The setting was the home of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend who had two sisters; Mary and Martha. Outside were crowds of their neighbors who’d heard Jesus was there. They came to look at Jesus — some had yet to see him — and to gawk at Lazarus because they hadn’t seen him since they heard Jesus had called him back from the dead. This had been the final straw for those determined to kill Jesus. They were also going to kill Lazarus because he was the latest and greatest proof of Jesus’ authenticity. Inside the dwelling, they were waiting for dinner to be served. The family had planned this dinner six days before Passover. Could have been to thank him for
bringing Lazarus back. While Martha was putting the finishing touches on dinner, Mary begins to pour oil on Jesus’ feet, expensive oil, that according to the team treasurer, Judas, could have garnered more than the cost of 300 days’ labor. Almost a year’s wages. And it was poured out on Jesus’ feet. Not even Jesus’ feet were touchable in those days. When most feet were unshod and bore the worst of what lay in village streets. Dirt. Mud. Feces of every animal that populated those streets. So while they waited on Martha, Mary loosened her hair, something a woman would never do in the company of a man who was not a relative; poured out a year’s salary worth of oil on his dirty feet and cleansed them of all manner of filth with her precious hair, easily her most precious and to be treasured possession. While Judas pretended to care about the poor…Jesus proclaimed Mary’s offering a true gift; the anointing of his body for the death he was about to accomplish, a body that would receive no such amenity. A body that would be horribly ripped by thorns and whips that secretly contained stones to make the torture more brutal. A body that would be hanged for many hours on a cross to be ridiculed and tortured at the outskirts of town, but high up on Golgotha’s hill so as not to be missed. A body that would be hastened in death so as not to shame the skies at the dawning of the sabbath. A body that would be secreted within a borrowed tomb —he wouldn’t need it long — courtesy of Joseph of Arimathea. A body that would lie in repose until the perfect moment when the Spirit of God would whisper in Jesus’ name in Jesus’ ear to alert him that his time among the dead was over. Mary’s oil was the last kindness to Jesus’ body as Martha’s food was the last sustenance to his soul.
