We "pedestalize" people whom God has anointed. Whom does God memorialize? Jesus says that what Mary did will "be told for a memorial of her" (Mt. 26:13). We like the anointed; He likes the "anointers"! These are people of His face and feet—oil pourers, tear washers, humble lovers of Him more than lovers of His things.
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I believe that Mary actually anointed Jesus twice, and was going to anoint Him a third time. First she came as a sinner and anointed His feet, longing to receive forgiveness at any cost in Luke chapter 7.
Then she anointed His head at the end of His earthly ministry in Matthew chapter 26 and Mark chapter 14. Jesus Himself said that she did it "for My burial" (Mt. 26:12). Just think of it. He's hanging on the cross, suspended between Heaven and earth as though unworthy of both, abandoned by all, breathing His last agonizing breaths.
But what's that He smells...more than the salty smell of blood trickling down His fractured face, stronger than the noise of dice thrown by the soldiers, overpowering the jeers of the Jewish priests? It's the fragrance of past worship, captured in the locks of His hair...He smells the oil from the alabaster box! The memory of the worship of an "anointer" strengthens His resolve, and He "finishes" the task at hand.
This same woman who anointed Him in His life witnessed the crucifixion and said, "I can't leave Him unanointed in His death'" As she carried yet another compound of precious spices to anoint
the Lord's body in the tomb, she found His tomb empty and again felt her heart break with emptiness as she began to bitterly weep and cry. Oh, the love of an anointer! They are willing even to pour anointing over dead dreams!
Jesus had just vacated the tomb and was on His way to sprinkle His shed blood on the mercy seat when He heard her familiar cry. This was potentially the most important task that Jesus ever did, because it was the heavenly fulfillment of the most important task that any earthly high priest ever did in his sanctity and cleanliness. The high priests of Israel had to be very careful to avoid becoming ceremonially defiled, so no woman was allowed to touch them at all. Yet just as Jesus began His ascent on high to sprinkle ItHis blood on the true mercy seat in Heaven, He saw the one who had dismantled her glory to clean His feet, the anointer. Perhaps He had one foot on the bottom rung of Jacob's ladder that ascends into Heaven when He abruptly stopped and said, "She's come to do it again. She has come with her precious fragrances and sacrifices of praise, only I am not there to receive it." So He stopped on His way to do the most important task He would ever do and said, "I can't leave her here without letting her know."
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You can literally arrest the purposes and plans of God if you are a worshiper Jesus stopped what He was doing to go to a person who had broken her most precious alabaster box to anoint Him. He stopped when He saw her tears and went to stand behind her. Finally He said, "Mary, Mary."
What made the Son of God do that? Why did the great High Priest of Heaven stop His advance toward the mercy seat for the cries of a former prostitute? I can tell you this: He only does it for "hall-of famers." At first Mary didn't even recognize Him because He had changed. She said, "Where have you put Him? Where have you put the familiar appearance I've grown used to seeing?" She thought the glorified Christ was just the gardener (sounds like many of us today who often fail to recognize God's glory when it stares us in the face).
Finally Mary stopped her sobbing enough to really hear His voice as He said, "Mary." His likeness had been changed from mortal to immortal, and His whole countenance had been altered from Some_ thing of this world to something that was not of this world. He quickly said, "Mary, don't touch Me. I really don't want to go through all that sacrifice on the cross all over again, so don't touch Me. But Mary I just had to let you know that I am all right. Go tell the disciples." (See John 20k: 17.) He had to tell her not to touch Him; it's as though He knew she would for Him to say this! He also had to be near enough for her to touch Him if she wished to. It was as (f Jesus would have risked being defiled as High Priest for the sake of a worshiper.
God will whisper His prophetic secrets before they ever come to pass for broken-box worshipers and fragrant anointers. He will turn
aside at the height of His glory for people who will dismantle their own glory and ego just to share His shame as their own.