Welcome to the first entry of The Gentle Savior blog!
About once a week I’ll be posting reflections and musings here about the interactions between Jesus and women described in the Gospels. I hope this blog will be a place where we can ask questions of each other and of scripture. I won’t pretend to know and understand everything about God or about difficult issues raised in the Bible. We’ll just be honest about our questions and try to help each other understand Jesus a little better.
Lynn Bell
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While [Jesus] was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. (Mark 14:3-5)
Why in the world would a woman do something like this? What would compel you to take a year’s worth of earnings, buy a ridiculously expensive bottle of perfume, and then pour out its entire contents on one person?
To some of the men in the room, this act was an unfathomable mystery. All they could perceive was the frittering away of valuable resources by an irrational female. Anointing is one thing, but did she have to break the jar and use it all?
