Mt 26:6-13 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

I have often had to make comment about contradictions in the Bible – or rather the absence of true contradictions. If there is an account that might come in the line of fire of those who are looking for contradictions, this passage is one such. There is a similar account in Luke 7:36-39 and another in John 12:1-8. The key point about contradictions is that they need to be specific opposites of information. Simply different information is different reporting styles. Let's see what we have here.

In Matthew and Luke there is an unnamed woman who comes with a jar of perfume. In John she is named as Mary, presumably the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who were both there. Matthew and John both identify the location as Bethany . Matthew says it was the home of Simon the Leper, while Luke says it was the home of a Pharisee and John doesn't say whose home it was. In Matthew she pours the perfume over Jesus' head, in John she pours it on his feet and in Luke we aren't told what she did with it.

In Matthew the disciples object to the waste, in John it is Judas who is identified as the objector (and Jesus does use some same words in both), and in Luke it is the Pharisee who questions Jesus' ability to discern the state of this woman. In Matthew the woman isn't described, in John she is simply described as Mary, but in Luke she is described as a woman who had lived a sinful life. My own view on these accounts is that there are such similarities that we must be talking about the same incident – in Bethany , at dinner, perfume, and a woman.

I may be wrong and I know some commentators think we have different incidents here, but I have no problem synthesising the information in the three accounts. So Simon, who had previously been a leper is now a Pharisee. Mary, sister of Martha, didn't have a good history (often in the Lazarus; account in Jn 11 we just think of them as nice people, but that isn't necessarily so). It is quite probable that the Synoptic writers don't name to woman to protect her, whereas John was writing so much later it is probable that she (and Lazarus) were no longer alive when he wrote. The rest of the points are simply different emphases being made by the different writers.

So let's focus now on the woman. Let's suppose she was the Mary we've already considered in the Luke account of Mary and Martha in an earlier meditation. She had previously sat at Jesus' feet and if Luke 7 is the same incident, she bathes in the love of the Master who has accepted and forgiven her past (had Martha previously invited Jesus to their home to talk some sense into Mary?)

THE crucial thing about these accounts and about her is that she had expensive perfume and she poured it out on Jesus as she wept over him. Was she weeping for her own sins or because she sensed that something awful is about to happen to Jesus. Here we have a woman moved by emotion into an extravagant action that received censure from both some of the disciples and the host. From Jesus she only receives acceptance. He is simply blessed by her action.

For those of us who have nice controlled unemotional lives, we may struggle with this woman. In fact we may struggle with anyone who expresses emotion in their spiritual life. I remember the testimony of one of our (now) elderly members who, when he first came to us many years ago, was embarrassed by the emotion he found being expressed by the congregation in worship. Worship should be a volitional and emotional expression if it is real worship. The psalms are full of emotion and emotions must have been fully operational when Jesus was performing so many miracles on a daily basis. Thankfulness, praise and wonder must have been the order of the day.

There is an even lovelier reason for raw emotion to be expressed which Jesus highlighted when he chided his guest in Luke's ongoing account: “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” (Lk 7:41-43) and then referring to her past Jesus declared, “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” (Lk 7:47) Wow! There's the truth. Those who are conscious of their past sins are really grateful when they are forgiven and saved. Those who think they are all right, love little for, as John was to write, “We love because he first loved us.” (Jn 4:19)

This is an account of a woman who had an unsavoury past but who was loved and accepted by Jesus and so was thankful, so thankful that she literally poured out her love over Jesus, using perfume. Extravagant love is what God looks for. May He find it in us!