Episode 531 The Triumphal Entry and the Anointing at Bethany (Mark 11:1-11 and 14:3-9)

This week BibleWorm reads the traditional Palm Sunday text in Mark 11:1-11 as well as the story of a woman anointing Jesus as told in Mark 14:3-9. We focus on the cries of the crowd as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, as they shout “Hosanna! Save us!” Their cry is urgent and hopeful but also quite vague about what, exactly, they need to be saved from. Sometimes, we think, this is the best prayer we can offer, not knowing how we can be saved but trusting that Jesus knows and can do as he promised. When we turn our attention to the anointing at Bethany, we find an unnamed woman doing the best she can to honor Jesus with extravagant love, using a year’s worth of wages to buy oil for his anointing. While others try to shame her for her wastefulness, Jesus lifts her up, making her gift even more profound than even she could ever have known. But that’s just the way Jesus is. He takes what we have—both our cries and our love—and transforms them in profound ways that we could never anticipate.