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While Jesus was eating dinner in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came into the house carrying an alabaster flask filled with a precious, sweet-smelling ointment made from spikenard. She came to Jesus, broke the jar, and gently poured out the perfume onto His head.

Some of those around the table were troubled by this and grumbled to each other.

Dinner Guests: Why did she waste this precious ointment? We could have sold this ointment for almost a year’s wages,[a] and the money could have gone to the poor!

Their private concerns turned to public criticism against her.

Jesus: Leave her alone. Why are you attacking her? She has done a good thing. The poor will always be with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you want. But I won’t always be with you. She has done what she could for Me—she has come to anoint My body and prepare it for burial. Believe Me when I tell you that this act of hers will be told in her honor as long as there are people who tell the good news.

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Footnotes

  1. 14:5 Literally, more than 300 denarii, Roman coins

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