Jesus Arrives and Is Feasted at Bethany.

  5 For this ointment might have been sold ^a for much, ^b for above three hundred shillings, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

  ^a 10 But Jesus perceiving it, ^d therefore said, ^a unto them, alone; ^a Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

^d Suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying.

  ^a 12 For in that she poured this ointment upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

  ^b 8 She hath done what she could; hath anointed my body beforehand for the burying.

[The expression "Suffer," etc., used by John, is taken by some as implying that all the ointment was not poured out, and that some of the apostles were endeavoring to persuade Mary to keep and sell what was left, and that Jesus ordered it kept to finish the embalming of his body which Mary had already begun. But there is nothing in the language to require such an interpretation. Jesus meant, "Let her use it rightly," using the word "keep" as in the expression, "keep the feast;" i. e., observe the ceremony. The words of Jesus about the ointment taken as a whole may be construed thus: "The sorrows of my coming passion oppress me ( Matthew 26:38 ), and Mary, conscious of that sorrow, wishes to cheer me with the evidence of love and gratitude. She sympathizes with me as I approach the shadow of death, and anoints me beforehand for the burial. You do not begrudge what is given to the dead. You do not censure as extravagant what is spent for the embalming of a dear one. You yourselves would be ready enough to anoint me in this same manner after I am dead. So do not censure her because in the fullness of her sympathy she has anticipated the coming catastrophe and has anointed me beforehand."]

^d Suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying.

  ^a 12 For in that she poured this ointment upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

  ^b 8 She hath done what she could; hath anointed my body beforehand for the burying.

  ^d 8 For the poor ye have always with you [ Deuteronomy 15:11 ]; ^b and whensoever ye will ye can do them good: but me ye have not always. [There would be plenty of opportunities in which to do good to the poor, but the time for conferring a personal benefit upon Christ in the flesh was now limited to seven days. Thereafter gifts could only be given to Christ by bestowing them upon the poor.]

  9 And verily I say unto you, Wheresoever the {^a this} gospel shall be preached in {^b throughout} the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. [Jesus here makes prominent the different estimates which God and man place upon the same acts. That which the disciples had censured as a waste and that which they had regarded as worthy of rebuke was in his sight an action fit to be kept in everlasting remembrance as a model for the conduct of future generations throughout the whole earth, and he accordingly decreed that it be so kept in mind.]

  ^d 9 The common people therefore of the Jews learned that he was there [in Simon's house]: and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead,

  10 But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death;

  11 because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away

[withdrew from the party headed by the Jewish rulers], and believed on Jesus. [The presence of the resurrected man and the Christ who had resurrected him both at one table greatly excited the curiosity of the multitudes who had come up to Jerusalem to attend the passover. When word of this supper spread among the people it was natural that they should slip out to Bethany to see the sight, and it was equally natural that seeing it they should believe in Jesus. This deflection of the common people gave a keener venom to the hatred of the rulers.]

  10 But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death;

  11 because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away