Quick Summary:

Each of the gospel writers tells the story of Jesus being anointed in one form or another. Luke places it earlier in his gospel while Jesus is still in Galilee. Mark and Matthew set it at the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany, and speak of her anointing Jesus’ head—not his feet. In every other gospel, the woman is unnamed, but in John she is Mary, close friend and disciple of Jesus.

Using the oil, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet, and in an extraordinary twist, her unbound hair conveys both the depth of her feeling and her utter devotion.

Mary’s costly gift grows from her awareness of the costly gift Jesus himself will soon make. What the others don’t yet understand, Mary grasps: that discipleship is about loving Jesus with as much abandon as he loves them, and recognizing the price such love will cost him.

Could that be the takeaway this morning—that those who recognize the true cost of redemption are those who love most freely and most generously?