1
It was now only two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The leading priests and teachers of the law were trying to find a trick to arrest Jesus and kill him.
2
But they said, "We must not do it during the feast, because the people might cause a riot."
3
Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. While Jesus was eating there, a woman approached him with an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She opened the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus' head.
4
Some who were there became upset and said to each other, "Why waste that perfume?
5
It was worth a full year's work. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor." And they got very angry with the woman.
6
Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She did an excellent thing for me.
7
You will always have the poor with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me.
8
This woman did the only thing she could do for me; she poured perfume on my body to prepare me for burial.