Reading
John 12: 1-8: The anointing at Bethany
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Reflection by Revd Nichola Winter
There is something heart-stoppingly beautiful about this passage coming at this point in Holy Week. The gritty grim drama of what follows will unfold in all its shame and horror, highlighting the fragile nature of humankind. But here we have a tender, loving action, performed by a simple trusting woman who sat earlier at the feet of Jesus listening closely to his words (see Luke 10:30: ‘Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying…)
Jesus is amongst friends – who knows what thoughts were going through his mind? Impending doom, betrayal, the inevitability of it all and yet the firm sense of purpose at fulfilling his father’s will. We can only imagine…
And who can imagine what was going through the minds of his friends? Mary, Martha and Lazarus – those with whom he had shared those intimate moments of sorrow, confidence, death and hope? For this evening at least, for this moment, he rests in the companionship of his loving friends – an interlude of peace, calm and tranquillity before the turmoil of the days to come.
It is at this point that Mary performs her outrageous act of courage, faith and love which has gone down in history as one of the most moving parts of the story of Holy Week. ‘Horrors,’ think some of the others – ‘what a waste!’ How much good might have been done with the money the ointment might have fetched? But that simply misses the point. There are times when we have to turn aside from our busy-ness, our frantic activity and our continual ‘doing’ and just kneel at the feet of Jesus and offer him the costliest part of ourselves in adoration, worship and love.
Malcolm Guite writes this beautiful sonnet in homage to Mary’s action:
Come close with Mary, Martha, Lazarus,
So close the candles flare with their soft breath,
And kindle heart and soul to flame within us,
Lit by these mysteries of life and death.
For beauty now begins the final movement,
In quietness and intimate encounter,
The alabaster jar of precious ointment
Is broken open for the world’s true lover.
The whole room richly fills to feast the senses
With all the yearning such a fragrance brings,
The heart is mourning but the spirit dances,
Here at the very centre of all things,
Here at the meeting place of love and loss
We all foresee and see beyond the cross.
