it is that depth of love that seems to be the real object of opposition in Judas. Judas is also acting according to some sort of rule, a framework, a letter of "law" in some sense, and he's simply not perceiving at all the value of this love to Jesus. He's not seeing what a woman capable of this love and generosity may do in the future for the Church, either. A person who thinks only in material terms -- whether or not he is a thief -- doesn't understand the love and zeal and true wealth that is here in the generosity of love. At any rate, her love for Jesus is not understood by him at all. Her gift of oil is also appropriate to the time, and what is imminent. As Jesus has also said, "The poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." In Luke's Gospel, Jesus links this love with forgiveness: "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little" (Luke 7:47). Her zeal reminds us of the angel in Revelation, who spoke to condemn the "lukewarm" quality of one of the churches (see Rev. 3:16). Jesus' praise of this woman reminds us always to practice mercy; it's not the letter of the "law" or even the good rules in which we place our faith, but in God's love and mercy that sees right into the heart -- and those hearts that may burn with the same.
