While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. (Mark 14: 3-5)

Similar settings are found in Matthew and John. In the Gospel of John the woman is Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus.

The perfumed ointment was worth the equivalent of a full years income for most workers. The extravagence might offend many of us.

But what is appropriate to give Jesus? What is inappropriate? How do we respond to his extravagent love?