Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me

 

 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 

 

Yesterday, we read Jesus' final words in His discourse regarding end times:  "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 comments that the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins with the Passover meal on the evening of 15 Nisan (on the Jewish calendar, and it lasts seven days (Exodus 12:12-20).  Together, both the Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread commemorate the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt.  The word "Passover" refers to the angels of death 'passing over' Hebrew homes when killing the firstborn of the Egyptians, for the Jews had put lamb's blood on their doorposts (Exodus 12:13).  (Let us keep in mind that this refers to those faithful to the God of Israel, not to divisions by ethnic or racial groups.)   Unleavened bread is a reminder of the haste with which the Hebrews left Egypt (Exodus 12:39).  My study Bible reminds us that this Passover was fulfilled in Christ, whose blood was shed to free humanity from bondage to 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.  Simon the leper must have been a man who had been healed earlier by Jesus, as lepers were forbidden to live in towns.  He was clearly known to the early Christian community.

 

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."   My study Bible comments that Jesus accepts this honor from the woman in her newly found faith.  Most especially, He accepts it as a sign of His coming burial.  Nonetheless, St. John Chrysostom comments on the similar event described in Matthew 26:6-13 that the disciples were not wrong in principle:  mercy shown to the poor is more fitting than outward signs shown even to God (Matthew 25:40, James 1:27).  However, they didn't understand that once the gift was given, it was a greater mercy to accept it with love.  St. Chrysostom writes, "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."   Because of her fervent faith, my study Bible explains, Jesus promises perpetual public memory of this woman.  It's also noted that there is no consensus among the patristic writers as to her identity in relation to the accounts of similar events in Matthew 26:6-13, Luke 7:36-38, and John 12:1-8.  Some say that there were three different women in these four accounts, and others that there were only two.

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.   My study Bible comments that Judas on his own initiative seeks to betray Jesus.  It notes that his motives have been debated, but the patristic writers and also liturgical hymns of the Church express that greed was his underlying motive.  In John 12:4-6, it's made clear that Judas was particularly upset about the "waste" of the myrrh in the preceding story of the woman who anointed Christ, because he was a thief (see also 1 Timothy 6:10).   On Wednesday of Holy Week, the betrayal by Judas is remembered in the Church.  Many of the Orthodox liturgical hymns contrast his greed with the woman's generous anointing of Christ.  My study Bible also notes that it's a tradition dating to the first century (see the Didache)  that Christians fast on most Wednesdays of the year in remembrance of the ways in which we, like Judas, betray our Savior through our sinfulness.  

I'm always struck by the expression of love and gratitude in the story of the anointing of Christ by this woman.  One thing that's noteworthy is that she doesn't speak.  Everything she conveys is expressed through her extravagant gesture of anointing with this expensive oil.  In the ancient world, perfumes were made in the form of oils or other types of fat.  The most expensive were made with a very precious olive oil that did not add a scent of its own.  Her mute expression of love for Christ seems to be the deepest sort of gratitude for a life in which she's been saved from her own history, and from the path that was not good for her.  In that sense, she is returning with gratitude the love she has experienced from God that has given her everything that is truly valuable in her life, and a kind of joy that can't be bought or found elsewhere.  In this sense, the extravagant gift of the perfumed oil is nothing compared to the immense and irreplaceable value she's been given by Christ.  And although she doesn't speak, Jesus speaks for her, showing us His supreme sympathy and understanding.  He does not chastise except to tell those who criticize to leave her alone.  He does not misunderstand her action.  And neither does He accept it with the kind of self-centeredness we might expect from anyone else.  But He understands that she is communicating an unselfish message of love and gratitude, and even mixed here is an anticipation of mourning when He will be gone:  She is anointing Him for His burial.  In a prayer that is said at the end of every liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, we pray to the Lord "Who blesses those who bless You and sanctifies those who put their trust in You."  (The Dismissal Prayer of the St. Chrysostom Liturgy, or The Prayer Behind the Ambon, can be found on this page of Prayers.) Here Jesus returns her blessing of anointing with His blessing -- which in the original Greek word used for blessing in the prayer, also means to "praise" (εὐλογέω).   This, in short, is a scene which teaches us about the deepest communion we have with God.  The intimacy shared between Christ and this woman is the one we have in prayer; her anointing is her gift of praise and worship.  And the God who is love returns her expression of love to show us what love is like in its truest form.