⁶ Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, ⁷ a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. ⁸ But when his disciples saw this, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? ⁹ For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”

¹⁰ However, knowing this, Jesus said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a good work for me. ¹¹ For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have me. ¹² For in pouring this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. ¹³ Most certainly I tell you, wherever this Good News is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of as a memorial of her.”