"Revealed”
- Dr. Todd R. Wright
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
...this meal was not a historical re-enactment, it was an act of love, a gift!
Matthew 26:6-13 and 26-29
March 8, 2026
Dr. Todd R Wright
It has been over four decades, but I can still remember the meal clearly … well, actually not the meal itself but the paying of the bill.
We were on our way back from a camping trip in Canada and my grandfather thought we should have a good meal. In fact, he had been planning for it. He had saved the money from serving as a bus driver for the local prep school sports teams. As we sat down, he pulled out an envelope full of cash and announced that he was paying, so we should get whatever we wanted.
After a good meal, the waitress brought the check. He didn’t even look at it. He just handed over the envelope. She came back to the table with the change, but he refused it; told her it was her tip. She protested that it was way too much. He said, “Keep it – he wanted to do this!”
That moment, at that dinner, revealed three things about my grandfather:
1. He was a dreamer. He had been making a list about this trip on the chalkboard in his office for almost a year – details about projects to be done, things to pack, and the idea of this meal with his family, this splurge! He had dreamed it, and now he was bringing it to pass!
2. He was awful with money. Obviously! Ordinary people do not give more than 100% tips! If he had valued money like most of us do, he would have kept some back for other things – paying bills, saving for a rainy day, investing! He didn’t see money that way.
3. But both make sense because of the third thing revealed: He was generous. And generous people delight in giving gifts; in sharing; in blessing those around them. So for him, it was an act of love, not calculation. If he was investing, it was in relationships; if he was saving, he was banking memories; and he wasn’t paying bills, he was teaching values.
I tell you all this because part of the Holy Week story told by the gospel writers revolves around two meals. And like the story I just told, they both reveal important things.
You know about the Last Supper. You know what was served and when it took place.
When I asked the Lenten study group to make a list of the events of Holy Week, it was one of the first things mentioned. Perhaps we remember because we are drawn back to that moment every time we celebrate communion and use Paul’s words about that night to set the tone.
We know about the other incident, too! A woman anointing Jesus with expensive oil was so dramatic, so intimate, so scandalous, we remember it! But we might forget that it took place during a meal. Or that it happened during this last week of Jesus’ life.
So let’s look at both meals with an eye for what they reveal.
Two days before the Passover meal, Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. As they sat at table, a woman came in. As you heard read, she went to Jesus and poured a jar of very costly oil on his head. It was a revealing moment!
Matthew does not record her name. Maybe he didn’t know it. Maybe it’s not important to his version of the story. Or maybe he leaves it blank so we may fill that blank ourselves.
He is also vague about her motives.
Douglas Hare writes, “The conjecture that the woman means to anoint Jesus as king [is enticing]. But nothing in the text supports this proposal.”[1]
That may be true, but there is precedent. Scholars report, “Anointing was a means of investing someone with power … perhaps to signify divine approval. [Think Samuel anointing first Saul and then David to be king over Israel.] It could also signify the consecration of someone or something for a holy purpose.”[2] Is that what is going on here?
Hare steamrolls on with his analysis: “Does the woman intend to anoint Jesus’ body for burial, as Jesus suggests? This too cannot be demonstrated from the text; it looks rather as if Jesus announces the significance of her act as something unknown to her.”
Could that be true?
Could she have dreamed up this extravagant act – like my grandfather treating us all to a good meal and giving a big tip – and not examined her reasons for doing so?
Do we sometimes do the right thing without knowing why we do it?
Or do our actions simply reveal what we subconsciously value; what drives us?
Maybe. Hare concludes: “Presumably, Matthew, like his readers, ancient and modern, regarded the anointing simply as an act of love.”
Oh, but it is not seen as an act of love by the disciples. According to Matthew, they think it is an act of foolishness, wasteful – like my grandfather handing an envelope of cash to a stunned waitress! They think it should have been given to the poor.
Does this reveal their cynicism, their hypocrisy?
Maybe not. In their defense, “while almsgiving was encouraged at all times, there was a special emphasis on giving to the poor during Passover week.” As there now is, for Christians, at Christmas, spurred by Charles Dickens’ character: the newly reformed Scrooge!
So maybe they are genuinely interested in helping the poor. Maybe they see it as their religious duty. Maybe they were paying attention when Jesus told the parable about how caring for the least of these – the hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely, or imprisoned – was like caring for him
Maybe. But Jesus (and this un-named woman) reveal something that should change their calculations – he is going to die.
So what this woman is doing is a good deed, maybe even a better deed than giving money to the poor, because this is her only chance to do this for him.
Because we don’t know who she was, we don’t know why she did it. I do think that it made Jesus feel loved. And that’s no small thing as the week winds down and he heads toward the cross.
The second meal was the feast of unleavened bread, Passover.
Matthew remembers that when he and the others offered to make preparations, they found that Jesus had already made plans, like my grandfather. He was looking forward to a meal with the people that mattered most to him. He had some things he wanted to reveal to them.
Hare describes it this way:
“Although the Last Supper is a seder, Matthew feels no need to refer to the four cups of wine, the bitter herbs, or the roasted lamb. [But] imagine the startled response of the disciples when [Jesus] taking the matzah, made no mention of the ancient exodus but instead solemnly declared, ‘This is my body.’ [Next he took the cup and said,] ‘This is the blood of the covenant poured out for many.’ The cup was filled with red wine, symbolic of the blood of the lambs sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of Israelite homes. Jesus’ words make no reference to the past but are focused exclusively on the future. Matthew clarifies the function of the blood by adding ’for the forgiveness of sins.’ The deliverance to be affected by the Messiah’s death will not be like the first exodus; it will not deal with slavery to Pharaoh or any other external enemy, but with slavery to sin.
So that’s what Jesus was revealing: this meal was not a historical re-enactment, it was an act of love, a gift! And even at the end, he was working to strengthen relationships, make memories, and teach them what was worth valuing. May we do the same. Amen
[1] Here and following, from Matthew, pages 293-298
[2] From Harper’s Bible Dictionary, page 32
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