Oil

Psalms 23 and Matthew 26:1-13

Next week on Good Friday we will repeat the last words of Jesus on the cross, including the opening line of Ps. 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We know Jesus prayed Ps. 22, but how about the psalm just before it, Ps. 23? Isn’t it likely that Jesus—completely familiar with the prayerbook called The Psalms, also prayed Ps. 23?

Because it starts with, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and we know Jesus as The Good Shepherd, I have always read this psalm picturing Jesus as the one who leads, feeds, guides and guards the sheep. And he is the one who is not only the best of all shepherds, but also the consummate host. He prepares a table for us, and even sets that table in the presence of our enemies. As the best of all hosts, he anoints our head with oil as a welcoming gesture, and invites us to stay with him all the days of our lives. We never wear out our welcome!

So that is all true.

But, back to my earlier question: Did Jesus, in his earthly life, pray Ps. 23, where he is both the anointer and the anointed? It is likely, in my mind, that he did. Since he was “made like us in every way” (Heb. 2:17), he knows what it’s like to look to God as his shepherd. He knows what it’s like to be the welcome guest in his Father’s house. He knows what it’s like to sit down to a meal, even in the presence of enemies. The story of his anointing in Matthew 26 is a story of exactly that.

Enemies? What enemies? Chapter 26 opens with Jesus predicting that he will be handed over to be crucified—crucified by awful enemies. Then we read how those enemies met to plot a way to arrest and kill Jesus. And then we read that Jesus was the guest of honor at the table of one Simon the Leper (See Mk. 14:3-9 and Jn. 12:1-8 for more details).

So, we might say that God set a table before Jesus in the presence of his enemies. Then, while reclining at that table, God used Mary (according to John) to anoint both Jesus’ head and his feet with expensive oil. In a similar situation in Luke 7, Jesus chided the host for not anointing him as a hospitable act. But here we find God, the blameless host, using Mary to anoint Jesus. This anointing, says Jesus, is to prepare him for his burial.

Oil. What an apt lenten symbol! As Jesus, the Lamb of God, was about to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he was hosted at a meal amidst enemies plotting his death. And there he was anointed with oil preparing him for that death. And that oil was not only a preparation for death, but also an invitation to everlasting life beyond his death.

Following that dinner where he was anointed, Jesus would ultimately rise, ascend, and dwell in the house of the Lord forever—and await the day when he will be the happy host at the wedding supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). Something tells me that the oil will be flowing at that banquet.