6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Anointing in ancient times was used in the act of separating something or someone to God. Priests, prophets and kings alike were anointed with oil and thus installed in office. Above all, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word 'Messiah' means the anointed one, as does 'Christos' in the Greek. All this has significance for Mary's action, for she was thus acknowledging Jesus as her Messiah and Lord. It was an act of homage in which she proclaimed to Him and to the world that He was king of her life. But Jesus had said she had anointed His body for His burial. Here is an association of ideas - kingship and burial. He was to receive His power and authority through death. Did Mary see this? Perhaps she did; who shall say that her discernment did not penetrate to such a depth? But there is something more. Mary had the ointment (or oil) in a cruse or bottle. Another gospel tells us that she broke it and emptied the contents upon Him. And whether she realised what she was doing or not, she was in that act proclaiming to them all, 'Look! This is what He is about to do; His precious body will be broken and an odour of salvation will pervade the whole world, as that of the spikenard is filling this room. And the fragrance of His self-giving love will be for the healing of the nations'. This is surely what Christ saw in her action - a prefiguring of His own passion and the kind of effect it was to have on the world He loved. This is why her consecration expressed in this way was sweet and lovely and acceptable to Him. How glad Jesus must have been, at this point, to have received such love, adoration and homage, and to realise that Mary was at one with Him in spirit in what He was about to go through. In a very profound sense she had fellowship with Him in His coming sufferings and was identified with Him in the cross He was about to bear. This is the lesson - and the challenge of the story for us.