If we want to know what true worship looks like then we need to look no further than the unnamed woman from Mark 14:1-11. What did it cost her to anoint Jesus? Was it her dowry? Was it her life savings? Was it all she owned? Who was this woman? Was she a sinner? Was she a prostitute? I was wondering these things as I looked into this passage and wrote this song.
I was thinking about how Jesus was in the house of a man who was “unclean” and how He often ate with “tax collectors and sinners” (Mark 2:16; 14:3). I was thinking about how Judas sounded pious, but only out of his selfishness (John 12:5). I was thinking about what others would have thought of Jesus as He silently sat there, while the woman anointed Him, just as a prophet would anoint a king (1 Samuel 10:1-2) or the high priest would anoint his own head (Psalm 133:2). I picture Him sitting there with a smile on His face.
I was thinking about what was going through the woman’s head as she did this for Jesus. Did she know what she was doing? Did she know what was to come? Jesus said that, “…wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Mark 14:9). We remember and celebrate her prophetic, timely and beautiful worship in this song.
lyrics
The Anointing
Words by Justin Rose and David Shay; Music by: Justin Rose
VERSE 1:
All of us were all sitting around the table
Talking all about our God.
At the house of Simon our brother,
Better known as the leprous one.
Then a woman came among us,
Set a jar of perfume in front of us.
She was of the street, not of God.
She was wretched and poor, not like us.
VERSE 2:
Judas said, “That perfume’s expensive,
It should not go to waste.
And let us sell it at its highest,
Let us see what we can make.”
Then she poured the oil upon His head,
It ran down His hair, His beard and neck.
Just like Aaron and all the priests of old,
The Highest of Priests revealed in Simon’s home.
CHORUS:
She will always be a part of it,
It’s like she understood, though we didn’t.
We saw Jesus Christ anointed,
The King anointed for His death.
She will always be a part of it,
It’s like she understood, though we didn’t.
We saw Jesus Christ anointed.
The King anointed for His death.
credits
from Holy Week,
released April 8, 2011
Words by Justin Rose and David Shay; Music by: Justin Rose
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