She Hath Wrought a Good Work

There are three stories in the New Testament that describes a woman anointing the Savior with oil. It is not clear if these are really three separate instances or if they describe only one or two unique events. These are found in Matthew 26: 6-14, Luke 7:36-50, and John 12:1-9. I wrote recently assuming that the account of John and Matthew refer to the same person and event, but I’m not sure that is the case. So here is a comparison of some of the main elements of the stories in the same order: 

·       Place: the house of Simon the leper (M); the house of Simon the Pharisee, likely in Galilee (L); Bethany, possibly the house of Mary and Martha (J)

·       Chronology: During the last week, shortly before the Last Supper (M); after Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain, sometime in the middle of His ministry; during the last week “six days before the passover” (J)

·       Material: “an alabaster box of very precious ointment” (M); “an alabaster box of ointment” (L); “a pound of ointment of spikenard” (J)

·       Person: “a woman” (M); “a woman in the city, which was a sinner” (L); Mary, sister of Martha (J)

·       What she anointed: the head of Jesus (M); the feet of Jesus (L); the feet of Jesus (J)

·       The people’s response: the disciples complained saying, “To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor” (M); Simon the Pharisee said, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner” (L); Judas Iscariot said, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?”

·   The Savior’s response: He said, “Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her” (M); Jesus gave the parable of the two debtors to Simon and said to him, “My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much” (L); Jesus said to Judas, “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always” (J)

I think it is clear that the account of Luke is different from that of John and Matthew since the place appears to be Galilee instead of Judea and chronologically it is not even close to the last week of His life. Luke’s is also the only account that identifies the woman as a sinner. I think it is possible that the stories of Matthew and John refer to the same event, but to me it is also unlikely. They do both occur during the last week of Jesus’s life and the response of the people is the same (complaining about the waste). But the story in Matthew occurs towards the end of the week when the Passover is about to start and that in John is at the beginning of that week (“six days before the Passover”). In Matthew’s account the head was anointed and in John’s account the feet were anointed. Also, John identified his woman as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, whereas Matthew simply said it was a woman (although Matthew had not previously identified Mary and Martha so it would make sense for him that it was just “a woman”).

            Whether it is indeed three different stories or not, what is sure is that the example of whichever women did anoint Him is a powerful one for us. These stories remind us of the love that we should have for the Savior, and we should be willing to give up our alabaster boxes of anointment and spikenard in order to worship and serve Him. In each of the stories there were men there who seemed unwilling to make such a sacrifice themselves and instead stood by to criticize. But Jesus rebuked them all and accepted the love the women showed to Him. We too should seek to love the Lord with all our hearts and be willing to sacrifice our most precious things to serve Him.