The Anointing of Jesus
Matthew 26:1-16; Mark 14:1-11
Two days before Passover, when Jesus had finished preaching, He said to His disciples: “You know that the Passover is in two days, and the Son of Man will be delivered up, betrayed, and crucified.”
The chief priests and elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas and consulted to develop a secret strategy how they might have Jesus arrested and put to death. But they said that it must not be during the Feast, fearing that there would be a riot among the people.
Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. A woman having an alabaster box of very precious perfume (oil of spikenard), broke the box and poured the perfume on His head. When the disciples saw it, they were indignant and declared: “For what purpose is this waste? For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii (a laboring man’s wages for one year).” They murmured against her. They censured and reproved her. Jesus was aware of their judgment and said to them: “Why do you bother the woman? She has done a noble and beautiful thing to Me. You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have Me. In pouring this perfume on My body she has done something to prepare Me for My burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news of the Gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be told also, in memory of her.”
Then one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests. “What are you willing to give me if I hand Jesus over to you? And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. From that moment on Judas looked for the proper time and opportunity to betray Jesus.
Let’s look at this passage and see what the Holy Spirit tells us about the anointing of Jesus and the betrayal.
Jesus told His disciples that He would be betrayed and crucified. Apparently, it went right over their heads. Knowing these disciples, I am sure they would have had a heated discussion about what He said, particularly Peter. But their eyes were blinded and their ears were stopped. For understanding had not yet come to them of what their beloved Jesus would suffer.
We see in this passage two extremes concerning money. The woman with the expensive perfume loved Jesus so much she was willing to give Him her all, in honor and praise for Him. The perfume represented her pouring out her love on Him. She did not understand the full significance of what she was doing, but her complete commitment to Him moved her to do something for Him. She loved Him so much she wanted to give to Him.
Look at the disciples. They condemned her and judged her and reproved her. Who does she think she is? What is she doing? Doesn’t she know that that would have helped a lot of poor people? Why is she wasting all that money? Sound familiar! Isn’t that what we have thought about something a person does when we don’t approve. We are too quick to judge what someone does, not understanding the spiritual significance of it. Let us leave it with the Lord when we see something we don’t understand, instead of analyzing it from our limited perspective.
Then there is Judas. Greed, lust for money, drove him to betray Jesus. He thought Jesus would use His Kingly anointing to pass through the crowd and not be crucified. That is why Judas threw the money at the chief priests after Jesus was crucified and said that he had betrayed an innocent man and hung himself. Oh the sadness of his death. He could have been forgiven if he had asked forgiveness, but he did not know that. Because of Jesus there is forgiveness for whatever you have done!