John chapter 12

vs 1

John has, at the end of his story, helpfully given us a bit of a timetable as to when it happened.

vs 2

The women served, of course, because in the culture that was what they were meant to do. Just like today ;)

vs 3

This does come a bit out of the blue. Interestingly, John needs to tell us what nard is, so his readers were unlikely to know. What was Lazarus and his sisters doing with it? Good question. In any case, it was obviously a very nice thing to do. Remember, people don't have baths as often in the Middle East, so dunking someone in perfume is what the polite host/ess would do to their guests to make them welcome. Normally you'd just do it with oil, perfume is extra special.

vs 4

John feels the need to point out, in case we forget, that Judas is the bad guy here. There's no secret, no mystery, no build up. The bag guy, apart from Pharisees etc, is Judas Iscariot.

vs 5

It's a fair question, and it's the sort of thing we ask all the time in Christian circles. When the church spent all its money on huge monestaries and cathedrals, instead of feeding the obviously poor people around it, the same question may well have been asked.

vs 6

But Judas isn't asking it out of selfless concern. He just wants more money in the bag for his embessling purposes. At least, that's what John writes. There has been a fair amount of attempts in recent times to paint Judas as less of a bastard. The gospels do not paint him as a nice guy who was forced into what he was doing. John doesn't anyway.

vs 7

Obviously Jesus isn't getting buried that day. But he is in Bethany, and he's surprisingly close to the time he is going to be crucified. Also, he has recently been doing stuff with dead people, so it's a fairly fitting time.

vs 8

The church probably gave the same answer when it built monasteries instead of feeding poor people. We do in fact have the poor now, and not Jesus, so we should be helping them out.

vs 9

Raising someone from the dead was a bit of a crowd stirrer, apparently. I can't imagine it would get as much interest today. Of course it would, don't be silly. It's an incredible miracle.

vs 10-11

So now it's not just Jesus they're after, but Lazarus as well! What bastards! I mean, he was really on the demand side of miracles, not the supply side. It seems really bad form to kill someone who God took all the effort of raising from the dead. Quite bad form.