Mark 14:3

MARY OF BETHANY’S OFFERING

‘And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster bor of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the bor, and poured it on His head.’

Mark 14:3

Matthew and Mark say, a little mysteriously, that this feast was given in the house of Simon the leper. John makes no mention of Simon the leper, a name which does not occur elsewhere; and it is clear from his narrative that the family of Bethany were in all respects the central figures at this entertainment. Martha seemed to have had the entire supervision of the feast, and the risen Lazarus was almost as much an object of curiosity as Jesus Himself.

The feast was also remarkable for the wonderful incident recorded in the text. Mary, as she sat there in the presence of her beloved and rescued brother, and her yet more deeply worshipped Lord, could no longer restrain her feelings. She arose and fetched an alabaster cruse of Indian spikenard, and came softly behind Jesus where He sat, and broke the alabaster in her hands, and poured the genuine, precious perfume first over His head, then over His feet, and then she wiped those feet with the long tresses of her hair, while the atmosphere of the whole house was filled with the delicious fragrance.

I. In grateful remembrance.—Was not a grateful remembrance of that deed of love in raising her brother, the sympathy manifested, the soothing effect of His words, the tears that He shed over the grave of His friend, the mighty words of recall, the great moving impulse to this act? And this motive marks a difference between the narrative and the story of the anointing recounted by Luke. While Mary of Bethany brought a grateful, the woman who anointed our Lord in the house of Simon the Pharisee came with a broken, penitent, and contrite heart. How varied are those motives which lead to acts like these, expressive as this was alike of her veneration and her affection for her Lord! Well is it for us if a view of our temporal blessings produces in us some open, public, avowed or secret, silent, but real, expression of our attachment and reverence for the Saviour. For this was more than an avowal of gratitude. Gratitude will honour the giver of a blessing, and gratitude will love the generous bestower of needful gifts.

II. A token of the estimation in which she held our Lord.—She had not sat at the feet of our Lord and drunk in His sayings for nothing, without understanding more and more of the beauty of our Lord’s character. In this respect how forcibly does the contrast strike us between the depth of character in Mary and the superficiality of the disciples! And she is courageous in her expression of her honour of the Lord. Let it only be considered that even the Jews were plotting His ruin; that not long before He had been driven from Jerusalem by the hatred of the Jews. But the stony stare of the indifferent and the more open hatred of the inimical did not stop Mary’s open and avowed confession of Christ.

III. The generosity of her love.—Does true love exist without generous self-sacrifice? No! It is then only a hollow pretence, a meretricious sham, mere veneer covering the commonest material. Love will find expression in acts of self-sacrifice, in gifts, in open expressions of its approval. Is there real love to Christ and Christianity where there is no effort at its benevolent expression; where a goodly income is spent on mere show and parade; where increase of wealth is accompanied by no increase of generosity and gifts to all works of charity, especially those concerned in the support of the Church of God? True love is a ‘living sacrifice.’