Mark 14:1–11
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Good morning, family. Okay. That's how it's going down this morning. Good morning. All right, all right. Well, it is an honor to be here with you this morning. I must admit, in Portland, my preaching clothes are my everyday clothes. So, I reached out to Greg this week. I said, hey, Greg, what should I wear?
And he, knowing the way that I dress, said, oh, don't worry about it. Wear something, you know, casual. It's fine. But I thought, no, I want to, like, you know, I want to feel like I'm Greg. So I turned up a little bit this morning. I don't know if I've ever preached in my church in a coat, except for a wedding and a funeral. So this is just, I love you, brother. Thank you.
This is for you. This is for you. I want you to know that my church in Portland prays for you regularly. We pray for your pastors. We pray for you by name consistently. And so to be here with you this morning is wonderful. They're especially praying for you, for me, and for our time together this morning. Well, it's strange because they will pray for us when this is done.
But somehow in God's economy, he works it out and hears our prayers. So they will pray for us this morning. Well, if you'd be so kind as to turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. Mark chapter 14, this morning we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 11. I'm going to read our passage, and then we'll pray, and then we'll dive in, okay?
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him. For they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly.
as she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor, and they scolded her. But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them, but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Family, this is God's word. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me? Our Father and our God, we do thank you for your word. We recognize this morning that without the help of the Holy Spirit, this would be a fruitless exercise. We'd be speaking words and saying things, but it wouldn't mean anything. And so we pray, O Lord and God, that you would meet us this morning. We beg that the Spirit of God would illuminate the text so that we might be convicted and challenged and conformed more into the image of Jesus Christ.
We need your help, O God, and so we pray that you would give it. And we pray all these things in the name of our beautiful Savior Jesus. Amen. Our text this morning is what some theologians call a Markin sandwich. Have you ever heard that before? Yeah. Well, if you don't know what that is, it's essentially a writing style that Mark uniquely deploys where he takes one story and then he interrupts in the middle of that story to insert a totally different story, thereby creating a kind of sandwich.
So the first story, the outer parts are kind of like two slices of bread. And then the second story in the middle is like the meat of the entire passage. Or if you're from Portland like me, then you might call it the hummus of the entire passage. Got a lot of vegans. It's fine. Well, this morning we're going to look at this passage by dealing with the two outer parts first. And then by addressing the story in the middle. And if you're the note-taking type, we're going to be looking at verses 1 and 2 first, and we'll call that the problem.
And we're going to bounce all the way down to verses 10 and 11, we'll call that the providence. And then we'll look closely at the meat of the story in verses 3 through 9, we'll call that the perfume. So the problem, the providence, and the perfume. And as we move through our text this morning, I do want you to pay close attention to Mark's use of contrast. Mark, by creative design, gives us this crazy juxtaposition between those who would be considered the religious insiders, but who behave like outsiders, and those who would be considered religious outsiders who actually behave more like their insiders.
And I also want you to notice how Mark contrasts these two stories. One is a story of deep betrayal. And then Mark beautifully deposits the story of deep devotion in between them, specifically for contrast and for our benefit. And so let's begin with verses 1 and 2 with the problem. Mark writes, It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him.
For they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people. The first thing I want you to notice here is Mark's intentional reference to the Passover. This is not just a data point or a kind of time stamp. This is by creative design. Now, if you are not a Christian or you're relatively new to Christianity or to the Bible, Let me just briefly explain the Passover so that you have some context. The Passover was a feast that celebrated the moment when God's judgment passed over the homes of His people, the Israelites.
In Exodus 12, it tells us that God was about to pour out His judgment on Egypt because of their rebellion and idolatry. but he spared his people the Israelites who were enslaved by Egypt by instructing his people to sacrifice a lamb and place its blood on their doorposts so that when the angel of death would come by any home that was marked by blood the angel of death would pass over they would be spared from judgment and spared from death but this moment this passover moment wasn't only about rescue in the past the passover was also a picture pointing forward so when mark emphasizes that all this is happening during the passover he's not just giving us a time stamp he's directing our attention to the ultimate purpose of Jesus and what He's come to accomplish.
