You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and he sent Me

 

 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.  And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?"  Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone will to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.  

 

"Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?  Why do you seek to kill Me?"  The people answered and said, "You have a demon.  Who is seeking to kill You?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "I did one work, and you all marvel.  Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.  If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?  Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."  

 

Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill?  But look!  He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.  Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?  However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."  Then Jesus cried out, as he taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.  But I know Him, for I am from Him, and he sent Me."  Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.  And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?" 

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.  You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."  Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?  Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?  What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?" 

 

- John 7:14-36 

 

On Saturday we began chapter 7 of John's Gospel.  Chapter 6 will be visited after this week, but we're to understand that the controversial events of that chapter figure into the setting here.  After these things (particularly including Jesus' teaching that He is the Bread of Life, establishing the foundation for the Eucharist) Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.  Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.  His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing.  For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly.  If You do these things, show Yourself to the world."  For even His brothers did not believe in Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.  The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.  You go up to this feast.  I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come."  When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.  But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.  Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?"  And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him.  Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people."  However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

 

  Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.  And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?"  Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone will to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him."  My study Bible comments that the simple desire to know and follow God's will is the key to understanding it.  It notes that spiritual blindness comes from unwillingness to know God or to recognize His authority.  St. John Chrysostom is cited as paraphrasing Christ in this way:  "Rid yourselves of wickedness:  the anger, the envy, and the hatred which have arisen in your hearts, without provocation, against Me.  Then you will have no difficulty in realizing that My words are actually those of God.  As it is, these passions darken your understanding and distort sound judgment.  If you remove these passions, you will no longer be afflicted in this way."

 

 "Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?  Why do you seek to kill Me?"  The people answered and said, "You have a demon.  Who is seeking to kill You?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "I did one work, and you all marvel.  Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.  If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?  Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."  Once again, Jesus is being sought for a blameless violation of the Sabbath rule (among other things).   That is, for His healing of the paralytic on the Sabbath at the Feast of Weeks, also known as the Old Testament Pentecost, celebrating the giving of the Law (see this reading).  Here He gives another example of a blameless violation of the Sabbath, that of circumcision, and compares it to making someone completely well.  

Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill?  But look!  He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.  Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?  However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."  Then Jesus cried out, as he taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.  But I know Him, for I am from Him, and he sent Me."  The crowds claim, "We know where this Man is from."   But, my study Bible comments, the crowds are mistaken, both in an earthly sense and also in a divine sense.  Humanly speaking, they believe tat Jesus is from Nazareth of Galilee, but He was actually born in Bethlehem, and they're not aware of this (see verse 42; also Luke 2:1-7).  Beyond this, they can't understand that He has come from the Father in Heaven, eternally begotten before all ages, and therefore His divine "origin" also remains unknown to them. 

 

Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.  And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"    The text tells us that His hour had not yet come:   Christ's hour is the time of His suffering and death.  He is the Lord over time, my study Bible explains, an authority which is possessed by God alone.  He comes to the Cross of His own free will, and in His time, and not according to the plots of human beings (see John 8:20; 10:39).

The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.  Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.  You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."  Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?  Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?  What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"  Here Christ is referring to His death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven ("I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.  You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come").  To go among the Greeks means to go among the Gentiles.  My study Bible calls this an unwitting prophecy which points to the time after Christ's Ascension, when His name will be preached among the Gentiles by the apostles. 

 

Jesus asks, "Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?  Why do you seek to kill Me?"  The people answered Him, saying, "You have a demon.  Who is seeking to kill You?"  Note how quickly they tell Him He has a demon, suggesting He's out of His mind and imagining things, or perhaps, as we'd say today, He's paranoid.  It's telling, perhaps, that the people answer Him, asking, "Who is seeking to kill You?"  For we know at least some among the religious leaders are already plotting to kill Him.  Perhaps the people who answer don't know this.  But on the other hand, a little further down, some from Jerusalem already have heard there is a plot against Jesus to kill Him.  They say, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill?"  John's Gospel is quite clever in how it suggests to us the huge mixture of responses that swirl around Jesus.  Some from Jerusalem have heard that the religious rulers want to catch Him and kill Him.  Others think He's beside Himself for saying so.  Some notice that the rulers are not saying anything to Jesus, and they say, "But look!  He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.  Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?"  Isn't this behavior rather typical even of today, with all of our social media and an interconnected entire world, in which people wonder what the leaders know, and what they aren't telling us?  Perhaps the Gospel is quite reassuring to us in that literally nothing much has changed, as much as we think truly that the world has changed in some respects.  All the rumors, and gossip, things half true and half false, the wrong assumptions, and wrong information about where Jesus is truly from (they think He's from Galilee but don't know He was born in Bethlehem) -- all of these suggest to us the modern world and the myriad rumors we can hear about anything, repeated and stretched and turned and twisted one way or another, all available on social media to all who have a voice.  So Jesus walks amidst the same world that you and I do, only He is the Son of Man, the Messiah, both fully divine and fully human, and yet He's misunderstood, and plotted against, and will be betrayed, and defied.  We should take heart that this is the same world, and that He's come before us with His light and truth in order to show us how we, too, should walk through it -- and giving us what is true and what is false.  Even though the people of Israel devoutly hoped in a Messiah, Jesus will be a rejected because He will not be what they expect, what they wanted -- and also because of the plots of the religious leaders who conspire to rid themselves of One so impressive  and well-known to the people.  Note that even while He is there at this festival, the religious leaders send officers, temple police, to seize Him.  Later we read, therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.  And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"   So there are those among the people who believed in Him, remarking upon His signs.  So some intuit the truth, although full faith is based not only upon the signs He performs.  But it's not yet His time, His hour has not yet come.  This, too, should reassure us that even in the midst of a chaotic, turbulent, fickle, and frightening world, Jesus is still in charge of the time, God's unfolding has a certain reality to it that we don't perceive.  As Jesus says earlier, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" (John 5:17).   In this world of betrayal we don't expect, things unseen and hidden, plots we can't even imagine, let us take heart that this, too, remains true.  The Father has been working until now, and Christ is working, and so is the Holy Spirit.  It is there we meet our faith midst the world that swirls around us, and there we must remain and stay rooted, for it is the certain reality we can trust and cling to.  Jesus declares, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.  But I know Him, for I am from Him, and he sent Me."  Let us stay true to the One who is true. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish

