b'At the heart of Jesus\' way is empathy. Clay explores what it is by looking at what it is not.\\n"Today\\u2019s Gospel on the face of it is troubling.\\xa0While at a \\u201cBack from the Dead\\u201d party for her brother Lazarus Mary anoints Jesus\\u2019 feet with a very expensive perfume and her tears.\\xa0Judas expresses what everyone is thinking: her act is inappropriately extravagant.\\xa0It would be like taking Mother Theresa an $800 bottle of wine.\\xa0Then we are caught off-guard by the seeming callousness of Jesus\\u2019 response,\\xa0\\u201cYou will have the poor with you always, but not me.\\u201d\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\nWhile I can appreciate John\\u2019s literary genius of using this story to foreshadow Jesus\\u2019 washing of his disciples feet and Mary Magdalene\\u2019s failed attempt to anoint his body after his death, over the years I have struggled to make sense of how someone who identified with the marginalised could sound so indifferent to their needs."\\n\\nText and video links at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=534&id=1042.'