Matthew 26:1 says, And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples,  After teaching all those around Him, Jesus always spoke to His disciples privately.  We can indeed learn a lot about following Jesus from listening to someone teaching the world about Him, but we need those private times when Jesus speaks to us as a group of believers and even more so individually.  If we are to follow Christ, we must know where He is leading us individually.   Verse two states, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.  I believe that Jesus was asking the disciples if they understood yet Who He really was and what He came to do.  We still have to answer these questions today in order to be saved.  The disciples were looking ahead to the coming crucifixion of Jesus, and we look back on the accomplished fact, but we must accept Who Jesus is in order to be saved.  Jesus is the only begotten Son of God and He was crucified for our sins.  Verse three says, Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,  The religious leaders, the chief priests, scribes, and elders gathered with the high priest Caiaphas.  They were not gathering to accept Jesus, but to figure out how to stop Him.  Verse four declares, And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.  These religious leaders thought they might take Jesus by subtility.  It is bad enough when anyone attempts to stop God's work in the world, but when those who declare themselves to be religious leaders do so it is even worse.  Verse four says, But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.  The religious leaders were afraid to take Jesus and kill Him on the feast day for fear of the people.  If these religious leaders had really been following God's direction, then they would not have feared the crowds, especially those who were coming to hear Jesus.  If we are following God's direction in our lives today, we should never allow the crowds around us to stop us from acting.  Verse six states, Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,  Even though the religious leaders would have said avoid a leper, Jesus was in the house of a leper, Simon.  Once more, Jesus was reaching out to someone that even the religious leaders would have said to avoid.  We must acknowledge that Jesus died for all people, no matter how lowly they may be viewed by society.  We, as followers of Christ, must reach out to all people with His message.  I do not find anywhere in the teachings of Jesus where He said that we are to look down on anyone as unworthy of salvation.  Verse seven states, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.  As Jesus was sitting to eat, a woman came and anointed His head with expensive oil.  We are not told who she was, but she wanted to honor Jesus without worrying about the cost evidently.  When we serve Jesus, we can never look at what it might cost us materially.  If God leads us to do something, then we must simply do it.  Verse eight says, But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?  This implies that all the disciples were indignant.  They saw this anointing of Jesus with the expensive oil as a waste.  We should never feel that anything done for God is a waste, no matter the cost.  This woman was more devoted to Jesus than were His closest disciples.  In  verse nine the disciples declared, For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.  The disciples attempted to justify their attitude by saying that the oil could have been sold and the money given to the poor.  Though this might be a good idea, we should never allow our ideas to get in the way of someone else worshipping God, and we should never put monetary value ahead of sincere worship.  In verse ten Jesus asks, When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.  As with the disciples, we can be certain that Jesus understands our motivations.  When Jesus understood, He asked the disciples why they bothered the woman, since she had done a good work for Him.  We need to live in such a way that we never attempt to stand in the way of someone worshipping or doing a good work for God.  Verse eleven says, For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.  I don't believe that Jesus was unconcerned about the poor, but He knew that His time was almost at an end, so if anyone was going to honor Him in His time on earth, the time had come.  We must put Christ first before we can do good works for Him.  Verse twelve says, For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.  Jesus said that her ointment was a preparation for His burial.  She may not have fully understood this, but Jesus did.  It may be that at times we do not fully understand how everything that we give to God will be used to bring Him honor, but if we give with the right attitude, it will be used the best way possible.  Verse thirteen states, Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.  Jesus said that wherever the gospel was preached that what the woman did would be a memorial to her.  This didn't mean that she would be worshipped, but that her faith would be remembered.