The New Testament in 90 Days

After noticing the widow and her coin, Jesus begins to warn about the coming times of destruction, persecution.  Families will be torn apart, everyone ratting out everyone else.  Believers will be put on trial, but they should rely on the Hoy Spirit to put the words in their mouths. It won't be long before is put on trial, both before Herod and before the religious court.  Everything is set in motion, beginning with the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus for burial.  She is the beginning of the story of Jesus' death. I do find it ironic that Jesus tells the disciples that everyone will remember this woman and her actions, because actually, when we usually tell the passion story, we don't start here:  we start with the last supper.  Then there is the prayer in the garden, where the disciples can't stay awake.  There is the betray and arrest, the trials and Peter's denial. But the real beginning, which we never remember, is the anointing by the unname...

Now is the beginning of the end (and the beginning) of the story.  Everything is set in place.  First note that it begins with the religious leaders, conspiring about how and when to get rid of Jesus. In Bethany, an unnamed woman comes to the house of Simon the leper with an alabaster jar of ointment.  She pours it over Jesus head, angering his disciples.  For some reason, they are concerned that she is wasting her money on this act.  And why is she doing it, anyway?  It is an extravagant act of devotion.  Jesus tells us what it means:  she is anointing him for burial.  (I wonder what the woman thought of this.)  Jesus also proclaims that everyone will remember this woman, because of her action.  But do we? Then Judas agrees to betray Jesus.  Jesus celebrates the passover with his disciples, and tells them that one of them will betray him.  He tells them that the bread they break is his body, and the wine is his blood....