the moon under her feet by clysta kinstler

“ then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!” When he approaches Lazarus’ tomb, “Jesus wept” and Jesus then gave her one of his major revelations about his being the “resurrection and the life” and is probably the reason for the story. She demanded to know why he waited until after her brother was dead to come. Twice in the stories Martha complains to Jesus as an equal and expects an answer including the famous line about her being left to do all the serving while Mary sits at his feet…but also over the death of her brother. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus…And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary…Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him…( John 11) The above passage is the only time that “Mary” is named before “Martha” because John was giving her special attention…and deftly changes the sinning woman with the expensive ointment to a young follower of Jesus…but most of the time, it is Martha named first. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair.) (John 11:1-2) Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. John then radically changes it by identifying the unnamed rich woman with the ointment as Martha’s sister Mary of Bethany. Now it came to pass, as they went that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. Luke and John added stories about Martha and Mary and Lazarus also living in (perhaps) Bethany. I will look at her and anointing later in this post but now the story takes a dramatic turn. Mark and Matthew ended their Bethany stories with Simon the Pharisee Leper and the anonymous sinner from the city who just randomly wandered in. And behold a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment… And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. Luke 7:36-37 says:Īnd one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. Matthew 26:6, following Mark says the same thing. Mark begins the Bethany round of stories with this:Īnd being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. They give a lot of space to a houseful of women. The Mary of Bethany stories have always been a puzzle, in part because they seem to conflate or combine a “sinning woman from the city” with the unusually positive story of sweet Mary of Bethany and her ungrateful old sister Martha. The Sinner Woman and/or Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’ feet.

The moon under her feet by clysta kinstler