Hair

Hair is considered to be beautiful when it is well maintained and clean. Beautiful hair is considered to be so important that some people will pay large sums of money to replace their failing hair with someone else's hair attached to their head. Some men spend large sums trying to grow their own. Many women's self-image is tied up in their beautiful hair.

All this makes what Mary of Bethany did at the house of Simon the Leper even more meaningful. As reported in John 12:3, Mary (the sister of Lazarus and Martha) took very expensive ointment and, using her hair as a towel, washed Jesus's feet. When his disciples complained that this was expensive and wasteful, Jesus instead told them that it was a wonderful act of love which would be remembered forever.

Men who had been traveling would have very dusty, dirty feet. For a woman to take her hair and use it to wipe clean the feet of a man involved several powerful emotions and taboos. Jesus was not her husband but Mary touched him and Jesus allowed it, he even praised it. To wash Jesus' feet, Mary had to dirty her hair, which could be viewed as a debasement, a lowering of herself. Doing this in front of other men who were watching could have been viewed as even more disturbing. Jesus declared it to be holy.

Remember who Jesus is: God. He is totally deserving of our worship. Apart from God, nothing else matters.