Jesus, suffering friend.

We have reached the passion narrative at the end of Mark’s gospel, which will take us all the way to Easter Sunday. This first event - Jesus’ anointing by the woman - is recorded in all four gospels, and it’s very easy for us to forget quite how remarkable it is, not only that this woman was Jesus’ close friend and follower, but that the gospels recorded this intimate moment at all (women weren’t held in particularly high regard in these days, to put it mildly). Yet this scene shows us so much; what we see is Jesus' deep love of his friend, who was the only one who was actually hearing him. This scene is an invitation to know Jesus’ humanity in deeply profound ways. By Hannah Flint