Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. “That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.” They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.”

Wednesday – Mary blessed Him. Judas betrayed Him.

• Matthew 26.1-16
• Mark 14.1-11
• Luke 22.1-6

Between the Triumphal Entry and the Last Supper, the Synoptic Gospels (Mt, Mk & Lk) record the great controversies in the temple, the parables, and the sermon on the Mount of Olives.

John passes over all of this in silence – the only echo of them is a simple quotation from the prophet Isaiah about the blindness of the people and the hardness of their hearts. John 12:39-41  I pray that in this Holy week we are not also blind and hard-hearted.