Oh sister, dear sister you’ve wasted your ointment, your fine precious ointment, you’ve wasted it all. I will wipe it away with my hair she said. I’ll wipe it away with my hair.

Human hair, what can it signify?
Life force, strength (think Samson the warrior of the ancient Hebrew Nasserite sect whose long hair was a sign of both charismatic holiness and physical power, think Delilah cutting it away strand by strand in the biblical story).
Human hair, what can it signify?

Think of the male members of the Sikh community who let their hair and beards grow long in worship to God.
Human hair, according to my dictionary of symbols, can be a
‘mark of royal power or of liberty or independence,
as among the Gaul’s and other Celtic peoples.

Long loose hair in women signified the unmarried state or virginity’
It could also symbolize a permissive sexual nature… a wantonness.
Hair on the head is linked to the vital life force of a person,
their individual spirit, their soul,
whereas hair on the body was a sign in many early cultures of physical virility
and lower states of being. The devil, in his many guises has often been portrayed as a hairy little beast.
Hair shaved off the head could symbolize submission of the higher self to God. And hair has been cut or grown or torn to symbolize
taking a stand against oppression or distress and grief.

Within some traditions of Orthodox Judaism
the women cover their own natural hair with a wig
and within Islam many women choose, or are required,
to wear a veil or hjab to cover their hair.

Oh sister, dear sister you’ve wasted your ointment, your fine precious ointment, you’ve wasted it all. I will wipe it away with my hair she said. I’ll wipe it away with my hair.

So what are we to do with the act of Mary in the story?
What are we to do with Mary and her hair?
Certainly the disciples were uncertain what to do or how to respond,
particularly Judas who objected
‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?’
This objection to waste is picked up by all the other gospels except for the gospel of Luke which instead chooses to focus on the woman as sinner
and on the forgiveness of her sins.

But in the story which we heard today from the gospel of John
there is no question about sexual morality.
The woman is clearly named as Mary, sister to Martha and sister also to Lazarus whom Christ has just raised from the dead.
And her act can be seen to stem clearly from this raising,
hers is an act of gratitude, an act of blessing, an act of extravagant honour.
Much can and has been read into the symbolism of this act:
she is pre-empting the anointing of Christ’s body after death,
she is demonstrating true discipleship by anointing Christ as Holy One,
she is embodying prophet for she knows that Christ life is in danger,
she is acting as a forerunner to the foot washing by Christ of the other disciples. What Jesus will do for the disciples and what he will ask them to do for one another, Mary has already done for him… 

The story can be read at all these levels but at its most human level Mary’s
 is an act of something much simpler, Mary’s is an act of love.
Before birth we were all washed in the life giving waters of the womb.
When we were little, we were all washed in bowls, or sinks or baby baths.
Our fingers were curled apart and the water run thru,
our eyes covered as the water ran clear and warm over tiny noses
and tummies and toes.

When we are dying, we are washed, if we are lucky it is by someone we love. Have you ever seen, or have you ever been the one to wash the one you love, the one to whom you are saying goodbye?
Oh sister, dear sister you’ve wasted your ointment, your fine precious ointment, you’ve wasted it all. I will wipe it away with my hair she said. I’ll wipe it away with my hair.

Christianity.
Over 2000 years of blood and battles and buildings and doctrines and fear
and persecution and hope and healing and what’s it all about really?
A few pages on from this story in the gospel of John we are given the answer to this most loaded of questions.
John 13: 34-35
‘a new commandment I give to you, love one another as I have loved you’
Mary unravels her hair, Mary breaks open ointment, Mary falls upon her knees, Mary weeps, Mary loves. I will wipe it away with my hair she said.

I’ll wipe it away with my hair. There is no waste here, no misjudgement,
there is just love.

Love is all we need to do.