Mary's expensive perfume vs Judas' cheap betrayal

Saturday, December 5, 2009, 10:21 AM [General]

Jesus at Bethany (Eastern icon; painter unknown)

¹Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ²Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. ³Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." ⁶He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

⁷"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. " It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."

⁹Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, ¹¹for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him. (John 12:1-11 NIV)

Even on a superficial reading level, if, as the Gospel of John explicitly says, the one who poured the "pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume", was Mary, one of the two sisters of Lazarus, "whom Jesus had raised from the dead", she had all the reasons to spend all she had, even to the last penny, to express her thankfulness to Jesus.
Anyway, it is rather ironical that some "intellectual unbelievers", who don't even consider the existence of a historical Jesus, but prefer to indulge in the the myth of the ... Christ myth theory, have the gall, the chutzpah, of commenting on the passage of John at face value, without any effort of comparative reading with the parallel narrations in the Synoptics and with the OT passages that are explicitly associated with the figure of Judas and of the 30 pieces of silver of his betrayal.
If one wants to try and understand what is going on, what is behind the scene, it is necessary, to begin with, to read the passage of Jesus’ Anointing, preferably, in a translation like NETBible (John 12:1-11 - NET), not forgetting the very useful footnotes.
Also, it is important to compare John's passage on Jesus’ Anointing with the parallel Synoptic narratives, extended enough as to include the immediate context (The Plot Against Jesus and The Plan to Betray Jesus by Judas), present even in Luke (although Luke omits the narration of Jesus’ Anointing): see Mat 26:1-16; Mark 14:1-11; Luke 22:1-6.
More, it is important to understand that, in particular in Mark, the theme of the "three hundred pieces of silver" of Jesus’ Anointing, is echoed by the "thirty pieces of silver" of Judas' betrayal, in a prophetic perspective (like saying, “Judas deemed Jesus less that 10 times worthy than the perfume he was anointed with”). Read Mat 27:9 and compare it with Jeremiah, that Matthew explicitly cites, probably confusing, in his quotation, Jer 32:9 with Zech 11:12-13.
To end with, my personal opinion: money is a straw-man, both in Matthew and in John, as an explanation of what motivated Judas, and that money would have been the ultimate motive behind his decision to betray Jesus.
In my opinion, Judas probably admired Jesus, but did NOT love him. The "thirty pieces of silver" are just an excuse, a smokescreen for the real reason of his betrayal: confronted with Jesus actions, that he understood less and less, he wanted to put Jesus to the ultimate test, to force him in an impossible situation, whereby either Jesus would have been compelled to reveal himself as the "Mighty Messiah" that only interested Judas, or Jesus would have succumbed.
(What I am here describing is, of course, my view of Judas' foolish scheme.)
Jesus did indeed succumb (but believers know that this is NOT the "end of the story" ...), and Judas, although "he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders", probably never realized that his betrayal had been instrumental to God's plan. (Mat 27:3-10)