She hath done what she could:

she has come aforehand to

anoint my body to the burying. Mark 14:8

 

      This is a story of a woman who came to Jesus and anointed Him with expensive oil while He was at someone else’s home having a meal. Just as they did not understand the harlot who washed Jesus feet with her tears they did not understand this woman. They questioned both the nerve of the harlot to interrupt their meal and Jesus who allowed it to happen. It appears in Mark 14:4-5 that the complaint was solely against the woman this time.

     This woman understood that Jesus came to die for her sins. It even says that Jesus said, When people speak of me and they will, this time will be remembered. I wonder if some among them hoped it would be told to show Christ as a fool who didn’t know the value of the contents of the alabaster jar. We do know the chief priests were looking for a way to entrap Him to kill Him. We know that the betrayal by Judas Iscariot was recorded right after this incident. But you can’t crucify a guy for wastefulness. 

      We know Christ was betrayed, tried, convicted, and nailed to the cross. I believe He was prepared for death emotionally as well. I know of His anguished prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane but He went through with it. He died, was buried and rose again perhaps still with the scent of oil from an alabaster jar in His hair. The scent is not described but it does have a name: faith.

      She did what she could. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear the Savior say, You did what you could before He said, Well done my good and faithful servant?