32. The woman who dimly foresaw His death

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A woman’s intuition dimly guessed at more than the Apostles understood, even though to them in explicit language He foretold His Passion and death. The woman was Mary, who had been a sinner. The time was six days before Good Friday; the place was Simon’s house—the Simon who had been a leper.

Recumbent at table the Master sat among His Apostles and a number of others: John and James who had but recently sought first places; Peter the Rock who would have a Divine, but not a suffering, Christ; Nathanael, the new Jacob, without guile, who was promised that he would see Christ as the Mediator between heaven and earth; Judas, the treasurer of apostolic funds; and the remaining apostles who would act as a unit within a few minutes; Lazarus, so recently risen from the dead by the power of Him Who called Himself “the Resurrection” Martha, still serving and bent on hospitable cares; and Mary, the repentant sinner.

As the meal drew to a close, Mary passed to the back of the Savior’s couch, carrying a vase of pure spikenard ointment. This ointment was costly; Judas, who put a price on everything, valued it at about a year’s wages. The ointment was costly for Mary, but not too costly for the Son of God. The vessel in which this extract of myrrh was carried was likely of alabaster, with a long thin neck. Mary broke the vessel to permit an unmeasured flowing upon His head and His feet. In a few days, at the Last Supper, He would break bread as a token of His Body which would be broken on the Cross. From Mary’s “broken and contrite spirit,” which God never despises, came this other broken thing in dim prefigurement of His death. At His birth, the Wise Men brought myrrh for His death and burial; now, at the close of His earthly life, Mary brought the myrrh again for His death. After anointing first His head, and then His feet, she wiped the latter with her hair.

Jacob, of old, poured ointment on a stone dedicating it as an altar of sacrifice to God. Now this woman poured out on the new Israel an ointment which prepared Him for sacrifice. This is precisely the way Our Lord interpreted her action; even His name “Christ” meant “the Anointed of God,” or the Messias.

Judas Iscariot then spoke; but all the Apostles concurred in his judgment:

Why should not this ointment have been sold?

It would have fetched three hundred silver pieces,

And alms might have been given to the poor.

JOHN 12:5

These are the first recorded words of Judas in the Scriptures. Judas would turn away all thoughts from Christ to the poor. Mary had emptied the vessel of perfume, but Judas would have filled his bag with money. The other disciples entertained in their minds similar thoughts about the primacy of the economic. A “bread king” was more important than a “Savior King.” In their indignation, they asked:

What is the meaning of this waste?

MATTHEW 26:8

From what they knew of Our Lord, they thought that He would have preferred giving to the poor rather than showing glory to His Body, which was to be broken for their Redemption. Philanthropy, at least in the case of Judas, was serving as a cloak for covetousness. Counted as wasted was that which was expended on God’s honor. Our Divine Lord immediately came to the defense of the woman:

Let her alone!

JOHN 12:7

Actually, it was He the Apostles were insulting; but in His humility, He censured them only for their attitude to the woman. Then what was confusedly in her mind, namely, His impending death, He now brings out into the clear light of day:

She has anointed My Body beforehand

To prepare it for burial.

MARK 14:8

She was making an offering to Him as the Victim for the sins of the world. The effusion of ointment was an anticipation of the embalming of His Body. It might have been unconscious in Mary’s mind, as it was unconscious in the minds of the Magi who also anticipated His death, but He made the unconscious conscious. Six days before His death, she anointed Him for His burial. The Apostles could not bring themselves to see His death, so often foretold; but this woman saw, at last, the reason of His coming—not to live, but to die and live again. And she must have looked beyond His death, for was she not seated with Lazarus who was brought back to life through Him Who called Himself “the Resurrection and the Life”?

Then, answering the objection about the poor, Our Lord said:

You have the poor among you always;

I am not always among you.

JOHN 12:8

The words, “Let her alone,” were in the singular, and hence addressed to Judas alone; the remaining words were in the plural, and therefore an admonition to all the Apostles. To the Son of God in His role as the suffering Son of Man, only six days more remained. The economically poor would always exist on earth, and the opportunity to serve them would always be present. Service to them in His name, He would account as done to Himself. But within a week, God in the form and habit of man would end a brief sojourn before passing to His eternal glory at the right hand of the Father. Gone then would be all occasions to console, to hear, to touch, and to see Him. Suffer then this poor woman to unite herself with My death, for I shall never die again. To be one with the “length and breadth, height and depth” of My Passion is to surpass in value all almsgiving. Furthermore, those who give out of love of the death of Christ and His glory, are those who always give to the poor. But those who would ignore the Savior Christ as Judas did, are those who hustle off after a defense of the poor to sell the Master for thirty pieces of silver.

Enduring honor was put upon the woman’s deed by the Savior Who foretold that Mary’s deed would be enshrined for all time. Though she did it for His burial, He used the incident to inform His Apostles that His Gospel would be world-wide and Mary’s renown trumpeted everywhere.

And I promise you,

In whatever part of the world

This Gospel is preached,

The story of what she has done

Shall be told in that place.

MATTHEW 26:13

As Chrysostom wrote:

While countless kings and generals and the noble exploits of those whose memorials remain, have sunk into silence; while those who have overthrown cities and encompassed them with walls, and set up trophies, and enslaved many nations, are not known so much as by hearsay, nor by name, though they have both set up statutes and established laws; yet this woman, who was a harlot and who poured out oil in the house of some leper in the presence of a dozen men— this all men celebrate through the world.

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