When Jesus finished all these words, he said to his disciples, 2 “You know that in two days’ time it will be Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and they consulted together to arrest Jesus by treachery and put him to death. 5 But they said, “Not during the festival, that there may not be a riot among the people.”
6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of costly perfumed oil, and poured it on his head while he was reclining at table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and said, “Why this waste? 9 It could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor.” 10 Since Jesus knew this, he said to them, “Why do you make trouble for the woman? She has done a good thing for me. 11 The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this perfumed oil upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of, in memory of her.”
Two days before Passover when Jesus was at the end of his public ministry, he began to tell his disciples that he was going to be “handed over (v. 2)” to be crucified. This would be done by the chief priests and the elders (v. 3). No one knew that it was part of God’s divine plan and that God was in control (v. 2). Matthew did not include the Pharisees in v. 3 probably to indicate that they were not responsible for what happened to Jesus.
Jesus’ disciples did not understand that he had to die to save all mankind from their sins (Mt. 1:21). After Lazarus was raised from the dead, Mary gave a party for Jesus and anointed him with costly perfumed oil (Jn. 12:1-8). Matthew did not mention in his Gospel that the woman was Mary but he linked the anointing to Jesus’ death, “she did it to prepare me for burial (v. 12).” With the benefit of hindsight, Matthew wanted to show that Jesus was being anointed for burial. The woman showed true devotion to Jesus and an understanding and appreciation of his true value. This is in contrast to the disciples’ indignation that such a valuable item was wasted. They just did not understand even when he said, “you will not always have me (v. 11)”. Jesus defended what the woman did and said, “Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of, in memory of her (v. 13).”
Almighty God, we pray fervently that you will grant us the grace to understand the Gospels and the will to live them in accordance with your Divine plan for our lives. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!.
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Expanded Edition, Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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