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

 

 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 the 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 

 

 In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught about the final judgment:  "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 give 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 comments that 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 (Matthew 26:53).  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, 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 the 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."  We should first understand that Simon the leper is one who must have been healed by Christ earlier, as lepers were forbidden to live in towns.  But the depth of this passage is about the compassion and faith of this woman.  My study Bible notes for us that there is no consensus among patristic commentary concerning the identity of this woman in relation to accounts of events that are similar in Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-38; and John 12:1-8.  Some Fathers say that there were three different women in all these four accounts, other say 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.  My study Bible comments that Judas on his own initiative seeks to betray Jesus.  His motives have been debated, but patristic understanding and the liturgical hymns declare that greed was Judas' primary motive.  This is given to us in John 12:4-6, where Judas was specifically upset about the "waste" of myrrh in the story of the anointing by the woman just preceding, because he was a thief (see also 1Timothy 6:10).  The phrase one of the twelve is not used so much to identify Judas, my study Bible says, who was already known by Matthew's hearers, but rather to emphasize the depth of this betrayal -- that it was from one of Christ's closest followers.  

In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave us both a parable and a prophecy regarding the final judgment, the time when He, as Son of Man, would sit on His throne of glory and separate the "sheep" and the "goats."  (See yesterday's reading, above.)  Essentially, when we take a close look at the examples of the behavior of the "sheep" that Christ gave us, we see acts of compassion that are done not only to "one of the least of these My brethren," but also to Christ (Matthew 25:40).  Each example given by Jesus is a way of living out the two greatest commandments given by Jesus, and especially of loving neighbor as oneself.  In yesterday's commentary, we noted also the very personal nature of these acts; they are acts of community, person-to-person, and they come from the heart, as opposed to rules of politics, social theories, or morality.  It is characterized not by thinking of others as objects toward a goal, but as persons like ourselves.  Now when we look at the story of the woman in today's reading, we see, in fact, a supreme act of the kind that Jesus ascribes to the sheep who will sit on His right hand.  It is an act of great compassion, which He has the depth of insight to understand.  It is an act of personal giving, from the heart.  It is very personally directed to Jesus and His circumstances, as He declares: "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."  Jesus certainly preaches the care of the poor, but in this case He specifically states that her personal action holds great significance beyond our understanding of a general need or "rule" to care for the poor, an understanding and practice which is always with us.  But the specific use of the oil to prepare Him for what is coming tells us a deeply personal story of understanding and sympathy.  It is not sentimental nor maudlin nor simply "emotional."  This is a woman who accepts Christ's ministry, perhaps better than the men do (Matthew 16:22-23), and yet her depth of compassion is with Him, even as He goes willingly and knowingly to the Cross.  So significant is this to Jesus that He tells the disciples, "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."  In some ironic way, although it is He who is going to His sacrificial death, it is she who has done an act of such profound significance to Christ that, in His words, she will be memorialized through it, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world.