John 12:3 "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment."
We aren't told explicitly what took place on Wednesday of Jesus' final week
before His crucifixion. Some think He took this day to rest. I believe He
probably spent much time in communication with our Heavenly Father. We often
see Jesus separating Himself from everyone else before He did some major
miracle or before a life-changing event for someone. I have no problem
believing He spent the day in prayer and possibly even fasting before the day
of Passover.
I would like for us to think about something that took place when He was in the
home of a man named Simon. We saw yesterday that he sat at the table with
several people including Lazarus. While he sat at the table, Martha was doing
her usual wonderful work of serving the table. Lazarus, I believe, is sitting
there in absolute wonderment as to what had taken place in his life over the
past several days. He knew he had died and he knew he was now alive and it was
all because of Jesus. There was great rejoicing in the house when suddenly Mary
must have stood up and left the room for a moment. When she came back, she had
a box which contained a pound of costly ointment. Mark records that "she
broke the box, and poured it on his head." Some asked, "Why was
this waste of the ointment made?" Judas Iscariot thought it should
have been sold and the money given to the poor. That wasn't because he cared so
much for the poor; rather, he wanted the money to be placed in the bag which he
kept.
Jesus had a direct reply to them, "Let her alone; why trouble ye
her? she hath wrought a good work on me." John recorded it in this
manner, "Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept
this." In either account, we see Jesus showing His appreciation for
what Mary had done. There is much to be said about the anointing of Jesus as He
is the Great High Priest and was to be anointed before entering the Holy of
holies to make the ultimate sacrificial offering unto the Lord. But what
strikes me is that surely this "odour of the ointment" that had
filled the house must have also permeated the garments of Jesus. He would be
able to inhale this glorious aroma throughout the next days when He would be
betrayed, denied, and left to Himself to endure the ugly persecution at the
hands of sinful men. He would remember this which was done as an act of love by
Mary. She has done what she could. I must ask myself this morning,
"Am I doing what I can in order to show my love and service unto the
Lord?"