On the surface, Judas sounded like a friend of the poor. Underneath, John tells us plainly: "This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein" (John 12:6). Gill says that concern for the poor "was his pretence, and with which he covered himself"; what really bothered him was that the money had not come into his hands. Matthew Henry puts it this way: "In Judas a foul sin is gilded over with a plausible pretence." The question presses Mary, and those watching, to see her gift as waste.

Jesus defended Mary: "Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this" (John 12:7). He added, "For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always" (John 12:8). He did not deny the duty to the poor. He showed that this was a unique moment that would not come again, and that Mary's gift pointed to His death.

The "penny" in the KJV is the Greek denarion, a Roman silver coin. In one of Jesus' parables, a householder agrees with labourers "for a penny a day" (Matthew 20:2), so three hundred pence was a very large sum. Mark says the ointment might have been sold "for more than three hundred pence" (Mark 14:5). Judas "had the bag" (John 12:6). Gill says the word can mean a chest or coffer, but takes it here to mean a purse, kept for the common needs of Jesus and the disciples and for the poor. Barnes explains that the word translated "bare" can also mean to carry away, which is how Judas took what was put in it.

Matthew and Mark tell the same story and say that some of the disciples were indignant and murmured against her (Matthew 26:8-9; Mark 14:4-5). Only John names Judas as the voice of the complaint and tells us why. Matthew Henry notes, "We must not think that those do no acceptable service, who do it not in our way." The money question hid a heart question.

Jesus received Mary's gift as preparation for His burial (John 12:7). What looked like waste to Judas was, in Jesus' eyes, love that saw what was coming. Henry writes that the grace of Christ "puts kind comments on pious words and actions, makes the best of what is amiss, and the most of what is good." The same Jesus who defended Mary would soon be betrayed by the man who criticized her.