You see, Jesus, the unique Son of God, came to be the true and final Passover Lamb, the one whose blood would be shed to cover God's coming judgment for sin. Now, these religious leaders, as sharp as they were and as theologically trained as they were, they failed to see Jesus for who He truly is. the long-anticipated Son of God. And instead, they saw Jesus as a threat to the religious establishment.
And as his influence continued to grow, they decided the best way to deal with this kind of threat was to eliminate the threat. And yet, despite their spiritual blindness and through their own sinful agency, these so-called insiders still play a role in the bloodshed of the perfect Passover lamb. The chief priests and the scribes will facilitate the death of Jesus, but that death will become the very means by which salvation will come to all of God's people.
So they plan to kill Jesus because they're evil, but their plans bring about God's greater purposes. And family, this is always the case when it comes to the God who created this world. He is sovereign over everything. As Max mentioned this morning, there is not one inch of this world where he does not say, it's mine. Which means nothing can happen outside of his divine control or purposes. I know that can sometimes be a hard pill to swallow.
That his control even includes the evil that men do. Listen, though we cannot fully comprehend it and though it's often painful for us to process on this side of eternity, while God is not responsible for the evil things that men do, God uses the evil that people do for his greater purposes and for our ultimate good. Amen. Amen. This is what we see with these Pharisees.
All throughout the Gospels, the religious leaders publicly try to trap Jesus, but their plans always fall short, which reveals that they are not ultimately in control. They operate under the sovereign hand of God, and they can only do what He allows at any given moment. And at this point, Jesus has not yet yielded to their plot to kill Him. So the religious leaders are forced to rethink their approach. And the means by which Jesus controls the situation is interesting.
It's the crowds. So Jesus is using kind of crowd control here. You see, during the Passover, thousands of people flooded Jerusalem, which made a quiet arrest impossible and a public arrest potentially explosive. And because of the patriotic energy and concentrated number of Jews in Jerusalem who functionally believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the one who had come to liberate the Jewish people from Rome, if the religious leaders arrest Jesus publicly, there would be a strong possibility of a religious uprising or a political riot.
So they fall back on plan A to kill Jesus until they can come up with a better plan, a more private plan, which brings us, family, to seeing too, the providence. Verses 10 and 11. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money, and he sought an opportunity to betray him. So the religious leaders in verses 1 and 2 are left without a plan, and then it just so happens that at just the right moment when the religious leaders can't figure out how to arrest Jesus, Judas just happens to approach the religious leaders to offer a very specific solution to their very troubling problem.
One important thing to notice is that the text says Judas, who was one of the 12, went to the religious leaders. It is Judas, an insider, One of the closest people to Jesus who initiates contact with the religious leaders, not the other way around. So it's not as if Judas was somehow coerced or persuaded by the religious leaders to betray Jesus. He was moved by his own heart to betray.
He sought the opportunity because the seed of betrayal was already in his heart. And this betrayal became the very means by which these religious leaders would eventually arrest and kill Jesus. The question that constantly runs through my mind when I come across this text is why did Judas, an outsider, an insider, choose to betray Jesus the way he did? Well, Mark doesn't tell us specifically, but in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, verse 15, It says that Judas asks the religious leaders, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you?
It's in this passage where we see that there's this kind of a greed upon amount of 30 pieces of silver, something like $7,700 in our day. So Matthew's gospel alludes to greed, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's the primary reason. In fact, Judas's mind would have already been made up. The betrayal was already there before he brokered the deal. And family, this is often the case. I mean, we see this all the time with things like infidelity.
The betrayal exists in the heart and in the mind long before the opportunity avails itself. I mean, rarely does infidelity happen without having already betrayed the marriage vows in your own heart and mind because of some disenchantment with the marriage. Now, the text doesn't tell us, but what we can know for sure is that Judas was persuaded by evil to give up Jesus. John 13 tells us that Satan entered Judas' heart.
But again, it's important to understand that though Judas was influenced by Satan, and though he was the one responsible for the deep betrayal, it was in every way divinely orchestrated by God to bring about the death of Jesus our Passover lamb Jesus himself says in John 10 18 no one takes my life from me but I lay it down of my own accord I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again Judas one of his own disciples is acting according to his own wickedness but God is using the wickedness that existed in his heart for an incomprehensible and cosmic good and this isn't uncharacteristic of God. This is how God has always operated in our fallen world. In fact, in Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, you have this story of a man named Joseph who was sold out also by insiders, his own brothers in fact, because they were evil and they perceived
Joseph to be a threat. They plotted against him and they threw him into a pit to try to kill him but that plan didn't work and so they eventually sold him into slavery but even though their actions against their own brother were wicked and evil it was through their evil acts against Joseph where God eventually used it to save his brothers from famine and death in Genesis 50 20 Joseph speaking to his brothers after he saves them from famine says as for you You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.
