When Mary anointed Jesus with perfume, Judas Iscariot and the dis­ciples objected. But Jesus vindicated her, "Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this for the day of my burial." It's a strange expression. It sounds like he's saying that Mary was intending to use that perfume for his burial, so we don't know why she would've poured it at that moment.

What Jesus meant becomes clear­er when we compare it to Mark 14:8, "She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare my body for burial." What Jesus is saying is some­thing like this: "Mary set the perfume aside to use it to honour me and show her love. And what she has done, in fact, is to prepare my body for burial."

What Mary did to Jesus was what people in those days did to dead bod­ies: they anointed them with perfume, from head to foot, to cover the stink of death. Did Mary know then, that he was about to die? She should've known it; Jesus had told them often enough. She also knew the Sanhedrin was planning to arrest him. And if she put two and two together, she would've recognized what Jesus was doing by coming out into the open at Bethany, where his enemies would find him. We can't say whether she knew or not. She obviously didn't understand why he had to die. Otherwise she would've expected him to rise again, because he'd said that, too. Maybe this is like what happened with Caiaphas in John 11:51-52; maybe Mary was expressing more than she realized.

But it doesn't matter whether she knew Jesus was about to die. For Jesus says, "I recognize her love, and I rejoice in it." Such extravagant love is beautiful in the eyes of God. And under the circumstances, what Mary has done is completely appropriate. Her priorities are perfectly in order.

The disciples had said that the perfume could've been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus said, "You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me" (v. 8). Some people think that Jesus is saying the poor will always be with you, so giving them this money wouldn't have made much difference anyway. Or that Jesus means to say, "You have to choose between giv­ing your money to the poor, and giv­ing it to me." But Jesus would never discourage us from helping the poor. And he'd never suggest that we have to choose between them and him. We only have to think of his words in Matthew 25:40,

Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Jesus is actually quoting from Deuteronomy 15:7,

Do not be hard­hearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.

And then it says,

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers, and to­ward the poor and needy in the land.Deuteronomy 15:11

Jesus is drawing a contrast between what the disciples could al­ways do, and what they could do only at that moment. "You'll always be able to give money to the poor. But I won't always be with you. Disciples, under­stand who I am, and what I have come to do." The hour was growing late, the cross was a few days away, and they still didn't know. Jesus is saying, "I'm on my way to the grave. Whether Mary knows it or not, she has prepared my body for burial." And this is how Jesus wanted his disciples to see him, and how Jesus wants us to see him: to see that he laid down his life for us.

Jesus says in Mark 14:9,

I tell you the truth: wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what Mary has done will also be told, in memory of her.

And so we have also heard the story of Mary's devotion to the Lord. The Holy Spirit holds her out as an example of the joy, thankfulness, and selfless love that belongs to faith in Jesus Christ, the faith that sees and claims him as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. That is the worship that Christ seeks from his church, the love he deserves from his bride. Let us pray that the Spirit will give us the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is, that we may offer him our hearts, our lives, all that we are and ever will be.