Disclaimer: This is just my opinion, not hard-studied theology.
This morning, I thanked the Lord for the revelation of Himself that he gave me in the Word yesterday, when I felt a huge cultural attack on the person-ness of God. The media (especially science-fiction) is replacing God with Aliens, ancient Assyrian gods, and blatantly switching identities between Satan and God. He was kind enough to bring me to several scriptures than declare Him as Spirit, Creator, Giver of Life, etc…. (off-topic, but I didn’t want to forget about it.)
So I asked Him for more this morning, and I read from Mark 11:25 through 14:9, and some of the same accounts in Matthew, Luke and John.
I’ve heard it preached that the woman who anointed Jesus with oil was a prostitute and that that oil would have been from her illicit work from her previous occupation, before Jesus told her to “go and sin no more”. That may be possible, I guess, but I don’t think so.
The story begins in the house of Simon the leper… I didn’t realize that lepers had houses. It seems that Simon was a man of means and that he had been healed. It was common (or at least documented) for Jesus to hang out with wealthy people, tax collectors and the like, so I figure that Simon has not only been healed, but restored to his family and position–an especially weighty blessing. A “woman” enters the room.
I went to Blue Letter Bible and found that the word used for woman has no special designation for age, marital status, etc. except that there are add-ons to the word used here for women who have different status (look it up).
The woman who enters the room was unnamed. If she were a servant, wouldn’t it have said so, like in Jesus’ first miracle? Had it been one of the Marys, why not name them as the scriptures had many times before?
I feel like the Spirit led me to the understanding that this was a young woman, perhaps one too young for marriage, and that the bottle of oil may have been set-aside for either a dowry or for her marriage, or maybe to prepare herself for her groom. The scriptures say “And they criticized her sharply.” Would Mary, who was a follower of Jesus and had been forgiven by Him have received “sharp criticism”? I think not. Would a young lady–too culturally irrelevant to be named and a child in the eyes of the present company, have been criticized sharply? Bingo. Apparently, the Disciples hadn’t learned their lesson from Matthew 19:13
What a beautiful picture of purity of heart, wisdom of youth, and display of ultimate understanding of the weight of the moment for a young lady to give her all, for the ultimate Groom of the Bride.
This, I believe, is a prophetic foreshadowing of the 144k young, unspoiled Jewish young men who are preparing for the coming of the Messiah, and have yet to walk into the room and realize that He is in our company.