She Anoints

She Anoints

By Giovanni Battista di Egidio Bertani

“Mary then took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly,
and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

John 12:3

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In the days before Passover, Jesus returned to Bethany — a village He loved, nestled just beyond the shadow of Jerusalem. He came to the home of Simon, and there, in the presence of those who had witnessed His miracles and heard His teachings, Mary of Bethany took a pound of costly spikenard and anointed the Savior’s head and feet. She wiped His feet with her hair — an act so intimate, so unhesitating, that it silenced the room before it stirred it to criticism. Judas objected to the extravagance. Others murmured. But Jesus defended her without reservation. “Let her alone,” He said. “She has done what she could” (Mark 14:6–8). 

What moved Mary to act so boldly? It was faith — not a timid, calculating faith, but one born of deep personal experience with the Savior. She had sat at His feet and listened. She had watched Him call her brother Lazarus from the tomb. She understood, perhaps more clearly than any of the Twelve in that moment, that Jesus was about to die. James E. Talmage wrote that, “to anoint the head of a guest with ordinary oil was to do him honor; to anoint his feet also was to show unusual and signal regard; but the anointing of head and feet with spikenard, and in such abundance, was an act of reverential homage rarely rendered even to kings. Mary’s act was an expression of adoration; it was the fragrant outwelling of a heart overflowing with worship and affection.”

Charles Spurgeon observed that Mary “was a woman of few words, but of many thoughts. She considered, she pondered and she adored.” She had perceived Christ’s true nature and “understood more of what He and what He was about to do than any other of the disciples did.” Her faith was not passive. It compelled her to act, even when others around her could not yet see what she saw. 

There is a lesson here for all of us. The closer we draw to the Savior, the more clearly we see Him — and the more we are moved to give of ourselves without reservation. As Dale G. Renlund has taught, God is more pleased with those who are earnestly trying to draw closer to Him than with those who stand in judgment of others, not realizing how much they themselves need His grace.

Mary did not wait for permission or approval. She simply loved, and she acted on that love. May we do the same — pouring out the best of what we have at the feet of the One who gave everything for us.

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