Mary Anoints Jesus

¹²Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.³Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,⁵‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)⁷Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

⁵ Thus says the ^Lord:Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals   and make mere flesh their strength,   whose hearts turn away from the ^Lord.⁶ They shall be like a shrub in the desert,   and shall not see when relief comes.They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,   in an uninhabited salt land. ⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the ^Lord,   whose trust is the ^Lord.⁸ They shall be like a tree planted by water,   sending out its roots by the stream.It shall not fear when heat comes,   and its leaves shall stay green;in the year of drought it is not anxious,   and it does not cease to bear fruit. ⁹ The heart is devious above all else;   it is perverse—   who can understand it?¹⁰ I the ^Lord test the mind   and search the heart,to give to all according to their ways,   according to the fruit of their doings.