LEAVE. HER. ALONE.

It was 6 days before the Passover.

6 days before Jesus was crucified and buried.

Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, pouring out her life’s savings in perfume on his dusty feet, and she was worshipping him.

Jesus said of Mary, “She anointed my body.”

He then pointed out the purpose. “I am going to die. She’s preparing my body for burial.”

What’s interesting is that this was not the first time that Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die.

The books of Matthew and Mark each record that Jesus told his disciples he would die 3 times. (Matthew 16, 17, and 18) (Mark 8, 9, and 10)

In this passage in John 12:7, 8, Jesus said, “…we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death.”

Think of the timing of this event.

This occurred a day before Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (We call it Palm Sunday.)

Mary took a perfume typically used for burial and poured it over Jesus' feet in preparation for his death and burial on the Passover.

Mary understood what Jesus' disciples, who had followed him for 3 years, did not understand.

Jesus was going to die.

The men in the room wagged their fingers and shamed Mary, insinuating that she did something wrong.

Mary was right.

Jesus disciples were wrong.

Mary didn’t say a word.

I love what Jesus did.

He defended Mary.

He told his disciples: Leave. Her. Alone.

Mary’s act of love for Jesus was rewarded.

Jesus told the crowd that night, “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she (Mary) has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Here we are almost 2,000 years later and just as Jesus said, Mary's memory and her legacy continue even today as we meditate on what we can learn from her story.