Family, God is in the business of overriding our evil deeds to bring about our greatest good, and that's exactly what we see at the cross. In fact, the Genesis statement comes into its fullness when Judas, who meant evil against Jesus, God means for good. And what is that good, family? it is the same as Genesis to bring it about that many people should be kept alive just as they are today now to be sure though good came from Judas' betrayal it was still altogether treacherous it is perhaps the most evil act committed in human history because it is treason against the most high God and another question that runs through my mind when I read this passage is how could Judas do such a thing?
How could an insider be such a sellout? After everything he's seen Jesus do, after everything he's heard from Jesus, after all the miracles, all the power, all the mercy, after everything he's personally experienced, walking every day with Jesus and doing life with him, how could he do this? Jesus was his friend. How could he stab him in the back this way? The answer is because the price was right.
In that moment, Judas believed that 30 pieces of silver would better satisfy his soul than his loyalty and love to Jesus. But here's the truth. Blood money never satisfies. We know this. Betraying a friend might fill your pockets, but it will always empty your soul. The sorrow and remorse cling so tightly to that act of betrayal that it becomes almost impossible to enjoy what you were paid to lose.
And we know this story. This was the case with Judas. He couldn't deal with it bearing on his conscience. And listen, before we sit in disbelief at the actions and the attitude of Judas for betraying the God he once professed to love. Let me ask you this question. What is your amount? What is your 30 pieces of silver? Is it a $30,000 increase in your salary at the cost of your Christian witness or your Christian community?
Maybe 30K is a little too low for you. What about 300,000? And to be clear, it doesn't have to be money. Maybe it's 30 minutes of sexual pleasure. Or maybe it's doing godless things online to gain 30,000 followers on Instagram or TikTok. Can I ask you this morning, what is the necessary amount for you to betray the God that you profess to love?
And before you quickly dismiss the question, and say, well, there's no amount for me. I would never betray Jesus. I'm good. I'm loyal. Here's the truth, family. We betray Jesus for far less than any of those things every single day. And you see, this is the very reason why Jesus had to come. This is why we need a Passover lamb to save us and cover us from the judgment of God that we rightly deserve for betraying the God we love over and over again.
Jesus had to die because no matter how much we profess to love him, our hearts are bent to choose lesser and unsatisfying loves. And here's the thing. One love will always win. All other loves, the things that we're always chasing after, they will always lead us eventually to betray God. But thanks be to God that he sovereignly intervenes in our wicked hearts he overrides them and he leads us to god he leads us back to worship the god we were made to love and friend if you're here and you're not a christian here's what this means for you this morning it means that jesus didn't die as an example he didn't simply die to be an inspiration to live a sacrificial life he died as a substitute he went to the cross as the Passover lamb and his blood was shed so that sinners like you and me
could be forgiven cleansed and spared from the judgment that we deserve and the invitation that he offers is not try harder it's not be more devoted it's not clean yourself up and come back when you're ready or when you're better the invitation is this right where you are repent and believe turn from your sin turn from your lesser loves that keep causing you to betray the God you profess to love and place your trust fully and completely in him not in your morality not in church attendance not in your devotion but in his life his death and in his resurrection and if you come to Jesus by faith trusting that his blood is sufficient to cover you for your sin the promise in scripture is clear you will be forgiven he will give you a new heart with new affections with new devotion and He will give you peace with God.
And if you have any questions about what it means to be a Christian, to follow Him in obedience, ask anyone in this room, ask them if they're a Christian. And if they say yes, they will happily cancel their lunch plans. They will even cancel their Super Bowl plans to talk with you about Jesus because that is the most important thing that you need to know. Jesus can save you from His wrath against your sin. You see, this is what this scene reveals, that we need new hearts that are made new by Jesus so that we can be fully devoted to Him.
