Matthew Henry Commentary John 12:1-11

"Jesus therefore six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there: and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, that should betray him, saith, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred shillings, and given to the poor? Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the bag took away what was put therein. Jesus therefore said, Suffer her to keep it against the day of my burying. For the poor ye have always with you; but me ye have not always. The common people therefore of the Jews learned that he was there: and they came, not for Jesus` sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus." — John 12:1-11 (ASV)

Christ had formerly blamed Martha for being troubled with much serving. But she did not stop serving, as some who, when criticized for going too far in one way, irritably run too far in another way; she still served, but within hearing of Christ's gracious words. Mary gave a sign of love to Christ, who had given real signs of his love to her and her family.

God's Anointed should be our Anointed. Has God poured on him the oil of gladness above his companions, let us pour on him the ointment of our best affections. In Judas, a foul sin is disguised with a plausible pretense. We must not think that those perform no acceptable service who do not do it in our way.

The reigning love of money is heart-theft. The grace of Christ puts kind interpretations on pious words and actions, makes the best of what is wrong, and the most of what is good. Opportunities are to be utilized; and those that are likely to be the shortest should be pursued first and most vigorously.

To conspire to hinder the further effect of the miracle, by putting Lazarus to death, is such wickedness, malice, and folly that it cannot be explained, except by the desperate hostility of the human heart against God. They resolved that the man whom the Lord had raised to life should die.

The success of the gospel often makes wicked men so angry that they speak and act as if they hoped to obtain a victory over the Almighty himself.