The backdrop for Mary’s anointing of Jesus with the costly perfume during a dinner hosted in gratitude to Jesus for raising Lazarus from the dead could be linked to the emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin (Jn 11:47-48, 53, 57). Mary anointed not the head of Jesus, as in Matthew and Mark, but his feet, which is contrary to the custom of the time. The oil is used as a symbol of what God is doing; hence, true anointing is the power and influence of the Holy Spirit saturating and permeating a person (Lk 4:18-19, Acts 10:38).

True anointing, as a Biblical concept, is the medium of God’s intervention in the affairs of men. True Anointing is the divine agent that repeals the hold of darkness and quells the influence of death and sickness (Is 10:27). The anointing has less to do with the person that it flows through than it does with the person who receives it, and the One who sent it, God Almighty. Jesus’ anointing comes immediately before the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem where he will be acclaimed as the king of Israel (12:13), in accordance with Zech 9:9. We all need the anointing for the next level of our calling and mission in life (Jn14:16). The principle of anointing is revealed in the bestowal of ability for a special function and could be hindered by pride, envy, and resentment.

The Church, as the light of the world and the salt of the earth, is the operating paradigm for heaven’s intervention and the vehicle of God’s manifestation. Without the anointing, the unction to function, the church becomes secular and powerless. When the church forfeits our influence and authority in the Spirit, we lose our identity and anointing and take solace in the knowledge and systems of this world. The truth is that a worldly and weak church cannot rescue a dying world. Lent, as a time for prayer and fasting, is for us to be cleansed by God and be filled, just as the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost in the upper room and anointed them for service. Lent is a time to be anointed by God with the Holy Spirit for Christian devotion and service. Let us pray for the church in India and China.

Happy St Patrick’s Day.