On Wednesday of Holy Week, Jesus is again preparing us, through the roles that Judas and Saint Mary Magdalene play in this great drama, for what is to come in the next few days. Judas we are told, goes out, on this day, to begin plotting how he would hand over Jesus to the Jewish authorities after revealing to them his location with the apostles while asking for monetary recompense. This is why today is also known as Spy Wednesday. Judas becomes a spy for the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body which had the power to adjudicate Jesus’ trial, and which will ultimately sentence him to death, for which they would seek the assistance of the Romans. At some point throughout their judicial history it became unlawful for them to execute their own countrymen.
Judas reminds us that it is very easy to follow our own whims, rather than to be patient on the Lord, and wait for his directives. What results can be consequential and tragic and lead to our demise. We need to learn the lesson, sooner better than later, that God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Judas’ mindset was bent on forcing Jesus to act against the Romans. He wasn’t perceiving the true enemy and the last and final enemy that Jesus came to conquer – our eternal death. Within that vision, so many things change, but it is only God who would have seen it clearly. We were just expected to trust, and follow directives, given out of love for us, but following can be difficult, because it means putting our own maps, our own “ways” of doing things, on the backburner. Following might arouse fear in some of us—fear of the unknown; fear of what’s expected; fear of loss… etc. While most will decide not to follow, there were those who after encountering Jesus, gave him their everything. Saint Mary Magdalene was one such follower.
She had lost her way, needed exorcism even, and felt remorse for her sins. She decided to go to Jesus and receive his mercy, and she did this by barging into the house of Simon, falling Jesus’ feet, washing them with her tears, wiping them with her hair, and anointing them with precious ointment. Jesus forgives her all her sins (Luke 7:36-50; John 11:2) and sends her in peace.
We see her then following Jesus with other women who financed his public ministry. Then, at some point we see her sitting at his feet speaking to him, and listening to him when he visited her household and Jesus calls what she did “the one thing necessary” for she modelled what prayer should look like.
Spending time with our Lord, not only speaking to him, but allowing him to speak to us. We then see her witnessing what her eyes never imagined they would behold— the raising of her brother Lazarus from death and at Jesus’ command she sees her deceased brother walking out of the grave. She’s shocked. She’s astounded and swept away by the loving kindness and power and signs of divinity of the Saviour. He is clearly unlike any other man! She knows there’s no other option than to be his lifelong disciple and that it is an honour and a blessing not only to be so, but to have been chosen to be so, forgiven by him when everyone else condemned her! It is almost as if the prophet Isaiah describes her mindset in being saved not only from her sin by Jesus, but by those who did nothing but condemn her:
“My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me? Then let us go to court together.Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me.The Lord is coming to my help, who will dare to condemn me?” Isaiah 8:9.
She then draws ointment from an alabaster flask, and anoints Jesus’ feet, but “from behind.” Luke doesn’t name the sinful woman in question, but mentions immediately after this that Mary Magdalene began following Christ (Luke 8:1-3). Saint John on the other hand, writing much later, outright says it: “It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill” John 11:2.
In the first anointing, we see a focus on the forgiveness of her sins, and the gratitude with which she receives it. The second time, it’s tied to Jesus’ impending Death.
The first time, no one complained aloud. Rather, Simon simply thought ill of Mary, and of Jesus’ abilities as a prophet for letting “that sort of woman” touch His feet. This time, the internal grumbling isn’t coming from Simon. Mark tells us only that some at the table were complaining to themselves; Matthew says that the disciples were indignant; and John tells us that it was Judas who actually spoke out against the anointing (John 12:4).
Therefore, in the second anointing which occurs on Holy Wednesday, it’s not just who is upset that’s different, but why. Last time, Simon was disturbed that a woman like Mary Magdalene was washing Jesus’ feet, and that he should have known better. This time, that’s no longer a concern, as it is well established that Jesus, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are close friends now. He knew them well and visited them on occasion in Bethany Lk 10:38-42. John 11:5 informs us that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”
Then, two days before the Passion on Good Friday, on Holy Wednesday evening when Jesus and the apostles returned from Jerusalem, we see her once again, in the house of Simon, anointing Jesus. (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8). This second anointing however is different in special ways.
