All of the Gospels have stories of Jesus being anointed with perfume by a woman. Matthew (26:6-13), Mark (14:3-9) and John (12:1-8) put the story just before his arrest; Luke tells a story from earlier in his ministry. Matthew, Mark and John all point out how expensive it was, with Mark having the disciples saying: "Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." They "rebuked her harshly" (5).
The perfume was in an alabaster jar with a long neck that would have been broken off when the perfume was used. Nard, the perfume in question, was made from the aromatic oil from the root of a plant grown mainly in India.
By comparison, the three most expensive perfumes of 2015, according to ABC News, were, in ascending order:
1. Baccarat's Les Larmes Sacrees de Thebes at $6,800 (£4,750) an ounce. Baccarat is a gem crystal producer and the bottle is valuable too.
2. Clive Christian's No 1 Imperial Majesty at $12,721.89 (£9,885) an ounce. It holds the Guinness World Record title as the most costly perfume on the planet and only 10 bottles were made. The flask is made by Baccarat and it has a five-carat white precious stone on the neck and an 18-carat gold collar.
3. But this was completely eclipsed by DKNY, which produced its Golden Delicious Million Dollar Fragrance Bottle at $1 million (£700,000). It has 14-carat yellow and white gold and contains 183 yellow sapphires, 2,700 white precious stones, a 1.6-carat tourmaline from Brazil, a 7.18-carat sapphire from Sri Lanka, 15 striking pink jewels from Australia, four rose cut precious stones, a 3.07-carat oval cut ruby, a 4.03-carat pear shape rose cut jewel, and a 2.43-carat perfect clear yellow Canary precious stone embellishing the cap. The stones depict the New York City skyline. It will be sold for charity.
The picture in the New Testament isn't really like the Million Dollar Fragrance Bottle. But realistically, it might have been like a bottle of Imperial Majesty or Larmes Sacrees de Thebes. Either way, it was a glimpse of luxury for men who were mainly hard-working fishermen or other manual labourers.
They were appalled when she broke the bottle and anointed Jesus, because it was such a waste. But he said: "She has done a beautiful thing for me" and "wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her" (Mark 9:6,9).
Perhaps it takes a similar glimpse of luxury – also beyond most of us – for us to be able to understand what he meant, as we imagine breaking and pouring out something so valuable. The point is that pouring out the perfume symbolised her complete sacrifice of herself, though the disciples didn't understand. And that sort of self-sacrifice is also offensive in today's world, where we are expected to look out for ourselves first. The woman who anointed Jesus shows us the beauty of putting him ahead of everything else.
