Depending on what denomination you grew up in, Holy Week is either foreign and suspicious to you, somewhat confusing, or liturgically imbedded in your spiritual DNA. If you fall into the former categories, here’s a quick primer.
Holy Week, or the seven days starting with Palm Sunday and leading up to Easter Sunday, is the highpoint of the Christian calendar. The earliest recorded reference of Christians setting aside this week for special observation dates back to the third century. Attention is given to the day-to-day events in the last week of Jesus’ life, and Christians are invited to participate in and even re-enact key moments like the waiving of palm branches on Palm Sunday, the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday, and mourning Jesus’ death on Good Friday. But today, Spy Wednesday, is often overlooked. I believe I know why.
Named for the particularly dark day when Judas Iscariot broke bad, today also highlights the distinct, egalitarian character of Jesus’ original community. Wednesday finds Jesus in Bethany, when the following scene transpires.
While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Today on Spy Wednesday, we tell her story.
According to author Diana Butler Bass, “All four gospels record a story about a woman anointing Jesus with expensive perfume, each with slightly different details, and three neglect even to mention the woman’s name.” This scene must have meant something to the burgeoning Jesus movement since it appears in each canonical story. It seems the writers were attempting to refocus our gaze away from Judas and his betrayal to the steadfast loyalty of this and virtually every other woman in Jesus’ community.
Bass believes this unnamed woman is Mary Magdalene. If so, Mary not only anoints Jesus, but in John’s version of the story, she proclaims him Lord. In Jewish tradition, these two roles were exclusively reserved for male priests and male prophets. Bass writes:
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