The first of the two anointings appears to have happened relatively early in Jesus’ public ministry while the second happens just two days before Good Friday which would place it on Holy Wednesday. Both times it occurs in Simon the Pharisees’ house. In the first, Luke gives us a context in which Jesus is being questioned in the hearts of those who are not receiving his message well. Jesus laments that the Pharisees and others were saying of Him: “Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34). As if to demonstrate this point, Luke then tells us about an encounter in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50) where a woman known publicly for her sinful ways, barges into the house, falls at Jesus’ feet from behind him and washes his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair.
Rather, the frustration this time is that it all seems excessive, because whereas in the first anointing Mary used “an alabaster flask of ointment” (Luke 7:37) as we said above, this time, she uses an entire alabaster jar containing a pound of pure nard (Matthew. 26:7; Mark. 14:3; Jn. 12:3), costing 300 denarii (Mark 14:5; Jn. 12:5), which is to say, almost a year’s worth of wages for the average laborer. This, by the way, is another reason to believe that Mary Magdalene is the woman in each of these accounts, because as we mentioned earlier, she was one of the financiers of Jesus and the Apostles (Luke 8:2-3).
While others internally grumble, Judas openly complains that this seems wasteful, as the money could have been used for the poor (John 12:6 notes the hypocrisy of Judas’ complaint, since he was stealing money). Jesus responds by tying Mary’s anointing to His impending Death (Mark 14:6-9; see also Matthew. 26:10-3; John 12:7-8):
“Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
It’s a beautiful response, and it highlights how different this anointing is from the first one. Mary is seen as growing in her generosity towards Jesus, and gives him even more in the second anointing then in the first. The first time around, she uses a flask of ointment, and assumes a penitent posture, “standing behind him at his feet, weeping.” She doesn’t even face Him. The second time, she not only faces Him, she even anoints His Sacred Head (Mt. 26:7; Mk. 14:3). Now, she’s looking him eye to eye as friends who love and care for each other deeply and her generosity has grown since as we indicated above, this time it wasn’t an alabaster flask, but an entire alabaster jar with a pound of pure nard that she anoints his head with. Most likely with tears, since Jesus is informing the group of his impending death.
At the Last Supper, Christ says to the Apostles, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn. 15:15). In Mary, we see this same growth, from a servant to a true friend of Christ.
It turns out, this anointing prepares for His Death in another way: both Matthew and Mark (14:10) suggest that Judas went to the chief priests after Christ said this. Hence the designation, “Spy Wednesday” came about to recall this fact.
“One of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him” Matthew 26:14
We are told in today’s gospel how the very next day, during their last supper on Holy Thursday evening, Jesus clearly tells the group that one of them is about to betray him.
Interestingly, Judas had a chance to change his mind. Up until then, Jesus did not count it as a betrayal that he had already gone to the chief priests and devised a plan to hand him over. You see, Jesus keeps hoping right throughout the duration of our entire temptation, that we will reconsider, think better of what we have premeditated, and respond to his grace to resist. Jesus therefore says of Judas who was in the premeditated phase, that he “was about to betray” him.
Let us love Jesus like Saint Mary Magdalene with a sincere love. Let us not try to sway his plans, because they are perfect. Let’s be humble and submit to whatever he wills. Think about it, each time we pray the Our Father, we are submitting to Him and his plans when we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Just think of how beautiful heaven functions, always in accordance with his will. And let us pray for those who are finding their faith difficult to live, for this is all of us, at varying times and under different circumstances throughout our lives. All of us will have days of crisis spiritually and relationally when it comes to our communication with God, but all the while he is here, with us, right by our side. Tomorrow we will celebrate the vast mystery above all mysteries instituted on Holy Thursday by our loving Saviour, how through bread and wine, he deigned to give us his body and blood which will be food for our journey to Heaven, bestowing upon us everlasting life.
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