3
Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head.
4
Some of the guests became furious among themselves. "That's criminal! A sheer waste!
5
This perfume could have been sold for well over a year's wages and handed out to the poor." They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.
6
But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me.
7
You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me.
8
She did what she could when she could - she pre-anointed my body for burial.
9
And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly."