Some have objected to the statement that the poor will always exist, although Jesus also says you can help them any time you want. Jesus foreshadows his death and this is the last anointing, an expensive one at that, that he will receive. Mark states in that his book is "the good news of Jesus the anointed one", the word Christ meaning anointed. The woman understands Jesus' importance more than do the other people there. It is also a signal to the reader that as Jesus is being anointed for burial the plot against him will succeed. (Brown 145)