The Woman with the Alabaster Jar – Holy Week Reflection 3

While Jesus 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.
Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume?  It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.”  And they rebuked her harshly.
“Leave her alone” said Jesus, “Why are you bothering her?  She has done a beautiful thing to me.  The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.  But you will not always have me.  She did what she could.  She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare me for my burial.  I tell you the truth, where ever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.
Mark 14:3-9 (NIV)

This is one of the few accounts of an episode from that life of Jesus that can be found in both the Synoptic gospels and the Fourth Gospel attributed to John.  The woman is identified in John’s gospel as Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus (who Jesus raised from the dead).  This Mary may or may not be the same as Mary Magdalene – scholarly opinion is divided.  However, in keeping with my other Holy Week reflections this one is based on the account in Mark’s gospel.

There are many thoughts that could be drawn from this account; but the one that strikes me most today is one that is deeply humbling for me as a man; that frequently in the gospels it is the women who have spiritual insight and understand Jesus and his purposes in being on earth.  The woman with the alabaster jar, Mary, demonstrates in this account that she has understood Jesus far better than the twelve disciples in two ways, both connected to the anointing with perfume:

1.     In anointing Jesus with the perfume she was recognising his valid claim to be King; maybe not only the King of the Jews but the King of Kings!  Every King in Judah was anointed before his coronation and this was Jesus anointing; not by a male prophet but by a woman!

2.     In anointing Jesus with the perfume Mary was indeed symbolically preparing his body for burial.

Mary knew that Jesus was a King and she knew that the nature of his kingship meant that he was soon to die.  Mary had understood the gospel and that is why Jesus said that where ever the gospel was preached her actions would be remembered.

It was women who gathered at the foot of Jesus cross.  Of the disciple’s only John was present to see the Lord die for the world.  It is also worth observing that the first person to see the risen Jesus on the first Easter Day and the first to proclaim his resurrection to others as a witness to it was a woman: Mary Magdalene.

By contrast the men in the gospel often seem slow and dim witted, unable to grasp what Jesus was trying to tell them about himself.  I think we can be fairly sure that the criticism about the waste of perfume came from men and John’s gospel specifically states that it was Judas Iscariot.

For centuries the church has supressed the ministry of women and given little heed to the spiritual insight of women and this has been, I think, to the church’s detriment.  Even today there are those in the church (not least the Roman Catholic Church) who are opposed to the ordination of women, or women being allowed to be bishops.  In some extreme fundamentalist churches women are definitely treated as second class citizens.

We claim, as Christians, to follow our Lord Jesus Christ.  He never treated women as anything less than equal and, as we have seen, they frequently outshone the men when it came to understanding Jesus and his message. 

So as Bible believing Christians what do we give priority to?  Do we give priority to a few sentences in a couple of Paul’s letters that may or may not have been written by the Apostle himself (the sentences, which are thought by many scholars to be later additions; not the letters) or do we follow the example and understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ?