Matthew 26
A few days after raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus and the disciples sat at a dinner at Simon the leper’s home. Lazarus was there at the table, and Martha served the meal. As they sat and ate, Mary took a pound of very expensive spikenard ointment and anointed Jesus’ feet with it. Then she dried His feet with her hair. The entire room was filled with the smell of the spikenard.
Most sat in quiet reverence as this honor was paid to the Master. Judas Iscariot, however, scoffed at the offering.
“Why wasn’t this ointment sold, and the money given to the poor?” he asked. Judas didn’t actually care about the poor. He was only interested in the money because he was a thief, and he was in charge of the purse that paid for the disciples’ needs.
“Leave her alone,” said Jesus firmly to Judas. “She used this ointment for my burial. The poor you will always have, but you will not always have me here.”
Many of the Jews knew that Jesus was there at dinner, and many came to see not only Him but to see that Lazarus had been raised from the dead.