The Fuss Over Mary's Spikenard

“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” John 12:8

Chapter 12 of John brings us to the end of Jesus’ public ministry. The last week or two the Scriptures we’ve read keep hinting about how the chief priests and Pharisees were plotting to kill Jesus.

Days before He would be put to death, Jesus visits his friends, Lazarus, Mary and Martha. While Martha is busy serving, Mary is back in her usual position once again at his feet as in a previous visit; the time Martha was complaining because Mary wasn’t helping. Martha was being very selfish then and now she seems to have learned that lesson from Jesus when He said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered by so many things.” (Luke 10:41)

Today Jesus addresses another selfish person, Judas Iscariot, when he complains about Mary lavishing the expensive perfumed oil on Jesus when it could have been sold and the money given to the poor.

Jesus knew that Judas’ intentions weren’t strictly for the poor and gave the appropriate answer for that situation – he wasn’t hinting that we should forget the poor. We will have plenty of opportunities to help the poor. I think Jesus was saying that there was a time for everything. We hear something similar in Luke 5: 33-35;

“The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but Yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”