After spending two days in the crowds, Jesus and his
disciples return to Bethany, a little town not far from the city.
They are staying with Simon. Most people wouldn’t stay with
Simon, or even enter his house at all. Most people, in fact, would turn away
from him and keep their distance. Simon is a leper. That doesn’t seem to bother
Jesus. He’s already crossed every social and political boundary he’s
encountered. Now he’s eating and drinking with the outcast and unclean,
threatening his own health and the health of the entire community.
As they sit down to eat, a woman comes with an alabaster
jar of pure nard, a costly ointment, and pours it on Jesus’ head.
Some insight about this anointing: “Alabaster” derives its
name from the Eygptian goddess Bast, often depicted as a cat or lion with a
human body. As such, alabaster jars often carried the images of cats carved
into their bodies. Cats were the guardians and protectors of mystery and the
Otherworld, looking with guile upon a human world that could neither see nor understand
the depth of their knowledge.
Nard was an expensive incense, burned in the Holy of Holies
in the Temple by the high priest once a year.
Furthermore, the only people anointed were kings. In Psalm
23, when the Psalmist says, “You anoint my head with oil,” he is saying, “I am
a king in your eyes.”
In other words, this unnamed woman comes, and makes Jesus
her king, high priest, Holy of Holies, and guardian of the deepest mysteries.
He is the bridge between all that is unclean and all that is pure. As usual,
just about no one else in the place understands this, and once again, they
start talking about money.
Judas Iscariot, however, does understand. He understands all too well that this is dangerous
business. He immediately seeks a way to end the revolution that could otherwise
kill them all.
Text for the day:
Things to think
about:
Who do you say Jesus is?
Things to do:
Meditate about money and mystery. What place do they hold
in your life?
Jesus,
be ruler of it all.
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