I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 12-131

John’s account of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet in Bethany differs in some significant ways from the accounts of an anonymous woman anointing Jesus which appears in the other Gospels.  This leads me to believe that there were two or more such events.  The overlapping details suggest that some of the Gospel writers combined details from these multiple events (either on purpose because they thought the stories all conveyed the same lesson, or by accident because human memory is unreliable.  In either case, the stories teach us about dealing with others).  This account tells us that it is OK to spend some of our surplus on luxuries.  We do not have to give all of it to help the poor.  It contains the side note that some of the most vocal about giving to aid the poor do so in order to skim off the top of those gifts.