Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 26:10

"But Jesus perceiving it said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me." — Matthew 26:10 (ASV)

Why do you trouble the woman? The Greek is more emphatic: “Why are you causing trouble?” St. Mark uses a word to describe their conduct that explains the verse: “They murmured against her,” or better, They were bitterly reproaching her. One after another, the murmurers uttered their bitter remonstrances.

She has done a good work for me. The Greek adjective implies something more than “good”—a noble, an honourable work. The Lord Jesus, in His sympathy with all human affections, recognizes that love, when lavish in its personal devotion, is noble and excellent in itself.

After His departure, as the teaching of Matthew 25:40 reminds us, the poor are His chosen representatives, and our offerings to Him are best made through them. It is worth considering to what extent these words sanction a lavish expenditure on the aesthetic element of worship—such as church architecture and ornamentation—as they are often used to justify such spending.

The leading principles are as follows:

1. If the motive is love and not ostentation, He will recognize it, even if it is misdirected.
2. Insofar as ostentation, or the wish to gratify our own taste and sense of beauty, is a motive, the work is corrupted from the beginning.
3. The needs of the poor have a prior claim over that gratification.

On the other hand, we must remember:

1. The poor have spiritual needs as well as physical ones.
2. All well-directed church-building and decoration minister to those needs. Even in their accessories of form and color, they can give the poor a joy that is an element of culture in itself and can minister to their religious life by making worship a delight.

It is a work of charity to lighten lives that are otherwise dull and dreary in this way. The true principle to guide our conscience in such matters is to place our noblest churches in the districts where the people are the poorest.