30 Mar 26 | The Moment That Would Not Come Again
While Judas calculated what Jesus was worth, Mary gave what she had without calculation, and Jesus received it as an anointing for burial.
The Gospel: John 12:1-11
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
"Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages
and given to the poor?"
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, "Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came,
not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus,
whom he had raised from the dead.
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,
because many of the Jews were turning away
and believing in Jesus because of him.
Today’s Focus
Six days before Passover, a woman poured a year’s wages on the feet of a man who was about to die, and he said she had done something that would be remembered wherever the Gospel was preached. Judas saw waste. Mary saw the moment. The Passover lamb was selected six days before the feast. Six days before Passover, in a house in Bethany, without fully understanding what she was doing, Mary got it exactly right. The question this passage leaves with every reader is not whether you are generous in general. It is whether you are present enough to recognize the moments that will not come again.
In the Margins
Six days before Passover, Jesus is in Bethany with the people who may know Him most intimately in John’s Gospel. Lazarus is at the table, the man Jesus raised from the dead, now simply sharing a meal. Mary takes a liter of pure nard, one of the most expensive substances in the ancient world, and pours it on His feet.
Nard was an aromatic oil imported from the Himalayan region, carried in sealed alabaster jars and worth roughly a year’s wages for a common laborer. This was the kind of thing a family preserved for a significant occasion. Mary breaks it open and uses all of it, not on His head as an honored guest might receive, but on His feet, the lowest act of service imaginable. She then loosens her hair in public to dry them. In first century Jewish culture, a woman letting down her hair in a mixed public setting carried serious social weight. It was considered immodest and was grounds for divorce in some rabbinic traditions. Mary is not performing a careful, calculated gesture. She is giving without any concern for what it costs her, and the house fills with the fragrance.
Judas objects immediately, framing the act as wasteful. Three hundred days’ wages could have gone to the poor. The objection sounds reasonable and as Judas was in charge of the finances would make sense that he was focused on the financial cost. John does not let it stand as reasonable and the Gospel tells us plainly that Judas did not care about the poor and that he was stealing from the money purse. The concern for the poor is a cover for a man who has already decided what Jesus is worth to him in practical terms.
What follows is one of the most misunderstood lines in the Gospels. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. This is not a dismissal of concern for the poor. Jesus is drawing from Deuteronomy 15, where Moses tells Israel that the poor will never cease from the land and therefore the people must be openhanded toward them always. The command to care for the poor is permanent and ongoing. What Mary is doing can only be done now. Jesus is not setting up a hierarchy between charity and worship, rather telling Judas, and everyone present, that there are moments that will not come again and that Mary has recognized this one for what it is.
She is anointing Him for burial. Whether she fully understood that is not entirely clear from the text. What is clear is that Jesus receives it that way. The Passover lamb was selected six days before the feast. Six days before Passover, in a house in Bethany, a woman performs a burial anointing on a living man who would become the Passover lamb for the whole world.
The crowd coming to Bethany tells its own story. They are coming not only to see Jesus but to see Lazarus. A man who was dead and is now alive is a more powerful argument than anything the chief priests can counter with. People were beginning to follow Jesus in bigger groups and this was of concern to the chief priests and religious leaders that cared about power and control.
Mary gave the most costly thing she had at the moment it mattered most, without calculation, without concern for what it looked like, and without any indication that she expected anything in return. The question this passage puts to us is not whether we are generous in general. It is whether we are present enough to recognize the unrepeatable moments when everything we have is exactly what is called for.
Reflection Question
Is there something God is asking of you right now that you are calculating instead of giving?
A Small Invitation
If this reflection helped you, consider sharing it with someone who may benefit from hearing this message.