Amen? And this really is why Mark gives us this story of devotion that splits this story of betrayal completely apart. It cracks in at just the right time to show us what hearts made new, what they look like, how they're made aware and made able to be fully devoted to Jesus. This is what we see in verses three through nine with the perfume. While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly.
And she broke the flask and poured it over his head. Let's pause there for a second. A few things that I think are important to understand to kind of get everything out of this section is that first, this story is not chronological. It's thematic. This account with this woman likely happened a few days earlier, but Mark, by creative design, brilliantly inserts this story here to contrast deep betrayal with deep devotion.
Another thing to notice is that Simon the leper, the one whose house this whole account takes place in, was a former leper. if he were still a leper he could he couldn't be around people he would be considered unclean which would make him an outsider separated from everyone else so it's very likely that simon had been the recipient of jesus's healing ministry and as a result he's not only made clean he is brought in he becomes an insider and a follower of jesus and so in response he hosts house party for Jesus. Now, by way of context, this woman in Mark's gospel is unnamed. Maybe Mark chose to keep her anonymous because he wanted the readers to focus more on what she does than who she is. But in John's gospel, it tells us that her name is Mary. And to be clear, this isn't Mary Magdalene. This is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus,
The close friend of Jesus whom Jesus just raised from the dead. That's an important detail. And this dinner party that Simon is hosting, this event, is actually a celebration of Jesus raising Lazarus, Mary's brother from the dead. So while everyone is at this house party celebrating this amazing miracle, probably asking Lazarus questions like, Yo, what's it like on the other side, my man? In walks Mary and interrupts this party with her flask of perfume.
This perfume was pure nard, meaning it was very expensive. Probably a family heirloom. We don't know for sure, but what we know is that it was crazy money. In fact, we'll see later that the price of this perfume was about 300 denarii, and 300 denarii in that culture could basically be like a year's salary. For us, that's probably somewhere around $27,000. The text tells us that she broke the flask, and that's also an important detail because it means that she had every intention of pouring all of it out on Jesus.
There was no turning back. There was no lid. It was done. This is an expensive and extravagant act of devotion. She is so moved with love for Jesus that she literally drops 27 Gs to anoint Jesus with perfume. John 12, 3 says, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and then wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.
So not only did she pour the perfume on his head, she pours it on his feet and then she takes her hair and then she wipes his feet with her hair now this act of devotion might be lost in our cultural context but back then this would have been considered shocking in this culture it was considered socially unacceptable for a woman to let down her hair in front of anyone except for her husband so this would have been considered provocative, scandalous even. But listen, Mary doesn't care. Her devotion to Jesus leads her to act without reservation and without concern for her reputation. $27,000 burned in one dramatic act of devotion. This was her gift to Jesus for what she has done for her. This is how she shows her love, her loyalty, her gratitude for Jesus for saving her brother and raising him from
death to life. I mean, think about this. What kind of gift do you give someone who raises your brother or sister from death to life? Do you send flowers? A cute thank you card? There is no category for this kind of gift. And she can't think of anything better than giving the very best she had, the most expensive thing she owns, to show Jesus just how valuable he is to her. She does this because the cost of the perfume pales in comparison to the value of her Savior Jesus.
Now, to be clear, this was her perfume to give so she could do whatever she want with it. She had the right to use it however she saw fit. And in that moment, she chose to use this perfume as a public and positive declaration of her love and loyalty to Jesus. This kind of reminds me of baptism a bit. Chloe, this is what you will be doing today. Wherever you are. Where are you at, sister? This is what you will be doing today. But though she chooses to use her perfume as a public and positive declaration, The lavish nature of her gift actually causes negative attention with the other guests in the room.
Mark 14 verses 4-5 says, There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her. There were some, meaning disciples, followers of Jesus, who have been listening to Jesus the whole time, who became furious with the idea of wasting the perfume.
They considered what she did a waste of resource that could have gone to the poor. John tells us that it was Judas who had the most problem with her wasting the perfume and that money could have been given to the poor. Crazy, right? The men in the room scold her for wasting what could have been. Could imagine the things that they were thinking in their heart. What did you just do, Mary? What were you thinking? Where is your sanity?
