Monday Devotional: The Anointing at Bethany (Mark 14:1-11)
The Messiah must die and rise again
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him (Mark 14:1-11).
Jesus is surprising. He was surprising to people in his own day, and they didn’t always like it. He is surprising for people in our day, and we likewise struggle with the ways in which he challenges our assumptions. Jesus embodies God’s will on earth and thus he offends our sinful hearts. And yet as we follow him, we can learn to see things as he sees them and live in conformity with his life. It is an ongoing, purposeful, and often difficult process, but it is also one that leads us into new life and brings God’s wholeness and peace to this world.
The story of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany is bookended by two passages foreshadowing his passion and death. In the first (14:1-2), the chief priests and scribes plot to arrest Jesus in secret and kill him. They worry, however, that the large crowds present for the festivals might react negatively if news of their actions gets out. In the second (14:10-11), Judas goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus, and they offer to reward him for his treachery. Clearly we are to connect Jesus’ anointing with the events surrounding his death.
Ancient people reclined on their sides on benches around a low table while eating. Here Jesus reclines at the table of Simon the Leper. Presumably Simon is someone Jesus has healed of leprosy as in 1:40-45. During the meal, a woman, apparently uninvited, enters the room and anoints him with spikenard. This is indeed an extravagant act, and the disciples perceive as much. Spikenard was expensive. If the witnesses are correct that they could have sold the ointment for three hundred denarii, its cost would be close to a year’s wages for the common person. Thus they scold the woman for her wastefulness.
Yet Jesus isn’t having it: “Let her alone; why do you trouble her?” He responds. “She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial” (vv. 6-8).
Under normal circumstances, yes, it would have been appropriate to have sold the spikenard and given the money to the poor. In this instance, however, things are different. By anointing Jesus in this way, the woman helps to fulfill God’s purposes in Jesus’ fulfillment of his messianic office. In other words, this anointing had to take place as part of God’s saving work through Christ. Her act anticipates his impending death, and it won’t be possible to anoint him later. As he has prophesied three times, he will have risen from the dead.
Yet this action is not simply Jesus’ anointing for burial. It is also his messianic anointing. In 1 Samuel 10, Samuel anoints Saul with oil as king of Israel. He does the same to David in 1 Samuel 16. Anointing is the initiatory ritual act for Israel’s divinely chosen kings. This unnamed woman is to Jesus as Samuel was to Saul and David. Her anointing of Jesus is a prophetic action in fulfillment of God’s purposes. Unlike Saul and David, however, Jesus will not rule over an earthly kingdom. Rather, he will fulfill his messianic office through his death and resurrection. He will thus initiate a new age in which God’s kingdom will be present in ways it has not been before.
Put in different terms, the messianic task is to bring salvation to all the world, and this does not happen unless Jesus dies. As Mark makes clear in 8:27-38, for Jesus, to be the Messiah is to suffer, die, and rise again. In so doing, he makes it possible for us to become more like him. Jerome comments along these lines when he writes, “This woman has a very special message for you who are about to be baptized. She broke her alabaster jar that Christ may make you ‘christs,’ his anointed. Hear what it says in the Canticle of Canticles: ‘Your name spoken is a spreading perfume, therefore the maidens love you. We will follow you eagerly in the fragrance of your perfume!’” (Oden and Hall, Mark, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture).
Jesus’ words about this woman have been fulfilled in the preservation of this story: “wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Though we do not know her name, we do know of her act of prophetic faithfulness. We know of her role in fulfilling God’s purposes in Jesus.
Prayer: God, give me the spiritual wisdom to discern your purposes and the power to bring my life into agreement with them. Show me how to live a sacrificial life after the example of Christ.
Questions:
How has Jesus reinterpreted the role of the Messiah in Mark?
What is the connection between Jesus’ suffering, death, and messiahship?
How does following a Messiah who suffered, died, and rose again shape our lives as Christians today?
Thank you David.
Since the anointing is set in the context of Judas' betrayal, and his objection is highlighted, I was led to add this thought: For some, anointing Jesus as Messiah was a possible next step, but one to be done more publicly, (even though some kingly anointings were private) and definitely by a notable person. So Mary seems to have 'wasted' the expensive anointing oil. Jesus, in redefining the idea of Messiah, disagrees, and points to the cross.
Also, Mary is named in some gospels, but not in others. The intriguing speculation is that in an earlier context/gospel, or in a perceived area of circulation, this Mary might become a target for the authorities, Roman or Jew, and so her name, though known, was withheld.
That's my two bits. Thank you David for your piece.
Oh, I've never read that line from Jerome about this woman's act - absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing this piece.