John 12:1–11
Read the passage.
Whenever skeptics bring up apparent contradictions in the Bible, a lot of the time they are only bringing up differences in detail and emphasis between different retellings of the same event. Other times, the details are so different that the best conclusion is that similar events happened more than once. This time, we get both at once. On this day before the Passover, Mary the sister of Lazarus anointed Jesus with expensive perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. In Matthew 26 and Mark 14, we see the same thing, though she is not named. In Luke 7, we see a sinful woman anointed Jesus with expensive perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. This is not the same incident. Matthew and Mark say it happened at the house of Simon the leper. Luke says it’s the house of Simon the Pharisee. These are not the same Simon.
How do we know? Matthew, Mark, and John place this event a few days before Passover, in Bethany which is a couple of miles from Jerusalem. Luke doesn’t specify the time or the city, but in near context, Jesus is traveling through Galilee to various towns and villages. Matthew and Mark say the disciples of Jesus protest the “waste” of the perfume, while John names Judas specifically. In Luke, Simon thinks Jesus shouldn’t allow the woman to touch Him, but doesn’t protest aloud. Matthew, Mark, and John record that Jesus responds by telling His disciples He won’t be around much longer, and this has prepared His body for burial. In Luke, Jesus tells Simon a parable about forgiveness.
From this evidence, I conclude that Simon the leper is actually the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and he owned the house they all lived in. The siblings are likely young adults, eligible to be married, but are not yet. I wonder if the woman of Luke 7 is confused with Mary Magdalene, who is mentioned in Luke 8, because her story sounds so similar to Mary here in John 12. “Oh, if Mary Magdalene had seven demons come out of her, she probably was sinful, and that makes sense why she would want to anoint Jesus’s feet.” It’s still possible that it’s her, but there’s no real evidence for it. It would be funny if we could say two different Marys put perfume on Jesus’s feet at two different Simons’ houses, though.
Eventually, people notice that there are two celebrities in Bethany: Lazarus and Jesus. They want to see the man who had been raised from the dead, and the man who did the raising. Because so many of them come to faith in Jesus through hearing the story of this miracle, the chief priests decide Lazarus needs to be on their hit list as well.
You are worthy of any gift we could give, though we only have them because You first gave them to us.