“She did a fine deed toward me. . . . She did what she could; she undertook beforehand to put perfumed oil on my body in view of the burial.

Mark 14:6-9.

26, 27. In what way was Mary exemplary?

²⁶ Note those words, “She did what she could.” There is no evidence that Mary was empowered to perform miracles; she could not be an apostle, nor an elder when the Christian congregation was formed; and she may not have been able to travel extensively with the “good news.” But “she did what she could.” What is the sense of that? In some languages the expression “Do what you can” has the flavor of ‘Do not push yourself; take it easy.’ Yet Jesus did not mean that. Mary had truly extended herself. Some Bible translators have rendered the words, “She has done all she could,” or, “She has done all that she had it in her power to do.”​—C. K. Williams; W. Barclay.