THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP A THING IS TO THROW IT AWAY!
“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. And she broke the flask and poured it on His head” (Mark 14:3).
Bethany is located on the eastern slope of the Mount Olives (Jerusalem is on the western side). This town was the home of Jesus’ friends Lazarus, May, and Martha, who were also present at this dinner (John 11:2). The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet was Mary—the younger sister of Lazarus and Martha (John 12:1-31). An Alabaster jar was a beautiful and expensive carved vase. Nard was expensive perfume. Mary was completely devoted to Jesus and the event proves it. How much do we love Jesus? Would we part with such an expensive materialistic belonging? The very nature of God is extravagance. How many sunrises and sunsets does God make? How many flowers and birds, how many ineffable beauties all over the world, lavish desert blossoms that only His eyes see?
Mary’s act was one of spontaneous extravagance. Mary of Bethany revealed in her act of extravagant devotion that the unconscious sympathy of her life was with Jesus Christ. “She hath done what she could”—to the absolute limit of what a human can do. It was impossible to do more. The only thing that Jesus Christ ever commended was this act of Mary’s, and He said: “Where so ever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her,” because in the anointing our Lord saw an exact illustration of what He, Himself, was about to do. He put Mary’s act alongside His own Cross. God shattered the life of His own Son to save the world. Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him? Our Lord is carried beyond Himself with joy when He sees any of us doing what Mary of Bethany did.
Jesus never ceases to amaze us. Foreknowledge of His imminent suffering and death is putting a crushing weight upon His mind and Spirit. Within hours, He leaves Bethany for the last time, walks the familiar path over the Mount of Olives, and enters the Holy City to celebrate the Passover in which He Himself will be the sacrificial lamb. How does Jesus choose to spend His last free hours? He goes to a party! He goes to Simon’s house for dinner and to have a good time with friends.
All goes well until a woman’s act of love bursts the boundaries of propriety. By custom, Mary shows hospitality and honor to a distinguished dinner guest by sprinkling His head with a drop or two of nard, a pure and expensive perfume important from the banks of the Ganges River in India. Her gratitude of Jesus does not fit within these boundaries. Breaking the neck of the alabaster flask, she pours all the perfume over Jesus’ head.
Who is this woman? She is Mary of Bethany the sister of Lazarus and Martha. This family was Jesus’ closest friends. In the privacy of their home, He finds respite from public pressure. Mary has show unusual sensitivity to spiritual Truth when she becomes enthralled with Jesus’ teachings that she forgets to help Martha fix dinner one evening. When Mary broke the flask and pouring the oil, she creates a crisis of intuitive love, as this provokes the disciples; ritual criticism, and prompts Jesus to match her devotion with a lasting memorial in her honor.
Most of our love is channeled through routines of duty and standard patterns of expression—and well it should be. On rare and grand occasions, however, the spontaneity of love breaks out of channels and skyrockets across the sky in a spectacular display. Mary didn’t have to break the flask and pour the perfume over Jesus. Her spontaneous act surprises everyone, including her. Love is sometimes extravagant. When ordinary acts do not suffice to express one’s feelings, an extraordinary show of love is in order. People whom Christ redeems from gross sin are often the most extravagant Christians. There are times when spontaneous and extravagant love is appropriate.
When Mary breaks the flask and pours the perfume over Jesus’ head the disciples launch a barrage of personal invectives against her. Thinking that they know the mind of Jesus, they register two complaints. First, the fragrant oil is wasted. Second, the expensive oil could have been sold with the proceeds going to the poor. This really annoyed Judas. Both criticisms are valid if spiritual truths limited to ritualistic limits. Judas and the other disciples attack her on the principles of stewardship and compassion. Indirectly, they also attack Jesus because He accepts the anointing.
Criticism is a dangerous and delicate instrument. Like a scalpel, it can cut to heal or it can cut to harm. Only in the hands of the most skilled and best-motivated practitioners can it heal. More often than not, harm is done because critics cannot keep persons separate from issues. The disciples sharply criticize Mary (v.5). Criticism frequently tells more about the critic than it does about the person who is criticized.
An insight into the maturity of Jesus is to see His gift for matching gratitude with gratitude. Point for point, Jesus rejects the disciples’ criticism. He describes the woman’s act as beautiful rather than wasteful. Jesus credits the woman’s perception of a timely and appropriate act of devotion. Jesus counters the disciples’ criticism by putting a world of meaning into the commendation, “She has done what she could” (v.3).
Indirectly, Jesus tells the disciples, “You have not yet given your all and done what you can do. Don’t criticize someone who has.” That’s the danger of criticism.
Not knowing it, Mary memorializes Jesus; burial by anointing His body with the perfume. A gripping fact is that she is telling Jesus through her act that He will die as a criminal because only criminals’ bodies are denied anointing with aloes, spices, and perfume after death. Her act of love will sustain Him in His darkest moment of disgrace. The fact that Jesus does not name the woman who breaks the alabaster flask and pours the perfume over the head of Jesus has to be significant.
