NOTES for Mar 14:3-9

One of the unique, endlessly valuable, and dear qualities of the Gospel of Mark is that it notices living, one could even say everyday, details, details that seem insignificant but always turn out to be filled with immense meaning. Remember how he alone among the Synoptics notes that blind Bartimaeus throws off his cloak before coming to Jesus. Here, in today's reading, he alone notes that the woman broke the jar. It is a simple, highly visual image, but it is filled with the deepest meaning. Let us rest our prayerful gaze on it today. Why did she do this? The first answer is that nothing would ever be poured into that jar again. This is a remarkable interpretation, found in modern exegesis, and it is fully true. By doing this she brought the moment to completion. But let us allow ourselves one more interpretation. Let us remember that this woman is a sinner, as the evangelists portray her. And what is this state of sin for her? Let us remember the psalms. "Because of all my enemies I have become a reproach, even to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I am forgotten in their hearts like one dead; I am like a broken vessel, for I hear the slander of many; terror is on every side, as they take counsel together against me, plotting to take my life (Ps 31:12-14)." The wholeness of the vessel from which myrrh is poured on the head of Jesus, and its brokenness as soon as it ceases to serve Him. Wholeness with God, brokenness in the hands of sin. Or simply the impossibility, the uselessness of a thing, and of a person, "I am like a broken vessel," if it does not serve Christ.