“She has done a beautiful thing to me.” (Mark 14:6)
She broke the jar. That says it all. She never intended to keep any of the perfume.
She must have thought deeply over what she would do but the alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard, was the obvious choice for her. She wanted something that expresses what she feels towards Jesus, to pour out her love and her gratitude, and most of all, from that deepest lesson that she had learned from him, her complete trust. She wanted everyone to know that nothing is too precious; nothing can compare; here is my Lord and my God; I will hold back nothing.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32)
She had held back, thinking that he held back; why did you not come earlier?
But he never held it against her, but just quietly revealed himself again to be whom she had known him to be in her heart.
Oh! The perfume is running down his face, his cheeks, down his neck! Oh, it’s all over my hands. His feet. Let me wipe my hands on his feet. Let me anoint his feet.
She took some of the perfume that had collected in the broken pieces of the alabaster jar and carefully poured it onto his feet and wiped them with her hair.
People were talking, but she was not listening, until she heard his voice:
“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”
Such joy that flooded her entire being. I have done a beautiful thing to my Lord. And then she heard him continue:
“It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
She does not understand but she knows instinctively that he’s not going to be around for long. Even as dread threatened to cloud her joy she remembered how she had questioned him at the tomb of her brother.
Never again. I trust him fully; even in the face of death. This too will be a good thing.
As her heart sang again, she realised that he had just told her that she had been given the honour and privilege of loving him even as the world prepares to put him to death; even as he prepares to give his life.
It was messy: oily fingers, sticky, oily hair, dusty, stained floor and broken pieces of the jar compete with the fresh and clean scent of the perfume that lingered in the air. She looked up into his face and saw his smile. She smiled happily back.
“Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”