Hold. On. At the house of Simon the leper? What was Jesus doing there? The last time Jesus was there (i.e., in Bethany) was in chapter 21, when Jesus curses the fig tree (21:19). Perhaps we are meant to think of what it means to bear fruit while we are at the house of Simon the leper. Bethany, of course, is not far from Jerusalem (John 11:18)–and we know what happens there.
It is in this space, in the house of a leper, no less, that a woman honors Jesus in advance for his burial. She anoints him. She gets it right. As he is “at table” (hear the eucharistic connections?), she pours it on his head. That’s how priests and kings are set apart: oil on the head. He is now Christ, Messiah, Anointed One. She gets it.
But the disciples? They call it waste, destruction (apoleia). The only other time in Matthew’s Gospel that this word is used in is 7:13, where it describes the wide path, rather than the narrow gate that the disciples are invited into. The disciples seem to miss the significance of the woman’s act of “wasteful” devotion. Do we?