Rev elations

During Holy Week the Gospel readings for the day are taken from John’s Gospel, and one of those is always the story of Mary (Martha’s sister) anointing Jesus’ feet.  She shows her great thanks and appreciation that Jesus has raised her brother Lazarus from the dead by taking a pound of pure costly nard (the fragrance filling the room) and anoints Jesus’ feet and dries them with her hair. It is an act of extravagant thankfulness and generosity. It was extravagance that caused offence. It’s hard to know how much the nard would cost in today’s terms, but a days’ wages is 1 denarii – so 300 denarii is 300 day’s wages. So we’re looking at somewhere near an average salary for the year. In each of the Gospel accounts a different set of people are outraged at the extravagance (in John’s it’s Judas who says the perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor.  But Jesus is not. He welcomes it – and accepts the spirit in which it was given. I had my own encounter with extravag