Mark 14:1,3-9 NASB95
Now the Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize Him by stealth and kill Him; [3] While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. [4] But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? [5] For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her. [6] But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. [7] For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. [8] She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. [9] Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”
On Wednesday of holy week Mary Magdalene (Mary of Bethany) for the 3rd time anointed Jesus with pure spikenard oil. Just four days earlier, she had anointed His feet at the home of her brother Lazarus. This 3rd anointing two days before the crucifixion was somewhat different than the previous two. This time she did not just pour the oil from the alabaster vial, she broke it, and this time she poured all the oil on his head instead of his feet as she had done both times previously. When she anointed the feet of Jesus four days earlier only Judas rebuked her for wasting something that had such great value, but in the market account we are told that, “some were indignantly remarking to one another, “why has this perfume been wasted?”
To waste something is to do something that is extravagant to the point of being excessive. It seems to me that Mary was trying to make a statement to all those in the room. Just a few days before she had already been rebuked for “wasting” the expensive nard, and yet, here she is doing it again just a few days later, and this time instead of just pouring some oil out, she broke the vial and poured all the oil out on the head of Jesus. I believe that she was intentionally declaring that she was going to spend the rest of her life “wasting” it on Jesus. Jesus said that she is preparing His body for burial, and I believe Mary of Bethany was one of the few at this point who understood how far the love of Christ was going to take Him. She knew that Jesus was hurling himself had long to the Cross. She knew in her heart that Jesus was going to break the alabaster vial of His life and waste it on her. In light of Jesus being compelled to waste His life for her, she was making it very clear that the only reasonable response, regardless of what anybody thought of her, was to waste her life on Jesus. Love provokes love. Her action is the prototype of a NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE.
“I beseech you therefore brethren in light of the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy whole burnt sacrifice well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.” Romans 12:1