With his disciples, Jesus traveled the short distance from Jerusalem to Bethany for a dinner in his honor. Lazarus, whom Jesus had recently raised from the dead, was celebrating with them, along with his sisters, Mary and Martha.
A musky, floral scent of expensive perfume filled the house, as Mary, Lazarus’ sister, poured the oil of pure nard, often used to anoint kings, from an alabaster jar onto Jesus’ head and feet. Unashamed, and in front of his disciples, she wiped his feet with her hair in what was likely a display of her reverence for him as her king and Messiah.
The friends, reclining around the table, were shocked when Mary broke open the rare jar of perfume, said to have cost a year’s wages. The disciples and Judas Iscariot, in particular, rebuked her harshly, claiming it was a waste, that it could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus told them to leave her alone. “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.”
“For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”
Jesus
Bluntly letting them know what was going to happen to him, Jesus also refocused their attention on what truly mattered: love given extravagantly and sacrificially—love that Mary had just shown, just as the widow at the temple had shown earlier in giving her last coins. Soon, Jesus was going to pour out love so extravagant and sacrificial that it would have the power to save anyone who believed in him.
Just the day before, Jesus had warned the disciples about the fleeting nature of possessions, and yet, here they were, complaining, judging, and acting self-righteous, worrying about the expense. Would they have used the money generously for the poor? Or were they jealous that they didn’t have anything to anoint Jesus?
Mary’s obedience angered some of them, especially Judas, who had expected Jesus to take his high position as a political leader. But Jesus’s constant talk of the heart, generosity, and forgiveness, and this “waste” of pure nard, finally hit a nerve. Judas made the decision to betray Jesus.
He went to the chief priests. “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” Being a thief, and keeper of the money bag, it came down to coins—30 pieces of silver. That was all it took to betray his friend.