Fifth Sunday in Lent John 12:1-8

Preaching commentary

Introduction

This narrative is slightly changed from the Synoptic accounts. Matthew and Mark’s Gospels place this narrative two days prior to the Passover (Matt: 26:6-13; Mark 14:1). Three Evangelists emphasize the immediate threat of the Jewish leaders who have begun to plot Jesus’ death in the Passion Narrative of Holy Week (Matthew 26:3-5, Mark 14:1-2, John 11:45ff), while Luke places the anointing narrative earlier in his Gospel alongside similar critiques of the Pharisees (e.g., Luke alone gives Jesus’ rebuke of Pharisees attending the meal in Luke 7:44-47).

Luke alone mentions the woman’s past (7:37, 39, 47), but John alone gives us the intimacy of a meal among close friends at Mary’s…