Perfumed Feet

Her name was Mary and I have to assume she had long hair.  Her sister’s name was Martha.  They, along with their brother Lazarus, received Jesus in their home for dinner.  Martha served the meal while Lazarus was reclining at the dinner table.

Mary gets up, takes .5 liters of perfume and goes to Jesus and pours it on His feet.  Then she wipes His feet with her hair.

That’s unusual in and of itself.  Imagine any woman going to a man’s feet and pouring perfume on them and then wiping the perfume with her hair.  Whoa!  Most of us would raise our eyebrows and gossip about it.  After all, Mary was not married to Jesus.  They were friends.

One of the people in the group, Judas, spoke up about this to Jesus.

John 12:4-5  But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected, Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?  It was worth a year’s wages.”

Judas — his concern was about the money that could have been had by selling the perfume.  No concern about the unusual act of perfume being poured on Jesus feet.  We’re not told that anyone else spoke up about this, uh, act of love.  The Bible tells us that Judas was a thief and he used to take money from the money bag that they had.

I don’t understand why no one said anything.  Embarrassment?  Minding one’s own business? I wonder what the people there were thinking.  I would think that there had to be an intimate relationship between the two.  A very friendly bond. Some have alluded to Jesus having an affair with Mary but the Bible doesn’t state He ever had a relationship with a woman.

What did Jesus say about this act?  John 12:7-8  “Leave her alone, Jesus replied.  It was intended that she should save this perfume for my burial.  You will always have the poor among you but you will not always have me.”

Although Jesus could read people’s hearts, He did not condemn Judas as a thief but instead He directed His attention to what Judas said about the poor.

How often we think that God condemns us harshly.  It reminds me of the verse found in the book of John 3:17  “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.”

No condemnation for Judas even though He was the one who was going to betray Jesus.  Does God really have to condemn us?  Don’t our acts condemn us by themselves?