Where is your dignity? Where is your modesty? They verbally berate her for wasting her gift on Jesus and you can imagine how she must have felt in that moment. She did this for Jesus. This was her way of expressing deep love for Jesus and now she's being rebuked by a bunch of men in the room questioning her act of love and devotion, questioning her motives and her modesty. And so she moves from devotion to shame just like that. Embarrassed and confused because her act of love was met with hostility and condemnation by these ignorant men.
but look at how Jesus responds his response is also a rebuke but it's not directed toward the women it's directed toward the foolish man in the room look at verse six but Jesus said leave her alone why do you trouble her she has done a beautiful thing to me I love verse six I could sit on this verse for hours I love how this verse bucks against all the social and cultural norms of our world I love the heart of Jesus in this verse I love his defense of her I love the dignifying voice of Jesus in a room full of aggressive men who attempt to bully her and condemn her i love jesus's esteem for her act of love and i love that what most people would have considered a complete waste jesus calls beautiful family this reveals that god delights in our acts of
adoration and in our lavish acts of devotion she does something so extravagant that she understands will have no long-term benefit i mean think about this for a second the greatest impact of this perfume will begin to fade in only a matter of moments. As soon as the fragrance fills the room, you've got maybe one or two hours before it's gone. $27,000. Gone.
And I love that Jesus calls this momentary act of devotion beautiful. It's so contrary to what we often think is religious piety. unless it has some long-term benefit, unless it has some kind of utilitarian benefit or some practical or functional use, then we shouldn't do it. A gift that extravagant or that temporal should never be given to Jesus or to His church. Brothers and sisters, God has made us not just cerebral and practical beings.
He's also made us creative and emotional creatures capable of giving and creating beautiful things for the sake of bringing God glory. We were made to create and enjoy beautiful things because we were made in the image of a creative and beautiful God who enjoys beautiful things. Like perfume. Like poetry. Like paintings. Even momentary things like flowers that bloom and die in only a matter of days.
Or a sunset that showcases all of its beauty right before it begins to set and then hides itself for the rest of the night. God, by design, made the parchment skies to be breathtaking, to remind you, saints, that our God is a beautiful God who created beautiful things for his glory and for our delight. This is why Jesus sees this extravagant and momentary gift as a beautiful thing. The men in the room think it's a waste, which ultimately reflects their own hearts. Though they are disciples, they don't yet perceive how beautiful and worthy Jesus is.
And this isn't just with the men in the room. This is the case with a lot of religious people. It's crazy because this world has no problem with giving or receiving lavish things. You want to buy yourself a nice car? Do it. I mean, you've been cruising that Toyota Corolla for what, 15 years now? You deserve it. get that car you want to buy your wife some diamond earrings because she's been holding it down at home with the kids go ahead it's your money you've worked hard for it and she most definitely deserves it buy those earrings the world has no problem with a all-expense-paid vacation to a remote or extravagant place you've worked hard it's been a hard year of course you deserve it get that vacation and listen there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong at all with that but give a lavish gift of time or money to Jesus or his church and the world will
call you crazy they will question your stewardship they will call you a religious fanatic oh you're one of those kinds of Christians who regularly give your money to the church and you also give money to other members in the church who are struggling financially? That's crazy. What's wrong with you? The world is okay with giving extravagant gifts, just not when it comes to Jesus or his church.
And listen, gifts are not just money. Mary's gift was her perfume. Your gift could be your money, but it could also be your time. It could be your commitment. This is also something the world doesn't understand. They will never question how you spend your time off. The motto of our world is work hard. So long as you get your job done, play hard. Do whatever you want to do when you're off the clock unless you give that time to a weekly prayer meeting. That sounds extreme. You give every Sunday to the church?
You even go back at night when there's a Super Bowl happening? Sometimes you go to church on Saturday morning, you're one day off to go to a men's breakfast? What's wrong with you? When you organize your vacations, you do it in such a way to be back home to fellowship with the saints on Sunday morning? What are you thinking? It won't say anything with how you spend your time unless that time is given to Jesus. You see, the problem is not extravagant gifts or time or money.
It's ultimately with who gets the gifts, the time or the money. You see, this is a devotion orientation problem. And Jesus rarely fits into that equation. And what's incredibly hard for so many people to comprehend is that Jesus is worth more than all your gifts, all your time, and all your money. He's worth more than you could possibly give. Now listen, I shouldn't have to qualify this, but I'm going to qualify it anyway. Mary didn't give her gift to receive anything from Jesus.
