Some at the table were angry at what looked like a loss of something valuable. Their own reasoning follows in the next breath: "it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor" (Mark 14:5). They thought they were standing up for the poor. But their question judged the woman's love for Jesus as a waste. Matthew Henry points out that they "called it a waste of the ointment," though it had been spent on Christ. John names Judas as one who said this, and adds that he said it "not that he cared for the poor" (John 12:6).

Jesus came to her defense: "Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me" (Mark 14:6). He reminded them, "ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always" (Mark 14:7). He explained that "she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying" (Mark 14:8), and promised that wherever the gospel is preached, what she did would be told "for a memorial of her" (Mark 14:9).

Spikenard was a costly perfume. Barnes says "It was used only to give a pleasant odor, and was liquid." Three hundred pence was a large sum: a penny (Greek denarius) was a day's wage for a laborer, which is how the ESV footnotes it, so this ointment was worth close to a year's wages. The word translated "waste" is apoleia, which Thayer defines as "a destroying, utter destruction" or "a perishing, ruin." In the KJV it is rendered "waste" only here and in Matthew 26:8; elsewhere it is often "destruction" (Matthew 7:13). Gill notes that the Syriac version, an early translation of the New Testament, reads "some of the disciples."

This question reveals two ways of looking at Jesus. To the complainers, the ointment was lost. To the woman, nothing was too precious for Him. Jesus called her gift "a good work" and tied it to His coming death and burial (Mark 14:6, 8). Matthew Henry asks, "Did Christ pour out his soul unto death for us, and shall we think any thing too precious for him?"

Mark frames this story between the leaders plotting to kill Jesus (Mark 14:1-2) and Judas going to betray Him for money (Mark 14:10-11). In the middle, one woman pours out her best for Him. The complaint of "waste" (Mark 14:4) sits right beside a far greater outpouring: Jesus was about to give His own life.