1. It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings were looking for some underhanded way to arrest Jesus and to kill him.
2. However, they said, “We shouldn’t arrest him during the festival, or else there will be a riot among the people.”
3. Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had suffered from a skin disease. While Jesus was sitting there, a woman went to him. She had a bottle of very expensive perfume made from pure nard. She opened the bottle and poured the perfume on his head.
4. Some who were there were irritated and said to one another, “Why was the perfume wasted like this?
5. This perfume could have been sold for a high price, and the money could have been given to the poor.” So they said some very unkind things to her.
6. Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me.
7. You will always have the poor with you and can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have me with you.
8. She did what she could. She came to pour perfume on my body before it is placed in a tomb.
9. I can guarantee this truth: Wherever the Good News is spoken in the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
10. Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus.
11. They were pleased to hear what Judas had to say and promised to give him money. So he kept looking for a chance to betray Jesus.
12. Killing the Passover lamb was customary on the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The disciples asked Jesus, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”