What Did Mary Think She Was Doing?

30 March 2026  John 12:1-11

Monday of Holy Week

“The large crowd of Jews found out that He was there and came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus….” (John 12:9)     

What did Mary of Bethany think she was doing when she anointed Jesus?

It is doubtful in the extreme that she thought she was doing what Jesus said she was doing, i.e. anointing him in anticipation of his burial (John 12:7). Exactly none of the disciples and other followers of Jesus understood Jesus when he started talking about His death. It was confusing and deeply upsetting to them, and it contradicted everything they had learned to expect about the Messiah. It wouldn’t be till after Easter and after Pentecost that they finally began to understand the meaning of the Lord’s passion. 

So what did Mary think she was doing?

Anointing had a very specific meaning among the Jews of those days. Among other things, it was how they made kings, and that was the very thing that enraged and terrified Jewish leaders the most about Jesus.

Anointing had a very specific meaning among the Jews of those days. Among other things, it was how they made kings, and that was the very thing that enraged and terrified Jewish leaders the most about Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees thought the same things about the Messiah that all the other Jews thought, viz., that he would be a political and military leader who would finally vanquish the enemies of Israel and restore the Kingdom of David. The Scribes and Pharisees thought that if people started calling Jesus the Messiah, “all will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation” (John 11:48). Then they heard that Mary had anointed Jesus at Bethany, and thought all their worst nightmares were coming true.

Was Mary wondering what Jesus might do if she anointed Him? Was she thinking that maybe more people would follow Him if she did something really provocative like that? People were already talking more excitedly about Jesus. They had heard about the raising of Lazarus, and had made a special trip to see Jesus and Lazarus together (cf. John 12:9). Did she think maybe that she was making it possible for more people to believe?

She obviously didn’t think of the effect it would have on the Scribes and Pharisees. That would explain why just four days later Jesus was on trial for his life.

There was, however, one person there who did not think of Jesus as a political Messiah, a disciple who saw the anointing at Bethany in  a much different way. Judas saw that event as a promiscuous waste of valuable resources. Three hundred days’ wages – a year’s pay – blown all at once in one inflammatory gesture! Judas had been paying attention to Jesus, and saw immediately how perhaps hundreds of people could have been fed for a month with what was so prodigiously wasted. He rather missed the part, however, when Jesus said that He himself was “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).  He missed the part where Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am” (John 8:58). He only saw the economic meaning of Jesus’ ministry. Not long after the “wasteful” anointing at Bethany, perhaps to recoup some of the economic loss, Judas’ head was turned by the offer of a month’s pay – thirty pieces of silver.

It would explain why the guards knew where to find Jesus three days later to put Him on trial for His life.

Mary finally found out what Jesus meant at Bethany when He said the anointing was for His burial, and all the other things He said about His life and mission, because she went through Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and she was present in the Upper Room on Easter Day, and on Pentecost. Judas not so much. All the disciples forsook Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but Judas couldn’t live with his sin, so he never found out what Jesus meant, never learned more than the economic meaning of Jesus’ teaching.

If only he could have waited three days.