“’Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing.’” (Mk 14:6)
Bible Reading: Mark 14:1-9
Jesus and his disciples have left Jerusalem and the slopes of the Mount of Olives where he had been talking about things to come. They are in the village of Bethany, just a mile or two outside Jerusalem, in the home of a man called “Simon the Leper” (Mk 14:3). While reclining at the table (enjoying a meal), a woman comes and pours a very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head. Some of those present are indignant, saying that rather than waste something so valuable, she might have sold it and given the money to the poor. “And they rebuked her harshly” (vv. 4, 5).
Seeing this, Jesus intervenes. He tells them to leave the woman alone (v. 6). Their harsh words are misplaced. For she has, in fact, done “a beautiful thing.” In pouring perfume upon him, she had prepared his body beforehand for burial (v. 8). What she has done is so noteworthy that it would be spoken about wherever the gospel was preached throughout the world (v. 9).
The woman’s action was clearly out of the ordinary – beyond what was normally done for guests on their arrival at a meal (see Luke 7:44-47). What makes it doubly important is the costliness of the perfume she used. It was contained, not in a rustic earthenware flask, but in an “alabaster jar.” And it was no cheap, watered-down scent; it was an undiluted spice (“pure nard”) worth more than a year’s wages (v. 5). Her action couldn’t but arrest attention.
The surprise, even indignant shock of some of those present, is understandable. Whether they were sincere in their mutterings about selling the perfume and giving the money to the poor, isn’t really the point. What matters is that they misjudged her action. Jesus saw it through very different eyes. To him, what she did was not wasteful, but very beautiful. She was doing something of enormous significance. She was preparing his body beforehand for burial. Nard was a spice used to embalm a body after death; this woman was preparing his body for death before he died. She couldn’t prevent what was to take place, but she could do this now. She was doing “what she could” (v. 8), and it would be always remembered.
How easy it is to misjudge the true worth of actions – our own and those of others. They cannot always be measured in terms of things we can see, things that we judge important. There is a worth connected with the gospel and the kingdom of God that cannot be valued by human standards. The sacrifices we make for these things might seem foolish to some, but they are of great worth to God.
Closing Thoughts:
- What things do you value most? Things relating to your family, your home, your work? Or things of the kingdom of God?
- This woman “did what she could.” What can you do to further the gospel and the kingdom of God?