2022/12/26

71. The Gate to the Destruction, Part 1

All three Gospels, except Luke, describe a scene in which Jesus is anointed with the ointment at Bethany. The women of Matthew and Mark's Gospel end with pouring the ointment on Jesus' head (cf. Matthew 26:7, Mark 14:3). Mary in the Gospel of John, on the other hand, performed a peculiar act different from these two. She "anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair" (John 12:3). By this act, Mary transferred the fragrance of the ointment of nard, which she had applied to Jesus' feet, to her own hair.

At the time, the chief priests and the Pharisees had convened the Sanhedrin to discuss the matter of Jesus and had decided to kill him (cf. John 11:53). Mary may have heard about it from the Jews who had come to her (cf. John 11:45-47) and was prepared for the possibility that this supper might be her last time with Jesus. I wonder if she made herself the "bride of Christ" in the fiction that Jesus might come to her loving the fragrance of the ointment of nard on his feet and seeking her hair with the same fragrance (cf. Song of Solomon 1:12).

The house was filled with the scent of ointment. Then Judas Iscariot said to Mary: "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" (John 12:5). Jesus, in response, chided him, saying, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial" (John 12:7). However, even if these words were directed to Judas, who held the money bag and used to steal from what was put into it, his attitude to Mary seems to be much colder than that in the other Gospel scenes. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus firstly said to those who accused the women of anointing with expensive ointment, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me" (Matthew 26:10, Mark 14:6). Jesus then explains the motive of her who poured the ointment on his head: "In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial" (Matthew 26:12) and "She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying" (Mark 14:8). He further added: "Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her" (Matthew 26:13, Mark 14:9).

Considering the situation above, another distinctive feature is found in this scene of John's Gospel, that is, among the three Gospels, only the Gospel of John identifies the woman who anointed Jesus with the ointment at Bethany as Mary and the one who condemned the act as Judas Iscariot. This fact seems to suggest that John the Evangelist had the intention to equate Mary of Bethany with Judas Iscariot, who would betray Jesus. The clue to this question must be found in what John the Evangelist wrote at the beginning of the chapter preceding this scene: "It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair" (John 11:2).

Maria K. M.