Scripture Matthew 26:6-13
Now Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon with the skin disease, a woman came to him who had an alabaster vessel of extremely valuable balm, and she poured it on his head as he sat at table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “What purpose does this waste serve? For this could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus understanding, said to them, “Why are you making this trouble for the woman? She has done something good for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this balm 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.”
Sermon “At the Table”
What would you do for someone you love? I imagine you already know the answer to this. You might cook them a delicious meal. You might rake their leaves, or mow their lawn. You would speak kindly to them. You would offer them a listening ear. You would fluff up the pillow in a comfortable chair for them to sit in when they visited you.
There are other kinds of things you could do, of course. You could tell them how much they meant to you. You could plan your whole life around them. Love is almost never entirely about what we say; it is more often about what we do. As Fred Rogers said, “We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.”
Our passage from the gospel according to Matthew is a kind of love story. The story of the anointing of Jesus during the week before his death is well known. It is told in all four gospels, though the details differ. Our version today is the shortest, the most concise.
Jesus is dining at the house of a friend, Simon, who is identified as one who has a skin disease. As usual, Jesus is dining with people whom respectable people would consider questionable. Simon’s skin disease would have caused most people to shun him, for fear of contagion or for fear of becoming ritually unclean, and therefore unable to take part in Temple worship. Undoubtedly there are other people at the table who would also make many people, including the religious leaders, uncomfortable. But here is Jesus, entirely comfortable among the outcasts.
While they are dining, a woman comes into the room. We don’t know who she is—whether she is a member of Simon’s household, or one of the dinner guests, or even someone who is gently crashing this party. What we do know is that the woman holds a jar of costly ointment in her hands. It is probably spikenard, often called nard, an aromatic, amber-colored essential oil. (As an aside, I just love the fact that, in his 2022 icon, the artist Lázaro Ceballos Fernández’s depicts both Jesus and the woman who is anointing him as having amber-colored eyes, the same color as the nard itself.) Nard comes from a honeysuckle-like flowering plant found in the Himalayas of Nepal, China, and India. It has been used throughout the ages as a perfume, as well as in religious rituals.[i] Nard also has anti-bacterial properties, and can be used to treat skin conditions, such as the one Simon had.[ii] It’s possible that the nard came from Simon’s own house.
The woman pours the precious ointment on Jesus’s head. This action is something we witness throughout the Old Testament. In Psalm 23 we read, “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” Ps. 23:5). Anointing is a gesture of welcome and honor, the highest sort of hospitality. Psalm 133 reads,
How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head… (Ps. 133:1-2a)
Anointing, in scripture, is one of the most beautiful and loving gestures that can be offered from one person to another; it is a sign of living together in peace. Fred Rogers also said, “Everyone longs to be loved. And the greatest thing we can do is to let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.”
Anointing carries other significance, too. The priests who served in the Temple and the kings who ruled the people were anointed with oil as a sign that they had been chosen by God. Prophets also understood themselves to be spiritually anointed by God, but were rarely anointed with oil in their communities; they were usually considered adversaries and troublemakers by the people in power, and would never be given that honor. The word Christ, which is the Greek version of the word Messiah, means, simply, Anointed One. Jesus is anointed by the Spirit at his baptism, and here, anointed in a gesture of loving hospitality by this anonymous woman.
Mister Rogers spent his entire career as a Presbyterian minister creating a space so that small children could know the kind of loving hospitality the woman offers Jesus in this story. With the slow pace of his television show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, with his quiet and gentle demeanor, and with his continuous positive messages of kindness and neighborliness, Mister Rogers created an oasis of calm for children in an increasingly turbulent world. With both innate emotional intelligence and the wisdom offered by his collaborator, child psychologist Margaret McFarland, Mister Rogers focused on the emotional and social needs of young children.[iii]
Fred Rogers also emphasized the importance of children knowing that they were good and worthy individuals. He said, ““Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.” Mister Rogers offered children a safe space and the knowledge that they were loved, exactly as they were. In his commencement address to the 2002 graduating class of Dartmouth College, he reminded the students of the communal work of creating that kind of a space: “From the time you were very little, you’ve had people who have smiled you into smiling, people who have talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving.”[iv] Fred Rogers’ entire life’s work was a gift of love.
Immediately following the anonymous woman’s gift of love, criticism rings out—from Jesus’s disciples, no less. Matthew tells us, they were angry. They thought this was a shocking waste of resources. What about all the poor people to whom Jesus has devoted so much of his ministry? One of the gospel accounts calculates that the cost of this nard would have been 300 denarii, or about a year’s wages for a day-laborer. Imagine the good they could have done with that kind of money—they could have given it to the poor.
Jesus claps back at his disciples. Matthew tells us that Jesus understands why the disciples are upset. He asks them, “Why are you making this trouble for the woman? She has done something good for me.” Even Jesus needs a moment when his well-being is considered, when he is honored with a gesture that speaks of hospitality and appreciation. He appreciates this gift, and he defends it. It is one of the most beautifully human and vulnerable moments we witness in the life of Jesus.
The next thing Jesus says has been taken badly out of context. We hear it as “The poor are always with us—what can we do?” In fact, Jesus is paraphrasing the first half of Deuteronomy 15:11, which begins, “…There will never cease to be some in need on the earth.” But, it concludes, “I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” Jesus knows that this passage from the Old Testament will be recognized by his disciples. Of course, Jesus and his disciples, together, will continue their work on behalf of the poor. He say, “…you will not always have me. By pouring this balm on my body she has prepared me for burial.”
Not one of the depictions of this scene in the gospels has anyone responding to Jesus following these words. They are silent.
Jesus concludes this scene by saying, The world will know this story. Wherever the good news is proclaimed, what this woman has done will be remembered. She will be remembered.
And here we are, remembering her.
Where Jesus’s work on this earth was the work of seeing people into seeing, and loving people into loving. In this story, we witness a rare moment of a woman who has been loved into loving, and the action she performs as an expression of that love. Love is never only about words. It is always, also, about our actions. Remembering those who have loved us into loving reminds us that we, too, are called to this precious work.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] “Spikenard,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spikenard.
[ii] Meenakshi Nagdeve, “8 Surprising Benefits of Spikenard Oil,” Organic Facts, May 1, 2024. https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/health-benefits-of-spikenard-essential-oil.html.
[iii] “Fred Rogers,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers#cite_note-51.
[iv] “About Fred Rogers,” Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, https://www.misterrogers.org/about-fred-rogers/.