Holy Wednesday 6pm

Wednesday
6pm   

At the margins

Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.  But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them ‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me.  For you always have the poor with you , but you will not always have me.  By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.  Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’ (Matthew 26: 6 – 13)

 Jesus was back in Bethany, now in Simon’s house where this dramatic and beautiful event takes place.  After his death, the women would bring oil to anoint his body for burial and this unnamed woman pre-empts that final act of love by anointing him now.  So, Jesus is anointed not just for burial but as a king – the King of the Jews, as he would be proclaimed from the cross, Jesus Christ, Universal King as we know him.