Part VII

THE BEGINNING OF HOLY WEEK

On sunday, April 2, the day after the anointing in Bethany, Jesus went on to Jerusalem. He was accom­panied by cheering throngs who had heard of the resur­rection of Lazarus, and His entry into the city was in the nature of a triumphal procession. That day He preached in the temple, received a delegation of Gentiles, and addressed a final exhortation to the people, a speech which was followed by the confirming voice of the Father, thundering from the heavens. After spending the night in Bethany, He returned to Jerusalem Monday morning and drove from the temple the vendors and money-changers who were turning the holy place into a business center. In the evening He again retired to Bethany.On Tuesday He returned to Jerusalem, where His enemies beset Him with tests and challenges : the Scribes and priests brought up the question of His authority, the Pharisees proposed the enigma of the morality of Roman taxation, and the Sadducees probed His beliefs on the resurrected life. These questions occasioned several para­bles (the Vine-dressers, the Marriage Feast) and also a terrible denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees. In the late afternoon He went with the disciples to Mount Olivet to spend the night in prayer. As they sat on the hillside, He warned them of the need for watchfulness both against the dangers of the imminent future and the final judgment of this world, punctuating His prophecies with the para­bles of the Fig Tree, the Wise and Foolish Virgins, and the Talents. On Wednesday, as the Council of the Jews met to discuss plans for seizing and executing Jesus, Judas presented himself and contracted to betray his Master to them.

The Anointing at Bethany

Chapter 80
MATT. 26:6-13; MARK 14:3-9; JOHN 12:1-11

Leaving Jericho with the disciples, Jesus began His last journey to Jerusalem. Six days before the Passover they reached Bethany, the home of the family of Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. On the Sabbath they were offered a supper at the house of Simon the Leper, and the family of Lazarus was also present. Lazarus himself reclined at the table with Jesus and the other guests, and Martha served.
While they were at table, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, came to Jesus carrying an alabaster jar of ointment. Breaking open the jar, she poured out the contents, anointing His head and His feet. Then she dried the feet of Jesus with her hair.
The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. It was genuine oil of spikenard, one of the most precious of oriental perfumes, and the disciples began grumbling about the waste of the ointment.
One of them voiced his resentment openly, saying to the other disciples:
"Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor?"
It was Judas Iscariot who was speaking. He had really no interest in helping the poor, but he was the treasurer of the apostolic band and he used to pilfer the funds entrusted to him. We can appreciate his anxiety more when we consider that he was to betray his Master for a sum ten times less than the three hundred denarii at which he valued the spikenard with which Mary anointed Jesus.
The general reaction to Mary's generous homage was cen­sure and complaint, but Jesus came to her defense, saying to her critics:
"Let her be. Why do you trouble her? She has done Me a good turn. For the poor you have always with you, and when­ever you want-you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. She has done what she could; she has anointed My body in preparation for burial. Amen I say to you, wherever in the whole world this gospel is preached, this also that she has done shall be told in memory of her."

How prodigal Mary was in her love for Christ! There was no narrow weighing and measuring in her gift-making. It was all or nothing, and with Mary it had to be all. Is my service of Christ only what is required by His law? In my practice of virtue, do I merely remain this side of sin?