“Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at His feet, weeping, raining tears on His feet. Letting down her hair, she dried His feet, kissed them, and anointed them with perfume.”
I have long wondered why there were two anointings with perfume. One takes place here, in the early days of Jesus’ ministry. And the second happens in His final week on earth, right before His crucifixion. The second anointing makes all kinds of sense: an anointing for His burial but also deeply symbolic of the Song of God being broken and spilled out for the sake of salvation. He is the shattered alabaster jar, the perfume of great price spilled on the earth looking like waste.
But what about this first anointing?
In the growing light of advent, I wonder if this act of adoration speaks of incarnation? Of the Son of God setting holy foot on filthy firmament? It too, feels like waste, anointing feet. And the woman making herself so familiar with the King of Kings feels unsavory. But didn’t God send His only son to a very shattered, very errant landscape? Wouldn’t that look and feel like utter waste?
Our Jesus is clearly anointed for the divine life He lives, though deeply mired in human flesh. Somehow He and His Father decide that earth was worth pouring the most precious perfume of heaven on the ground. Jesus comes to a world that misunderstands and mistreated, a world that does not deserve His love and grace anymore than the shadow of a woman with her tears and eau du toilette. Yet, we are changed by His nearness. As an expensive perfume, Jesus seeps into our pores and persuades our hearts. We are affected by the Christmas story and transformed by the cross.
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” (John 3:16-17 MSG)
Lord, today we delight in perfume spilled on the ground; Your life and ministry on earth. To the outsider, it may look like waste but we know You came to work Your ways into our hearts. Thank You for seeing fit to pour Yourself out for us. We recognize Your sacrifice and delight in the fragrance of Your life. We are transformed by Your presence and purposes here on earth. Amen.