Bogosity

John 12:1-11

3Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Jesus seemed to be pretty pleased with Mary’s efforts and who wouldn’t be – it must have been a huge ego trip for Jesus and no wonder there have been movies made where Jesus fantasises about running off with Mary and books written where he … oops don’t want to spoil it!

So why did Mary do the perfume thing? Perhaps it is a little too obvious – it was an act of love and devotion to Jesus – she was expressing what he meant to her. I’m not sure if it was common practice for women to do that at the time or if Mary came up with it on her own. I did a quick flick through google and most of the stuff I can find doesn’t go any deeper than that – usually making the point that Mary apparently didn’t care what others thought – her act is supposed to be impulsive. She may have thought it through quite carefully, we don’t know.

While I was googling I was interested to find this page that gives some background of the M sisters (here too). They are pretty captivating being two of the few females mentioned in the New Testament and they seemed to be of some importance. I have heard it mentioned that Mary must have been rich to have that kind of perfume and that the amount she used was a quite a sacrifice.

But I still think there’s more to it. Jesus mentioned in Mark’s Gospel (i think) that he saw the act as somewhat prophetic of his death and that she had connected something that the others hadn’t – that the spirit had moved her in some way to enter into what was about to happen to Jesus. His comment that her act of annointing would be told throughout the world is interesting.

I also see Mary’s act in terms of sacrifice, perhaps mirroring Jesus’ death. She gave up a large portion of her wealth (perhaps?) in devotion to God and perhaps entered into an atonement with God for herself.

There is one last bit of this reading that begs a question.

4But Judas Iscariot, ... said, 5”Why was this ointment not sold … and given to the poor?” ... 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

This verse can be used to argue that Christians shouldn’t help the poor but should spend money on worshiping God (like building cathedrals and stadiums). It’s an interesting choice of priorities but perhaps not exactly meant to be turned into doctrine. Actually I’ve run out of blogging energy now so I’ll leave it up to the reader to ponder the question. My take is that we need to get ourselves right before we start trying to save the world. Also that Jesus was making the point that he was about to die so in this case the expendature was appropriate. I don’t agree with any idea that Jesus was saying the poor don’t matter or that we shouldn’t try and help them.