 

 Then many of Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.  But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.  Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do?  For this Man works many signs.  If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."  And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."  Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.  Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.  Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.

 

- John 11:45-54 

 

In yesterday's reading we read of the completion of Christ's seventh and final sign in the Gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  At this point in the story, Jesus had not yet come into the town of Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, but was in the place where Martha met Him.  Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and came to Him.  Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him.  Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."  Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."  Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.  And He said, "Where have you laid him?"  They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."  Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"  And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.  Jesus said, "Take away the stone."  Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."  Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.  And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."  Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"  And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."

 

 Then many of Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.  But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.  Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do?  For this Man works many signs.  If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."  And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."  Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.  Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.  Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.   Once again we note that the term the Jews in John's Gospel usually indicates the religious leadership.  In this case, it indicates those from families in Jerusalem, likely connected to the Jewish ruling classes (such as the Pharisees mentioned here), who come to mourn Lazarus' death with Martha and Mary (see yesterday's reading, above).  On today's entire reading, my study Bible has a single note.  It explains to us that Caiaphas, being high priest, is given the authority to speak prophetically.  It notes that the failings or even wickedness of the officeholder do not diminish the grace of the office itself.  Here, Caiaphas means only that the death of Jesus Christ will spare the Jews from Roman intervention.  But God's meaning is something entirely different, that all people will be saved through the death of the Son. 

 

The "unwittingly prophetic" plays a significant role in the Gospels, in the story of Jesus Christ, particularly at these moments of high tension or crisis.  Here in today's reading is perhaps the most important example, when Caiaphas, acting as high priest, makes this statement in which he intends one meaning but God speaks through him with another.    In saying that "it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish," the Christian perspective recognizes the clear message of Jesus Christ as Savior.  He will die for all, as He has said.  In John's chapter 3, Jesus told Nicodemus, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:14-17).  This has been the clear message of Christ's teaching about Himself, and will become more explicit as the story of Christ's Passion, death, and Resurrection unfolds, and in the whole history of the Church.  There are other examples of what we can call unwitting prophecies, such as in our recent reading when Christ's disciple Thomas said of Jesus' going to Lazarus who was dying, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him" (see this reading).  Thomas meant this statement with one understanding which was his at the time, but it is a prophecy of the lives of martyrdom that the disciples would go on to lead.  There is yet another profound example to come in the events of Christ's Passion, found in Matthew's Gospel, and that is when the people shout at Christ's Crucifixion.  That happens as Pilate washes his hands before the crowd demanding Jesus' death and declares, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it."  We're told that all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children."  Whatever way this can be read or intended (or twisted to justify the sinful persecution of Jewish people), it is seen in the eyes of the Church as not a curse but an unwitting blessing, for it is the blood of Christ that is our means of salvation, as shown when so many in Jerusalem would come to repentance and faith as on the day of Pentecost when thousands were baptized (Acts 2:41).  The story of Jesus is filled with paradox; perhaps the greatest paradox of all is the one we continue to ponder:  why does the means of our salvation happen through the events of Christ's Passion and Holy Week?  But through these events, which are effectively begun through the raising of Lazarus and the meeting of the Sanhedrin in today's reading, God will work to bring salvation to the world and the power of redemption to humanity -- and this is indeed a great paradox.  At such a point of crisis we find God intervenes in the most extraordinary ways, and this is what we should take with us from today's reading.  For even in the midst of this darkest of plotting against Christ the Savior, prophesy is at work, and grace is at work, and we must say that God is in this sense present.  Let us accept this profound paradox as we move ahead into the story to come through John's Gospel.  

 

 

 

 

 

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.