For this oil could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they were rebuking her.
They were covering their dissatisfaction with words about caring for the poor. Certainly, giving alms to the poor is a work pleasing to God’s will, but here that talk became a means of condemning the woman’s love. Sometimes a person, in the name of a good purpose, can reject the higher and right work. Rebuking the woman shows how easily the sincere believer’s heart can be wounded when his devotion is measured by cold calculation. Yet, as we will see next, Christ will soon defend her. This comforts all those who, in works of love done for the Lord, are misunderstood by people.