The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 532

She showed her thankful devotion. She brought an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it first (it seems) on hia head, aftenvards on his feet, as he eat at meat. It was a very costly gift, but it was not waste, for it was an act of worship. H signified the exceeding sacredness of the holy body of the Lord J eaus Christ. That body was, in the truest sense, the temple of the most high God; it was the tabernacle wherein abode the Word of God, God the Son, One greater than the temple at Jerusalem, the most Holy One for whose worship that temple was built. That temple was rightly held in reverence; the Lord Jesus hililllelf was zealous for its honour. How much. greater reverence was due to that holy body in which he had manifested himself I That anointing was a solemn act of worship, a pure unbidden rite of adoration. II. THE MUBMtraINGB OF THE DISCIPLES, 1. Their complaint. It was a waste, they said; "the ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor." St. John gives us to understand that it was Judas who had excited this dissatisfaction. Not that he cared for the poor; his talk about the poor was mere pretence to hide his dishonest avarice. So people often talk now when they blame acts of generous liberality which seem to condemn their own selfishness and want of charity. In their narrow avaricious temper they cannot understand the free generous love which prompts faithfol men to give largely for the glory of God, and they impute unworthy motives. The murmurings of Judas seem to have led aatray, for a time, several of the other disciples. Men are too ready to listen to disparaging criticisms, too ready to form unfavourable views of their neighbours. Let us judge carefully our own motives, and learn to believe the best of others. 2. The Lord's reproof. " Why trouble ye the woman?" Judas was rude, unmannerly; he and the other disci pies had vexed the gentle, shrinking Mary by their criticisms of her conduct. But, indeed, her act was not a waste; it was a beautiful deed of unselfish generosity. It is good to help the poor; those who blamed Mary would always have opportunities of doing that, if they were so minded. But there are other ways in which Christian love will show itself, It was good to honour the sacred Person of the Lord Jesus; it is good to give freely, largely, to church-building and other such objects, if the end in view is the true Christian motive-the glc,ry of God. Such was Mary's motive, and it was an especially fitting time to show her love to Christ, for he was about to depart. His death was very near at hand. He had told the disciples; they knew it; probably Mary knew it; she had loved to sit at his feet and hear his word. The gifts which the Wise Men frotn the East offered e.t the Saviour's cradle are thought to have a mystic meaning; the myrrh had a reference to his death. Mary's gift of the precious ointment, offered just before that death, spoke yet more distinctly of death aud burial. She may have been unconscious, or only dimly conscious, of the meaning of her act. But certainly it was an act of loving adoring worship, and it should have its reward; it should be told throughout the world as a memorial of her. Christ knew that "this gospel," the good tidings of his death and resurrection, would be preached in all the whole world. He who was despised and rejected of Pharisees and Sadducees looked forward to a world-wide empire over the hearts of men. Wide as the gospel would spread, so widely should this good work of Mary be made known. There is no fame like that which the gospel gives; the fame of monarch, warrior, statesman, poet, is not to be compared with the honour granted to the lowly Mary. She sought only the praise which cometh from God, She bath also the praise of all faithful Chris,iaus. Her conduct is au example to us; it teaches us that acts of generous, self-forgetting love are beautiful and noble, precious in the sight of God. The odour of the ointmens :which filled the house at Bethany (John xii. 3) has spread through the great Christiau 638 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MAT'l'HEW. [on. xxv1. 1-75.