Her name and her backstory are lost.

There’s speculation, of course. There is always speculation about the things we don’t know from things we read in the Bible.

What we know is that people who were threatened by what Jesus was saying and doing were trying to stop him. The religious leaders were trying to kill him, but without causing a riot.

On one particular day, three miles from Jerusalem, Jesus was at supper. A woman poured expensive perfume on his head. People complained to each other. People confronted her.

And Jesus defended her: “She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”

She didn’t know that’s what she was doing, of course. It was Jesus that provided the meaning that went beyond her action. And it was Jesus that tied her action to the telling of the Gospel. And Judas went to find the people who were trying to kill Jesus.

+++

You can tell, perhaps, that I’m avoiding extrapolations and applications and embellishments. We do that all the time. I do that all the time.

But the phrase came to mind when I sat down to write and it seemed important to point to.

“She did what she could.” And on that day, for Jesus anyway, that was a blessing.

+++

Read the story for yourself: Mark 14:1-11