St John the Evangelist is a coward! Or maybe, just a guy.

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

Here we have one of the most intimate encounters in the earthly life of Jesus. An encounter with a woman of rank and respect whom the disciples knew well. Do not confuse this woman with the prostitute who washed Jesus feet with tears in St. Matthew.

Mary is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. They are prosperous, and it is likely that the disciples stayed in this home whenever they were in Jerusalem.

Now foot washing was a more commonplace activity in those days, true. But it was ordinarily performed by a servant at the entrance to the house. Not by the hostess at the dinner table! And then or now, a woman drying a man’s feet with her hair is an extraordinary intimacy.

So faced with this breathtaking expression of love and devotion – John decides to talk economics!?

300 denari = 1yr’s wage for labor

$20,800 at $10.hr

4 1ct Diamonds

1 new car

3 lb Russian Caviar

500 tanks of gas

Come on!

A woman’s hair is very potent stuff.  ⁵ Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses. Song of Songs 7:5 (NIV) In the Roman world wigs and hairstyles are important reflections of status.

No woman, noble or slave, would wipe a man’s feet with her hair and consider it an insignificant act.  That would be true if we were just washing feet with water, but here there is more.

Think about it. Nard is thick, like Vaseline. A pound of it would be about a pint in volume, more than a double handful. That is a lot of ointment for two feet, even if we start at the knees. By the time she used it all, her hair was thick and clotted with it. The fragrance filled the house but for the two of them it would have been intoxicating, overwhelming.

In a way, this is more intimate than intercourse. Because there is even less of “self’ in her act than if she had given him her body. This is not mere oblation, not burning the offering, or donating the cash value. This is an oblation of self, an offering that changes the offeror.

Open your God eyes, see Mary a few days later standing, hooded, looking at the Cross, with eyes cried dry.

See her hand as it rises to her ear. Her fine soft fingers pull a tress loose from under her scarf and she draws it slowly to her face, inhaling, remembering.