Anointing

Matthew 26:7 - … a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table.

I think 21^st-century Americans might wonder how an apparently random woman came into the house without being stopped. Part of the answer lies in how houses were structured in the ancient world. Houses were built around a central courtyard, open to the sky. The front of the house – in Roman houses, at least – was open to the street. People could literally walk in. Usually someone was on guard, but if they were occupied elsewhere, it could be done. Rich people often had people they supported who did thing for them and whom they helped. The houses were open so they could easily come in. I’m assuming here that Simon the Leper was relatively rich.

So, this woman, possibly not random but rather known to them, pours expensive oil on Jesus’s head. Matthew doesn’t say what it was, just a general oil. However, chances are good it was spikenard, frankincense, myrrh, or cedar. Being desert perfumes, these are all resins from trees. They have a bitter aroma, as Balthazar notes in the hymn, “We Three Kings.” 

 Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
    Breathes a life of gathering gloom;

These oils are associated with both kingship and death. Death due to their bitterness and ability to somewhat hide the stench of decaying bodies. Kingship due to the prophets anointing of kings. The Old Testament has several stories of prophets of the Lord anointing people king, notably Saul anointing David. This symbolism would not have been lost on anyone present.

This unnamed woman comes in and anoints Jesus king. Jesus has a different interpretation, but for now, I think remembering that this act was seditious – because Caesar was emperor and Herod was King – is important. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, in the introduction to In Memory of Her, notes that “the anointing of Jesus’ head must have been understood immediately as the prophetic recognition of Jesus, the Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ” (xiv). What was the Christ to the disciples but an earthly king who would rid them of Roman rule? Over and over they urge Jesus to become such a king. Johnson doesn’t go so far as to use the word sedition, but that is what this woman’s action was. 

In the Woman’s Bible Commentary, Amy Jill-Levine notes that “the woman is cast in the role of priest and/or prophet” (474). It was always a prophet of the Lord in the Old Testament that anointed the king.

Finally, it is an act of intimacy and love. Margaret Starbird notes this in The Woman with the Alabaster Jar. Indeed, it is a loving act, whether preparing the body for burial, signifying Jesus as king, or part of the ritual of marriage, as Starbird argues. We don’t pour costly, expensive perfume over the heads of people we loathe or dislike. I think this is the most important point here. The woman’s act is an act of love. Just as the prophets acted from love of God, so the woman anoints Jesus out of love of God as Jesus.

The more I think about our situation in the US today, the more I think we need to act out of love; not just love for God, but love for others, even those we dislike or even abhor. Because Jesus has told us we need to see him in “the least of these.” You may not think Donald or our Republican leaders are the least of these, and they’re not in this world, but they are in a moral sense. Their actions reveal how lost they are; how unhappy and hurt. Happy, centered people do not act like the Republican leadership. If Jesus’s message was a message of love, the question becomes how to love everyone. Even as we fight for justice for the many oppressed in our society.

What about us? Who can we lift up today? Who can we anoint in an act of love? 

B