Her gift was reflexive. It was responsive. So don't think I'm pushing some sort of prosperity gospel. Mary's gift is in response to what Jesus has already done. And to be clear, this woman's act of devotion isn't justification for being frivolous or fiscally irresponsible. My conservative people, amen? And it's not a justification not to care for the poor. In fact, in verse 7, Jesus addresses that issue. He says, for you will always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.
but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. Friends, Jesus' heart is for the poor. All throughout the scriptures, God commands us to care for the poor. In fact, one of the ways in which the church cares for the poor is through the generosity of God's people. Giving to the church so that the church can support those who are struggling. Jesus receives this lavish and temporary gift with such delight not just because he cares about the poor but because this gift was time sensitive there's a priority of devotion and really what benefit is there to give to the poor if your heart is not sufficiently moved by the love of God to give it in Mark 12 verses 30 and 31 Jesus mentions the greatest commandment he says and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
And the second is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Your full love and devotion to God is what compels you to love your neighbor. Did you catch that? Your love for God compels you to love neighbor. There is a vertical dimension to love that begins first with God and then plays out horizontally. Now, to be clear, it's not only because of the time-sensitive nature of this gift that Jesus calls it beautiful.
It's also because her devotion prophetically points to that which is to come. In Mark's gospel, you have this parable of the poor widow, which is kind of a case study for the greatest commandment. She had nothing, but she gave everything because of her love for God. Mark 12, 43 and 44 says, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all that she had to live on.
What's interesting is that phrase, everything she had, all that she had to live on, in the original language, sounds pretty similar to what Jesus says of Mary and her gift. She has done what she could, meaning she has given all that she could or had. Mary is the living picture of the poor widow. Because of her love and devotion to Jesus, she has given all that she could. Jesus sees this as beautiful because this is what love looks like.
And listen, what makes Mary's actions so amazing is that she had no clue that Jesus would only in a few days go to the cross to be a Passover lamb whose blood would be shed so that anyone who believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins would be covered by the blood of Jesus and escape judgment and death. Mary anoints Jesus' body in a prophetic act of devotion to prepare him for burial. So you have to remember Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, arrested and sentenced to death and so he died a criminal's death which means he would not have received a proper Jewish burial one that would include perfume and spices for a decaying body Mary led by her deep devotion and moved by the sovereign hand of God gives Jesus the proper preparation for burial even before his death and here's what's crazy there would be no need for perfume
for Jesus' dead body because his body would not decay just as he said the chief priests and scribes would kill him he also said that three days later he would rise and that's precisely what he did this is what makes this lavish gift so beautiful though it was not needed the lord used the beauty of the perfume and the drama of the cost to point to his life death and resurrection and listen what's even more mind-blowing is all of This was done at a party that celebrated life being raised from death.
That's crazy. If you don't see the sovereign and meticulous hand of God in this prophetic drama, I don't know what will. Brothers and sisters, what this means is that you never know how God will use your gift for his greater purposes. To show the beauty and the great cost of his gospel. See, this was never about perfume or the value of the perfume. It was all about prophetically pointing to the death of Jesus, the lamb that was slain as a scapegoat for our sins.
I love how Jesus closes this verse. In verse 9, he says, And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Here you see Jesus divinely restore this woman's dignity. The men in the room condemned her, but Jesus commends her. Not just in front of the men in the room, but all throughout human history. Her incredible act of devotion is remembered wherever the gospel is proclaimed.
Her extravagant gift and all that it represents is sealed in the canon of Scripture. which means her gift her devotion everything will continue to point the world to the value of jesus his worth his goodness his kindness his mercy and most importantly his gospel family the perfume points us to this most glorious truth worthy is the lamb that was slain amen let's pray Our Father and our God, we do thank you that you rescue us from our wicked hearts.
That you give us new hearts and new affections that beat properly for you. We pray, oh God, that you would keep us tethered to that affection. We pray when the world tempts us and when the allure of the world grips our hearts that we would grip tighter to Jesus, the beautiful one. And we pray, O Lord and God, that you would help us to orient our devotion, to see you as the greatest prize in this life, worthy of everything we have.
We pray, O God, that you would cause us and compel us to be so moved by our love and devotion that there would be nothing standing in our way from heralding your gospel and your glory. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.