How will we be remembered?
INTRODUCTION:
“Six days before the Passover” is not in conflict with the two days before the Passover mentioned in Matt. 26:2; Mark 14:1. Neither of these two evangelists gives the date of the supper at Bethany. They report a saying of Jesus that he would be betrayed and crucified at the feast of the Passover two days hence, while at the very same time the Jewish authorities resolved not to destroy him at the time of the Passover. Then, without following the chronological sequence of events, these two evangelists report the supper. Matthew merely says, “now when Jesus was in Bethany,” and Mark, “and being in Bethany,” neither fixing the date. John supplements the others and records the date.
Jesus is in the house giving Mary an opportunity to show her devotion
Mary’s action created a memorial that would be forever remembered
John uses ἀλείφω, the verb for any application of oil, not χρίω, the word for sacred and ceremonial anointing. Matthew and Mark record that Mary anointed the head. John takes for granted that his readers know these records and supplements them by stating that Mary anointed the feet. The precious fluid was abundant; poured out upon the head and flowing upon the neck and the shoulders, enough was left for the feet, in fact, so much that Mary wiped off the feet with her hair. The broken alabaster cruse was thus entirely emptied—all its contents offered to the Master. In the house of the Pharisee the holy feet of Jesus had not been washed as even common politeness on the part of the host required, but at this supper in Bethany the washing certainly had not been omitted. But the devoted heart of Mary is not satisfied with the commoner fluid, she now adds the abundance of this most precious ointment that she was able to find. How many dusty, weary paths those beloved feet had trodden—now they are honored, indeed, as they deserve. The Baptist said that he was unworthy to loose the latchet of the sandals of these feet, and Mary feels the same way. At the feet of Jesus she sat when she listened to the words of life, and these feet had brought the Master of death to recall her brother to life.
It means much that Mary should use her hair to wipe the feet, and John even repeats the word feet, as if he meant to emphasize the humiliation expressed in using the hair of the head upon the feet. But in the case of a Jewish woman this act means more. To unbind and loosen the hair in the presence of outsiders was considered an indecent act. Lightfoot tells of a woman who prided herself on the fact that the beams of her house had never seen her hair. Mary’s act is thus one in which she lays her own woman’s honor at the feet of Jesus. She takes that honor and makes it a towel for his holy feet. Hers is a different act from that of the woman in the Pharisee’s house. If there we may say that the proper place for a sinner’s head is at the Savior’s feet, here we may add that the proper place for a disciple’s head is at the Savior’s feet.
Judas uncorks the vial of his poison, and the vile odor begins to spread.
Jesus had again and again announced his death by violence, by crucifixion at the hands of the Gentiles. What if the disciples failed to grasp just what Jesus meant? Why should not one heart at least realize that Jesus meant exactly what he said? The character of this woman is such that it ought not to surprise us so much that, where dull-witted men failed, she saw that Jesus was now going straight to his death—by crucifixion as he had said. Thus her mind leaped to the conclusion that, when the tragedy now broke, it would be utterly impossible to reach Jesus and to anoint his dead body for its burial. That is why she acted now and unhesitatingly embraced the opportunity which she had hoped would come and for which she was prepared. We may add that only with the understanding that Mary knew that she was now anointing the body of Jesus for its burial is the tremendous praise accorded her act by Jesus himself justified.