Benefit Of The Doubt

But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? Matthew 26:8

A woman has annointed the Lord with an expensive box of ointment. At this point, the story is often told "and Judas became indignant" because of John's account, which tells us that Judas spoke up. But note that Judas wasn't alone. Even if he was the only one who expressed his indignation (unlikely, though possible), at least some of the others shared his opinion. These were good men with good intentions. They wanted to do a good thing and thought they knew the best way to maximize that. But they were making a judgement that wasn't theirs to make. They condemned a woman who was also doing something good and had good intentions. We do the same thing. It's not that we're bad people trying to be critical or hateful or hypocritical--we probably have genuinely good intentions. I'm not saying we ought to excuse or condone sin, but it's not our place to judge one another's motives or methods. We don't know their heart or their intent. And we usually cannot predict the impact of their methods.