At the conclusion of the discourse, Jesus and the disciples made their way to Bethany. At that very moment, the chief priests and scribes were assembled in the court of Caiaphas the High Priest (Matthew 26:3), plotting how they might take Jesus in some sly way to arrest and kill him. (Mark 14:1)

That night, or perhaps the following night, an unknown man, who is simply identified as Simon the leper, gave a supper for Jesus and his disciples and friends. Lazarus, recently raised from the dead, was a guest of honor (John 12:2), while his sisters, Martha and Mary, served the meal. While they were all reclining at the table, Mary came forward with a cruse of precious ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair (John 12:3) and pouring the balance of the oil over his head.

This sort of thing would be quite unusual in our day but, in the day of Jesus, it was quite customary to sprinkle a few drops of sweet-smelling oil on the person of a guest. What was unusual about Mary's gracious act of love was the lavishness of her gift.

The alabaster box that Mary emptied on the feet and the head of her Master was valued at three hundred denarii. When it is remembered that a denarius was the average day's wage of a working man, the response of the disciples can well be understood. A man would have to spend a whole year's wages to buy a gift like that! It is little wonder that the onlookers murmured, Why this waste of perfume? (Mark 14:4)

John tells us that the murmuring was led by Judas Iscariot, who was not thinking of the poor (John 12:6). As the treasurer of the group, he was a thief and wanted to get his hands on the money that Mary's gift represented.

The response of Jesus was prophetic. Even as he sat at the supper, his thoughts were on the momentous days immediately ahead of him. Perhaps the sensitive soul of Mary had sensed the impending tragedy and she deliberately anointed Jesus's body beforehand in preparation for his death. Whether she consciously meant her anointing to have that significance we cannot know, but that was the way in which Jesus interpreted it.

It can be said that, even for the poor, Mary did far more by this act of sympathetic affection than she could have done by selling the ointment for their benefit, for that loving action has inspired ten thousands of deeds of unselfishness.