An Act of Beauty
It seems there may be two or maybe even three occasions where Jesus was anointed:The first anointing is recorded in Luke 7 and takes place in Galilee in the middle of Jesus public ministry where Jesus is invited to the home of Simon, a Pharisee. Simon was very rude to him and didn't even offer Jesus an opportunity to wash His feet which was what hospitality norms suggested. It seems that in response to Simon's rudeness, a sinful woman came and washed Jesus' feet anointing them with perfume and drying them with her hair. Jesus used the moment to talk about gratitude for being forgiven.
The second anointing is recorded in John 12 and took place in Bethany, Judea, at the home of Mary, Martha and the resurrected Lazarus, just before the Triumphal Entry . It is Mary of Bethany, Lazarus' sister, who once sat at Jesus' feet while her sister Martha fussed in the kitchen, who now anointed His feet with perfume and it is fitting that the King would be anointed before riding into Jerusalem.
The (possible) third anointing also takes place in Bethany, but at the home of Simon the Leper (not the same Simon as Luke 7) and Jesus is anointed by an unnamed woman who pours perfume from an alabaster jar over his head (and not just his feet). In Matthew 26 and Mark 14 this takes place on the Tuesday or Wednesday night of Holy Week. While this may be a variation of the account we have in John 12, it is still possible that it is in fact a third anointing before Jesus goes to the cross.
There is so much to say about this beautiful passage...
- One could talk about the broken alabaster jar which was probably part of the woman's wedding dowry
- One could also talk about her generosity compared to the scarcity mentality of those who were indignant at the "waste of perfume".
- And one could talk about the comfort that she must have brought to Jesus in this tender act.
But the thought that stays with me is that the scent of this perfume, so lavishly poured out, would have permeated Jesus' nostrils as He sweated in the Garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers would have smelt it as they pushed the thorny crown into His scalp and whipped Him. I imagine the soldier who put the sign above his head would have caught a whiff of it too.
They say that smells and scents are very evocative, we remember scents and they take us back to the moment where we first smelt them. This is a scent of beauty in the midst of brutality and pain and humiliation.
Jesus brings peace and beauty and His Presence into our lives when we experience stress, brutality, pain and humiliation.
In 2Corinthians2:14 Paul reminds the Corinthians that we are the fragrance of Christ. May our lives be a moment of beauty in a deeply troubled world...
| While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly. 6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Mark14:3-9) |
