Jesus and Mary of Bethany

But only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:42)

She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. (Mark 14:8,9)

In the last few weeks we have been looking at the stories of the encounters that Jesus had with women. We started with the most important woman to Him, humanly speaking, His mother Mary. Then last week we told the story of one of Jesus’ great friends, Martha of Bethany. This week we will look at the story of Martha’s sister, Mary.

We learn about Mary from the three occasions when she and Martha are with Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel we see the account of a dinner party at their home in Bethany (Luke 10:38-42). In John’s Gospel we will meet them again at the tomb of their younger brother, Lazarus. Jesus would raise His friend from the dead (John 11). Then later, at the home of Simon the leper, where everyone was probably celebrating the resurrection of Lazarus, Martha is again serving. Mary took a pound of extremely costly perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair (John 12:1-11).  Matthew and Mark also give an account of a woman, though not named, who anointed Jesus for His burial. The details in the accounts point to the fact that this woman was probably Mary (Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9).

In our first story recorded for us by Luke we see that Mary had “chosen the good part” and devoted her whole attention to Jesus. Sitting at His feet she learned much from Him. She took in His every word and she comprehended it, even better than the disciples. Mary was gifted with the discernment to understand the significance of Jesus’ words.

The Lord would speak of His coming death to the twelve disciples several times during His ministry but they would not understand or believe it. Mark records for us one such occasion. While teaching in Galilee Jesus told His disciples, “‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.’ But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.” (Mark 9:31, 32) On another occasion after Jesus told the disciples about His upcoming death and resurrection, Peter exclaimed to Jesus, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You” (Matt. 16:22). Jesus rebuked Peter on this occasion. When Jesus and the disciples were going up to Jerusalem for their third and last Passover supper with Jesus (of course the disciples did not know this was to be the last one) Jesus told them again that He was to be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and scribes who would condemn Him to death and crucify Him, but on the third day He would rise up. (Matthew 20:18, 19) Again the disciples did not understand.

But there was one disciple who understood – Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Sometime during these last few days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus and His friends went to the home of Simon the leper. While they were at dinner, Mary poured an alabaster jar of costly perfume on Jesus’ head. Jesus remarked that Mary was doing it for His burial. Her action showed that she understood what Jesus had been saying about His mission to the world – that He must die for our sins but He would rise again on the third day.

When Mary anoints Jesus’ head and feet with the oil, she is showing her gratitude to Him for her own salvation and for saving the life of her brother. She also seems to understand that Jesus’ time on earth is near an end. She had been attentive to the Lord’s teaching. God had blessed her with understanding. In this story as in all the stories about the incredible women in the New Testament, the women seem to be very intuitive and responsive to the Lord’s words.

The disciples complain about the “waste” of the costly perfume. They wanted to sell it and give it to the poor. We know that Judas had selfish motives for wanting to stop her. He was in charge of the moneybox and was a thief. But Jesus cut through all of the grumbling and said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.” (John 12:7,8)

Jesus made a point about what is more important – that is to worship Him. The disciples had to realize that what Mary did had more significance than what they understood. Mary’s blessing from God was that she was able to understand her Master’s teachings.

We see in this incident that Mary again “chose the better part”. Mary was so totally devoted to Christ, she was so in tune with His teaching, she was so intent on showing her love for Him that the only thing she could think of was worshiping Him. In her home she did this by listening at His feet. At Simon’s home, she did this by pouring the very costly perfume on His head. Jesus made a point to say that wherever the Gospel was preached, her action would be spoken of. He couldn’t have made it any clearer that love and devotion for Him must come first in our lives.

There is something else interesting to note here.

Jesus shatters cultural expectations by affirming the status of a woman as his disciple. Jesus is the greatest liberator of women the world has ever known.

This Mary is the same one who anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair (Matt 26:6-7; John 11:1-2; 12:3; To sit at the feet of a respected rabbi was the position of a disciple. In Acts 22:3 Paul says he was instructed at the feet of Gamaliel, a leading rabbi of Jerusalem (Luke 8:35). Mary’s initiative in taking such a position at Jesus’ feet and learning was actually shocking for most Jewish men, surely for the disciples. Rabbis did not have female disciples. Girls were not allowed to receive a formal education. Indeed one Jewish teacher, R. Eleizer is quoted as saying, “They shall burn the teachings of Torah rather than convey them to women.”

Jesus opened the door for women to have the privilege of studying the Word. Women are invited to be Jesus’ disciples and to study and learn and grow into maturity as followers of Christ. How thankful we should be for this story of Jesus and Mary of Bethany.