This is Part 4 in an 8-Part Series on Women (and Men) in the Bible
There are 4 accounts in the Bible (one account in each of the four Gospels) of Jesus being anointed with perfume by a woman, and a man (or men) criticizing her for it. There is speculation and disagreement among religious scholars as to how many separate events these four accounts describe, but I will leave that up to the religious scholars.
Anointing with oil (usually of someone's head, feet, or whole body) was a very common practice in biblical times, and frequently, small amounts of perfume would be added to the oil to give it a pleasing fragrance. The significance of the anointing depended upon the circumstances around it; it could be a show of hospitality, a way of honoring or celebrating someone, a preparation for death or burial, or, in religious ceremonies, an "anointing" or "consecration" dedicating someone to the service of God or declaring someone as being divinely chosen for a certain task/position. The Hebrew word which we translate as "Messiah" and the Greek word we translate as "Christ" (as in "Jesus Christ") mean "anointed one". Jesus describes Himself as the Jewish Messiah; in the NLT translation of John 1:50-51, He describes Himself as "the stairway between heaven and earth".
In all four accounts, what makes the anointing(s) a point of controversy is the way in which they were carried out by the women; in all four accounts, very emotionally and extravagantly.
In Luke 7:36-50, the woman doing the anointing is known to be a woman who has sinned greatly, and she is so emotional when she is anointing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume that she has knelt beside Him, weeping and kissing His feet, and wiping them dry with her own hair. She is criticized by a Pharisee (a very conservative and strict religious leader) because he thinks her behavior is way out of line (perhaps even "crazy" or "hysterical") and thinks Jesus should have nothing to do with her. This Pharisee even goes so far as to say that this Teacher (Jesus) couldn't possibly be a prophet or He never would have allowed a woman with this kind of reputation to touch Him. This particular anointing appears to have been a show of hospitality because when Jesus corrects this Pharisee, He contrasts the way this woman greeted Him with the way the Pharisee greeted Him:
"Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn't offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn't greet Me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing My feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed My feet with rare perfume.'" - Luke 7:44-46
In Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13, they are in the home of a man whom Jesus had healed from leprosy, and the woman is "harshly scolded" (Mark 14:5) by Jesus' male disciples for using expensive perfume to anoint Jesus' head .
And in John 12:1-11, Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead, and they are hosting a celebratory dinner in Jesus' honor. Martha prepares the meal (no complaints from her this time around!), and, once again, Mary is not doing what is expected. She, too, is emotionally and extravagantly anointing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume and her own tears. Jesus had "healed the one she loved" (click here to read more in "... the One You Love is Sick"), and she was overwhelmed with gratitude, praise, and worship.
In all four accounts, the women involved were criticized by the men for using very expensive perfume when anointing Jesus. In fact, Mary is described as having used such expensive perfume that it was worth a year's wages! In 2022, that's perfume that is worth roughly $50,000 in the United States! (see bls.gov) I can't say I'm at all surprised that the men thought this was a complete and foolish waste of money! But in all 4 accounts, Jesus defends the women and corrects the men.
In this particular account, it is Judas Iscariot who publicly criticizes Mary for wasting so much money honoring and worshipping Jesus in this way. He tries to shame her by pointing out that she could have sold this perfume and given all of the money to the poor, but this was particularly ironic and hypocritical coming from Judas as he was the disciple in charge of handling the money for Jesus' ministry, and he was known to "skim some off of the top" for himself. In addition, Judas is the one who, just a short time later, would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
But, in front of the other men, Jesus told Judas: "Leave her alone. ..." - John 12:7
We are half way through this 8-part series on Women (and Men) in the Bible, and if you have made it this far, I hope you are beginning to see a pattern emerging:
When confronted with sexist attitudes, behaviors, and religious and/or cultural traditions, Jesus publicly defended the women and publicly corrected the men. Jesus wasn't known for "putting a woman in her place" ... He was known for putting the men in theirs.*
© I Lift My Voice, 2022.
*For the sake of ease (and to get the point across), I simplified this, but it should be noted that in the previous post [Mary and Martha (and the Men)], Jesus actually corrects Martha - a woman. Sexism is not just about men who may hold sexist attitudes about women; in the case of Mary and Martha, it was a woman trying to force sexist religious and cultural expectations upon another woman. The same holds true for women who expect a man to conform to certain roles, expectations, or stereotypes, or for men who expect other men to conform to certain roles, expectations, or stereotypes. For example, in our culture, there is a tendency for men to be perceived (especially by other men) as being "weak" for showing their emotions, and yet Jesus publicly wept on at least 3 different occasions in scripture.
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