Mary, the sister of Lazarus

, whom the Lord raised already on the fourth day after his death (John 11). She lived with her sister (Martha) and brother at Bethany. The Gospel tells us that on one occasion she sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to His word, while Martha was occupied with much serving (Luke 10:39-42). The evangelist John further mentions that, hearing of the Lord’s approach on the occasion of her brother Lazarus’s death, she remained at home (11:20). But when the Divine Teacher called for her, she rose quickly and went to meet Him, and falling in tears at His feet, repeated the same words her sister Martha had said before her: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (v. 32).

And Jesus, notes the evangelist, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, groaned in the spirit, and was troubled (v. 33). Further, the evangelists Mark (14:3) and John (12:3) tell us that when, six days before the Passover, the Lord came to Bethany and was at supper in the house of Simon the leper with the family of Bethany, Mary took a pound of pure, precious spikenard ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair, as a sign of her deep love and reverence for Him. The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

Judas Iscariot, who was present, was indignant, as though moved by concern for the poor: “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” (John 12:5). The Lord Jesus answered him graciously, as a father would: “Let her alone; she hath kept this for the day of my burial,” and then added, “Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of, for a memorial of her” (Mark 14:9). The Gospel says nothing more of Mary the sister of Lazarus.