Anointing the Anointed One
“Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” (John 12:3). Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, believed so fiercely that Jesus was the Messiah, or the Anointed One, that she helped to make His title literally true. She anointed the Anointed One. We all have the same opportunity. We can all do our part to help Jesus Christ truly and literally become the Anointed One by anointing Him ourselves. Mary anointed Jesus with a very costly oil of a flowering plant called spikenard. We too can anoint Jesus with oil. Just as the Foolish virgins were instructed to go and buy oil for themselves, we too can pay the costly price to obtain oil for ourselves, not just to have fuel for our lamps, but also to anoint the Anointed One. Every time we with faith put one foot in front of the other, carrying our too heavy burdens, enduring the too hot heat of the furnace of affliction, keeping alit the flickering flame of hope in the midst of all of the hail and mighty storms, shrinking not from the bitter cup and subjecting ourselves to the terrifying weight of the oil press of our own personal Gethsemane. Then we can take the oil we have thus obtained and fall before the feet of our Savior and with tears in our eyes anoint Him with our very costly oil, knowing that our sacrifice, however painful, was nothing compared to the infinite pain and anguish He endured, and even less when compared to the infinite love and goodness and grace that He in turn anoints us with. And He will honor our sacrifice and anointing just as He honored Mary’s anointing, claiming that wherever the Gospel would be preached throughout the whole world, whatever stories and testimonies were shared about His life and His sacrifice, the story of Mary’s sacrifice and anointing would be told also. I know that nothing could bring greater joy and reverence to the Anointed One than for Him to be anointed by each and every one of us.
