URC Daily Devotion Monday, 16 March 2026

St Matthew 26: 6 – 13

Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste?  For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me.  For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.  By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.  Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’

Reflection

Many years ago I attended a clergy women’s retreat and someone (it might have been one of you!) focused on this unnamed woman.  They highlighted these words, ‘What she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’  Through the centuries this unnamed woman has been remembered.  

So many women’s stories are lost to history.  So many women go unnamed, even in our scripture.  Though Matthew doesn’t name her, we remember her.  

What is it Jesus wants us to remember about her?  Is it that she anointed him?  Is it that she recognised him as God’s Son?  Is it that she spent all her money on expensive perfume?  Is it that she courageously entered the house of a leper?  Is it that she was bold enough to interrupt the men’s meal?  Are any of these things what Jesus wants us to remember and emulate?

I suspect no one of these is what we are to remember.  I wonder whether what he wants us to remember is simply this -she acted.  She didn’t just listen.  She didn’t wonder too long about whether she should act.  Instead, she heard a call to respond in love to Jesus and she acted.  

We are so good as church at sending everything through elders and Church Meeting, at sending it back to another group that by the time we are ready to act we have lost the impetus to do anything.  She was brave.  She acted.  Because she was brave and acted, imagine what people said about her later.  (In John’s version of this story she is a ‘sinner’; that may indicate some of what was said about her later!)

Perhaps Jesus says we will remember her because he us to hear his call and act too.  We know who he is.  Be brave and act.  We do this in remembrance of her.

Prayer

God, may the actions of all those unnamed people  
who have served you 
inspire us to live Jesus’ values in our communities.  
May their work give us hope and guidance.  
Help us bravely act 
and in so doing may we birth love and peace.
Amen.