Too busy talking to listen...

Matthew 26:6-13 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” In the previous paragraph, Jesus has just made the fourth and final announcement that He is going to die in a couple of days. If the disciples were really listening, the action of this woman would have made total sense - Jesus was NOT going to be around long! But like us many times, they were too busy talking about this woman and the whacky think she had done to be able to see beyond the extravagance to the signal it gave: she understood His announcement; she believed His words; she was devoted to Him as savior and Lord. Jesus does answer their question "why this waste?" in a sense with "Why not you?"