But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” (Mark 14:6)
Just days before Jesus was to be beaten, bruised, ridiculed and hung on the cross to die, Jesus was having dinner with His disciples at Simon the leper’s house. A woman came in and poured ointment over His head. This was precious ointment that scholars say was the equivalent to a year’s wages. She had in essence prepared him for sacrifice much like the Passover lamb.
This wasn’t a time where people bathed every day. I imagine when Jesus was being scourged and His body began to sweat and bleed, that the aroma of the perfume would begin to seep out of His pores and fill the air. The air would not have smelled like sweat and blood but instead like the sweet aroma of the Passover sacrifice.
The 23rd Psalm says he has anointed our heads with oil. As children of the King we are covered in His shed blood that was a sweet aroma of sacrifice. So, when life gets hard, bruises us and beats us down, what should come out of us is the sweet smell of sacrifice and not the stench of death. Death has been defeated! The grave is overcome! We are victorious!
Let Us Be A People 