ALL GOD’S DAUGHTERS

⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Mark 14:1-11

This is another one of those occasions when Jesus’ mercy and kindness to women offended men. The Samaritan woman and the woman caught in adultery are two other incidents when Jesus treated women with dignity, even when their behaviour was sinful, and the men didn’t like it.

In the Jewish culture of the time, women were viewed as considerably less than men. They were not much more than possessions; their word was not accepted in a court of law; they could be divorced and thrown out on a whim. But Jesus championed women and lifted them to a place of dignity and respect by the way He treated them. He honoured the crown of His creation and often showed men up in public for their high-minded arrogance, an attitude He hated.

Jesus was a rescuer of women. He rescued Mary Magdalene from a life of demonic torment; the Samaritan woman from guilt and shame; the woman caught in adultery from death by stoning; the woman with the issue of blood from isolation and premature death; the woman who was bent over for eighteen years from a life of pain and indignity, (these two women who were outcasts because of sickness, He called “Daughter”), and all the women who followed Him from a meaningless existence.

Most of all, He rescued them from their despised position as less than men. He treated them as equals, honoured them as participants in the great mission of the church gave them an equal share in the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. .

It was the women who braved the hostility of the religious leaders to be near Him at the cross, to follow His body to the tomb and to anoint Him for burial. It was the wealthy women who often provided for Him and His disciples and it was a woman to whom He first revealed Himself after the resurrection.

People who appear in the gospel narrative alongside Jesus will be remembered for many things, but none received the commendation Jesus gave this woman by specifying her place in history, nameless though she was. Was He in fact saying, “You men are so mean-spirited that all you will remembered for is your insensitivity, but she poured out her very best for me”? Could anything be better than that?