12:4-6
Judas is then introduced for the first time in John’s gospel, and not favourably. Judas questioned the woman’s actions, saying it would have been far better for the money to have been spent on the poor. The nard was worth about a year’s wages.
John makes it clear that Judas’ motives were far from pure, and that he had been pilfering from the money bag. People can often give reasonable, even noble, sounding reasons for ignoble purposes. The motives behind an argument are important, as well as the argument itself.
Judas would soon betray Jesus. Note that this was not a sudden lapse on his part, he was basically corrupt in character. Now isn't it amazing that Jesus chose him as a disciple? Yet Judas had a role to play. God fits even the most evil people into His plan.
12:7
Jesus defended Mary. The perfume had probably been collected over a period of time and Mary had saved it up for this very day. Now she probably had no idea why she was doing this, maybe just had some sort of feeling that she was meant to save it up. Now that Jesus was here she knew that now was the time. Even so, she almost certainly did not realise the full significance of what she was doing, Jesus did. He knew it was part of the preparation for burial, it was pointing to the cross. We do not appreciate the full significance of all that we do, sometimes for good and sometimes for evil. We do not need to fully understand something, but if God is directing us to do something we should just do it.
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