Holy Week: Holy Wednesday

A Tale of Two Attitudes

Two days before Passover, a dinner was given for Jesus at Simon the Leper’s home. A woman approached Jesus with a flask full of nard ointment and she poured it on His head. The disciples were offended because the ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus told them she did a beautiful thing. He also told them they could help the poor at any time, but they wouldn’t always have Him with them (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9).

(NOTE: each Gospel tells a story of a woman anointing Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark tell the same story. The story found in Luke more than likely occurred two years prior to this anointing. The story in John takes place six days before the Passover, and it says it was Mary who anointed Jesus’s feet with her hair. For more information regarding these stories, click here and here.)

Though neither Matthew nor Mark give details as to who this woman was or her background, we can assume from her actions that she loved Jesus and wanted to show Him honor. Her act was also an act of gratitude. The nard was expensive, possibly worth almost a year’s worth of wages. She used the entire flask and anointed Jesus’s head. More than likely, she didn’t know Jesus was going to be crucified in a matter of days or that she was anointing Him for burial, but something moved her to anoint Him with expensive nard, and so she did.

Compare that to the disciples’ response to her action. They grumbled against the woman and scolded her. They tried to shame her by saying she could have sold the ointment and given it to the poor. One disciple in particular was upset, though not because he had a heart for the poor.

It’s interesting that both Matthew and Mark use the word “indignant” when writing about the disciples’ reactions. The original Greek word for “indignant” means to be “greatly afflicted, be sore (as in angry), displeased.”¹  Why were they so angry? Why couldn’t they accept the woman’s anointing as a gift to Jesus? Rather than seeing her action as a form of worship, they deemed it wasteful and criticized her for it. Their attitude reflects legalism: rigid with the laws, but lacking in love. With the exception of Judas though. He had a different reason for his anger. In John 12:6, we learn that Judas was a thief who stole money from Jesus’s ministry. He didn’t have a heart for the poor, but rather a greedy heart for himself.

The woman on the other hand wanted to express her love for Jesus by giving Him the best, most expensive thing she had. When reading about Jesus’s first anointing in Luke, Jesus explains that those who have been forgiven much, love much (see Luke 7:36-50). Had this woman been forgiven for many sins? No one knows for sure what she was forgiven of, but we know she was forgiven and she loved Jesus for it.

Shouldn’t that be our response to Jesus? James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” Every person fits this category. We are all sinners, but through His death and resurrection, we’ve been forgiven much, therefore we should love much.

One final note: Jesus told the disciples that what she did would be told in memory of her wherever the Gospel was proclaimed. Here we are, 2,000 years later, retelling her story of how much she treasured Christ. Let’s follow her example. We’ve been forgiven much, so let us love Him much.

_{1 https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g23/esv/mgnt/0-1/}

_{All Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible}