Whatever the origins of this story might have been, it was clearly important to those who shaped the earliest traditions of Christianity.  There was something about the woman and her jar of costly perfumed ointment which needed to be told and re-told when the life and teachings of Jesus were being shared among the emerging Christian communities.

Across the four Gospels, we hear three different versions.  Mark speaks of an unnamed woman, who appears in the house of Simon the Leper, and who calmly and quietly poured her gift of exotic perfume onto Jesus's head.  We learn nothing about the woman; we never meet Simon the Leper again; but Jesus refuses to hear any criticism of her gift, and he affirms her actions.

Matthew repeats Mark's version of events almost word for word.

Luke places his version of the event much earlier in the story of Jesus's life.  In his version, we are in the house of Simon the Pharisee; the woman has a bad reputation; she pours the ointment onto Jesus's feet, and wipes the surplus away with her hair - something which carried all kinds of sexually provocative overtones in the culture of the day.

John places his version of the event back towards the end of Jesus's life.  The location is Bethany once again, and his story takes place among one of John's favourite family settings for Jesus - the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.  In fact, John tells us that it was Mary of Bethany who brought the perfume, poured it onto Jesus's feet, and wiped away the surplus with her hair.

Three different interpretations of what was clearly a memorable moment, showing some degree of intimacy, and becoming a significant aspect of the Jesus tradition as it was forming.

An important symbolic feature of the story, particularly in the earliest gospels of Mark and Matthew, is the fact that the woman's actions are the only recorded occasion of Jesus being anointed.  The title Messiah (translated into Greek as 'Christ') means 'the anointed one'.  In the sequence of events of those early gospels, Jesus is about to embark on those last defining hours of his life where the essential truths of Jesus are to be demonstrated to the world.  The gospel writers are going to tell us that Jesus's body will have disappeared before the women going to the tomb, early on the first day of the week, will be able to anoint his lifeless corpse.   So it seems there is real significance in the fact that he who will be called 'The Anointed One' was actually anointed, in the house of an outcast, by an unknown second-class citizen, as an act of extravagant devotion, in the midst of disciples who misconstrued the purpose of the moment, and all in preparation for the critical stages of his life.

It would be wonderful to know who she was.  We can hazard a guess that she might have been a discreet follower of Jesus who was also discreetly wealthy - how else would she happen to have a jar of highly-prized ointment made from a rare plant grown and harvested in the Himalayas?  But it's all speculation: in fact, our gospels are full of people who show a deep and compassionate humanity but about whom we know virtually nothing:

It would be revealing to know more about the woman caught in adultery whom Jesus saved from a public stoning;

There must be a moving life story behind the Samaritan leper whom Jesus healed and who was the only one to turn back and say thank you;

We know only the bare bones about the life of the SyroPhoenician woman who asked Jesus to save her daughter from death;

And what was the journey through life of the thief whose life ended on the cross alongside Jesus and who was promised a place in Paradise that very day?

So much of what we know about Jesus is reflected back to us from the lives of people about whom we know next to nothing.  Jesus shared out the love of God to the most ordinary people in his communities - people who, to the rest of the world, were largely invisible and indistinguishable.  And because of how the gospel writers recorded their stories, the personal details of these people remain largely unknown.

And yet, like the woman who anointed Jesus, their actions are recounted wherever the gospel is preached.

Perhaps the message that reaches us today is that our actions will reflect the love of God long after our names have also been forgotten.  Our acts of simple kindess to someone who is struggling with life; the occasions when we discern the deepest truths and symbolically anoint somebody with a place in our lives; our interventions when the realities of justice are being ignored; our sacrifices of energy and resources for those we love and nurture; and every other action which comes from our understanding of Jesus's model for our lives; - these will place our imprint on people's lives, even though, to the outside world, we might remain unknown and unrecognised.

Like the woman who was blessed by Jesus for doing a beautiful thing in his life, our calling is to do beautiful things for those whom Jesus loves - known or unknown; acknowledged or unrecognised; affirmed or criticised.  Perhaps that is how she was meant to live on within the living gospel.