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Suggested Readings: Luke 21 and Mark 14:1-11
On Spy Wednesday, Jesus continued his teaching, which only riled up Jewish leaders even more, but the tipping point came when a woman honored Jesus by anointing him with really expensive oil. This didn't sit well with Judas, who went straight to the religious authorities and offered to deliver Jesus into their hands.
It seems that Jesus was the kind of man you either loved or hated. There aren't any people in the gospel accounts who are kind of OK with him. None who are ambivalent. None who are on the fence. It's one extreme or the other.
In today's reading, we see both. We see the people who were so completely captivated by his teaching that they flocked to him and hung on his every word. We see the leaders who hated him and all that he represented so desperately that they start covertly plotting his death. We see the woman who loved him so deeply that she gave up her most precious possession for him. And we also see the man who resented him so fully that he outright betrayed him.
It's no wonder that Holy Week ended the way it did. Such a vast difference of opinions was bound to result in violence.
The question for you and for me, then, is one of identity. Who do you identify with in this story?
I pray that in the end I'm more like her than the others. I want to honor Jesus with all that I have. I want to be extravagant in the way that I serve him. I want him to look at me and say, "Well done, sister. You have done beautiful things for me. You have done what you could."
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