"Mary having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious and very costly, brake the box, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." Thus did Mary show her love for the Lord. "But when his disciples saw it, there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"
Judas Iscariot, under pretence of wishing to give the money to the poor, blamed Mary for thus wasting the ointment; and some of the other disciples seem to have held the same idea, and "they murmured against her."
A Roman penny, the money here spoken of, was worth about 7½d. of our money; so the cost of this box of ointment was about 9l.: and probably some of the disciples, not understanding the meaning of Mary's action as afterwards described by Jesus, really thought it would have been well to give that sum away in charity. But this was not the case with Judas, for St. John adds, "This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." The joint stock of money, out of which the necessaries of life were purchased for Jesus and his Apostles, was trusted to the care of Judas, who was a thief, and took money out of the common bag for his own private purposes. If so large a sum as three hundred pence were to be added to the common stock, Judas would be able easily to take some without being found out; especially if he pretended that he had given it to the poor. Let us, as the Bible bids us, beware of covetousness even in the smallest matter. This feeling indulged in the heart is a great sin; and it constantly leads to the breaking of the eighth commandment as well.
When Mary was blamed for what she had done, the Lord defended her, saying, "Let her alone,"—do not blame her,—"why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good; but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial."
It was the custom among the Jews to anoint the bodies of the dead before burial, with perfumes and spices: this was also a custom of other nations, and the Egyptians had a manner of anointing, or embalming, the body, so that it would keep its shape, and not turn to dust, as it would otherwise do. Bodies so prepared are called mummies; and many have been found, which have been in that state for 3,000 or 4,000 years.
When Jesus said that Mary "had anointed his body to the burying," He meant, that she had done an action which was significant of His approaching death; but, of course, neither she nor the disciples understood it as such. He also declared, that so far from deserving blame, what she had done should be for ever remembered to her praise: "Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."
Whilst Jesus was still in the house of Simon, much people of the Jews, knowing He was there, came not only to see Him, "but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead." Such a miracle had naturally been much talked of; and the Chief Priests, fearing the effect it might have on the people's mind, consulted whether they could not "put Lazarus also to death, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus."
The next day,—that is, five days before the Passover,—the people that were assembled at Jerusalem for the feast, "when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna; Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord." The word "Hosanna" is made up of parts of two Hebrew words, which mean "Save now." It was a word commonly used by the people to express their joy upon solemn occasions.