Show Don't Tell: Matthew 26:1-16
Instead of saying "Jesus was anointed while enemies plotted," smell the perfume. Jesus finishes teaching: "As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." Meanwhile, the chief priests and elders are meeting in Caiaphas's palace, scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him—but not during the festival, or there might be a riot. Then Bethany, at Simon the leper's house. A woman approaches Jesus with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She pours it on his head as he reclines at table. The fragrance fills the room. The disciples are indignant: "Why this waste? This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." Jesus defends her: "She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have... She did it to prepare me for burial. Wherever this gospel is preached, what she has done will also be told." Then Judas goes to the chief priests: "What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?" Thirty pieces of silver.
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