Scripture Verse

Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. John 12:3

Introduction

portrait
Carolyn W. Gillette (1961–)

Words: Ca­ro­lyn W. Gil­lette, 2010.

Music: El­la­combe, Ge­sang­buch der herz­ogl. Wir­tem­berg­isch­en ka­tho­lisch­en Hof­ka­pel­le (Würt­tem­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1784). Adapt­ed & har­mo­nized by Will­iam H. Monk in the 1868 ap­pendix to Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, num­ber 366 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

WHEN MARY POURED A RICH PERFUME © 2001 Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
All rights reserved. Used by per­mis­sion.
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net. Web site: www.carolynshymns.com

Faithful people in Jesus’ day memorized many passages of the Bible. Jesus, and the gospel writers who quote him, often would quote part of a verse with the expectation that people would know what follows. It is like when you hear the expression, Four score and seven years ago… you naturally think of what follows—the rest of [Abraham] Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. What Jesus was quoting to Judas is Deuteronomy 15:11, Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land. Rather than saying there is nothing we should do about the poor, the Bible makes clear that we are called to help those in need.

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

Lyrics

When Ma­ry poured a rich per­fume
On Je­sus’ wea­ry feet,
Her car­ing filled that hum­ble room;
The frag­rance there was sweet.
But full of an­ger, Ju­das said,
We could have used this more!
Why was her gift not sold in­stead
And giv­en to the poor?

The Lord replied, Leave her alone!
She bought it for this day.
This car­ing love that she has shown
Is faith­ful to God’s way.
The poor will al­ways be with you,
But you will not have me;
He blessed her and he thanked her, too,
For giv­ing lav­ish­ly.

O Christ, what can your peo­ple bring
To show you thanks and love?
You need no frag­rant of­fer­ing;
For now you reign above.
Since there will ne­ver cease to be
The poor through­out the land,
May we, your church, serve faith­ful­ly
By of­fer­ing them our hand.

illustration
Mary Magdalene’s Box of Very Precious Ointment
James J. Tissot (1836–1902)