The Anointing

"For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial" (Matt. 26:12 NASB).

During the final days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Mary broke open an alabaster jar of costly perfume, and anointed the head of her Lord (Matt. 26:6-7; John 12:1-3). A common practice of the day was to anoint with oil the head of an important guest, but this woman had done something extraordinary with the breaking open of an expensive jar of oil. It was an extravagant act of love bestowed upon the Lord; yet, others in the room missed the significance.

The expensiveness of the alabaster jar of oil, being approximately a year’s worth of wages for common folk, was likely a family heirloom. Something unique that once opened had to be immediately used for freshness. What sacrifice! What devotion to the ministry of Jesus! Seeing the life of Jesus, she saw something beyond greatness, she got the message, the Messiah would suffer, and her response was appropriate. She was preparing Him for His death.

John tells us that it was Judas Iscariot, who chided the woman about the waste, especially when the perfume could be sold and money given to the poor. The betrayer’s intentions, of course, were not completely pure, as he was one stealing from the money bag (John 12:6).

Jesus responds in recognizing the perennial problem of poverty in the world, which was something taught by Moses (Matt. 26:11; cf. Deut. 15:11). Nevertheless, He still recognizes that Mary did a good thing in preparing His own body for death. The extravagant gift honored the Lord and all that He was about to do for the sake of the least, lost, and lowly of the world. His death allows sinful people to enter into a right relationship with God. It is the redemptive work of the cross that would transforms sinners and give then the spiritual power so that they could rebuild the fallen social structures of society without which poverty could never be alleviated.

The anointing served as a reminder that something good was going to come out of the calamity of Christ’s death. Imagine an entire bottle of perfume poured on the head of Jesus. The scent would have remained on Him up to the time of His crucifixion. The scent was there at the Last Supper, during the prayer in Gethsemane, when He was arrested, tried by the Jews, judged before Pilate, and then hung upon the cross. In the midst of the bitterness of His death, there was something sweet in the air.

The goodness of Mary’s gift was far more than simply the price attached to the bottle of perfume. She had anointed Jesus in preparation for His death. She gave her most costly treasure to show her acceptance of the reality of Christ’s mission. His mission involved going to the cross, she anointed Him for that very task. She understood that Christ would go to the cross, whereas others simply did not come to grips with what their Master was teaching concerning His own death.

—WGN