Mary's Extravagant Show of Worship to Jesus! Matthew 26:1-13

The Plot Against Jesus

26 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—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, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

After Jesus is done teaching about the end times and the signs of His second coming, he begins to prepare them for the next step in this process.  He lets them know that he will be handed over and crucified. Meanwhile the Jewish leaders, the chief priests, elders and the high priest Caiphas, begin to plot their assanination of Jesus. But avoiding do it during the Passover feast lest it cause unrest among the people.  These men are always looking after their self interests and how they can preserve the great power they were given by God Himself.  

"They didn’t want to put Jesus to death during Passover, but that is exactly how it happened. This is another subtle indication that Jesus was in control of events, as they in fact killed Him on the very day that they didn’t want to." Guzik

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” 

In the Old Testament Jewish kings were anointed by oil as a sign of God's blessing and call.  The oil also represented the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  Simon the leper is otherwise unknown to us, but perhaps he was one of the lepers Jesus healed. who was now showing his gratitude.  We know from John 12 that the woman is Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, who sat at Jesus' feet when he was in their home.  

Rather than seeing the extreme devotion and sacrifice of the woman, we must assume the perfume was expensive, the other disciples feel like this is a waste of money citing the money could have been given to the poor.  

 “What they call waste, Jesus calls ‘a beautiful thing.’” (Carson) Is anything wasted which is all for Jesus? It might rather seem as if all would be wasted which was not given to him.” (Spurgeon)

We see an important concept here.  When we worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit it is our vertial relationship expressed through worship, adoration and offering of our gifts to Him.  But we also have a horizontal relationship with others to whom we show our love to God.  They are both important, but our first priority is offering ourselves to God and giving him the first fruits of our labors.  

Therefore, the woman had the right order and the disciples possibly missed it because they still didn't understand Jesus was the Son of God not just a man.  In this simple but extraordinary act of worship, she was doing something far more than she could have imagined, preparing Jesus for his burial.  

“She probably did not know all that her action meant when she anointed her Lord for his burial. The consequences of the simplest action done for Christ may be much greater than we think…She thus showed that there was, at least, one heart in the world that thought nothing was too good for her Lord, and that the best of the very best ought to be given to him.” (Spurgeon)

How can you be more like Mary in your uninhibited love and devotion to Christ?  Remember when we offer something to Jesus, he do more with it than we could ask or imagine.  We only need to put him first and He will do the rest!