4 Responses to Jesus (Mark 14:1-11) | 3/24/19
Mark 14:1-11 | 3/24/19 | Will DuVal
This is the 1st week in our journey together through the Gospel of MARK. A journey we’re entitling “ROOTED”. Because, as he makes clear from his opening verse, that’s exactly what Mark intends to do – to ROOT us doctrinally, in a correct understanding of who Jesus was and is – the Son of God – and what he came to accomplish FOR us – the gospel; his death and resurrection for our sake.
Mark may have been the earliest gospel account recorded. It’s definitely the shortest – just 16 chapters, compared to John’s 21, Luke’s 24, and Matthew’s 28. Mark gives us just the FACTS. Not a lot of interpretation or theological frill tacked on; he just tells it like it is. Whereas John was written as an apologetic for the Christian faith, to CONVINCE his audience to believe, Mark seems to assume his audience already believes; he writes primarily to the church, to remind us, WHY we believe. To ROOT us deeper in our collective faith in Christ.
So let’s dive in. Into CHAPTER 14! “Wait a minute! ch.14 of 16?! “Isn’t that like watching the end of the movie first? Why begin in chapter 14?” I’ll give you 3 reasons:
First, if you don’t ALREADY know how Jesus’ story ends, I DEFINITELY don’t want to wait until October to tell you! You need to hear this MORNING about the atoning death and the life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ, our ONLY hope for salvation.
Second, I want us to be more aware of the church calendar. For thousands of years now, Christians have observed seasons like Lent and Advent as built-in excuses within our rhythm of life together to spend GREATER time in DEEPER reflection on the gospel truths we celebrate at Easter and Christmas. So instead of thinking of Easter as the church’s “Super Bowl”, let’s think of it as our “MARCH MADNESS”, Amen? Not just a one-day event; but a MONTH-long celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection; he is worth ALL the attention we could give him.
And finally, sometimes beginning with the end can make the story come alive in a whole new way. Have y’all seen “Memento”? The first scene of the movie is the end of the story; the rest of the movie flows in reverse chronological order. It’s a cool concept. I thought about doing ALL of Mark that way! Too confusing. But we WILL start with chapters 14-16, then go back to chapter 1, and actually end in chapter 13, with Jesus’ prediction of his second coming at the end of history, which seems like a great place to end to me.
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, 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”
3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,[a] 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. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii[b] and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 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. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 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.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
CONTEXT:
We pick up the story “two days before the Passover”, so this is WEDNESDAY of Holy Week.
Now in LUKE’S gospel, the story of the priests’ plotting is followed IMMEDIATELY by the story of Judas’ scheming. But Mark employs one of his favorite literary techniques here known as “intercalation”, which is just a fancy term for “sandwiching” – he takes these 2 stories of deception, and he sandwiches in between them, this beautiful story of whole-hearted devotion in vv3-9. And the idea with intercalation is that each of the scenes is related to the others, and helps us better INTERPRET the others. So we will treat this whole section of vv1-11 as one narrative unit, and we’ll see why Mark intentionally juxtaposes the reactions of Jesus’ enemies – Judas and the chief priests – with the very different reaction of this woman who anoints him. We find there are actually FOUR ways of responding to Jesus, that arise out of this passage, and lest you anticipate that the RIGHT response is the last one, and tune out the first three, I want to challenge you and suggest that EACH of us is guilty of responding to Jesus is ALL of these ways at different times, even as his followers.
RESPONSE #1: We REJECT Jesus. That is the response of the chief priests and scribes, in vv1-2.
WHY do they reject Jesus? 2 reasons: one pragmatic, one spiritual
The practical reason they reject Jesus is that they have a VESTED interest in maintaining the societal status quo. As A.Y. Collins explains:
“Under Roman rule, the chief priests were leading members of the Sanhedrin and of the internal government generally... The scribes here are probably temple scribes who may have been concerned with the financial and organizational functions of the Temple... [and who were] dependent on Temple revenues” for their livelihood (Collins, Mark, p.140). This is the same group that wanted to “destroy” Jesus after his cleansing of the Temple in Mark 11:18; he posed a threat to their very way of life!
But there is an even DEEPER, more diabolical reason for their rejection of Jesus: and that is, their SIN. In our sin, we cannot BUT reject Jesus.
Rom 7:18 says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” If Jesus is the perfect EMBODIMENT of Goodness, and there is NOTHING good in me, inherently, in my natural fleshly state, then I cannot do OTHER than reject Jesus, save for a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, to draw me toward Him. In our flesh, we will ALWAYS reject Him, because as Jesus himself says in John 3: “darkness hates the light”. Just as the religious leaders depend on the ABSENCE of a Messiah for their continued livelihood and relevance, because once something BETTER than the Temple comes, they’re out of a job, so too, darkness depends on the absence of light for its continued existence.
Do you know how to make sure that your sin never dies? How to nurture and FEED and grow it steadily in your heart? Sin FEEDS off of secrecy. Isolation. SHAME. Off things being kept in the dark. If you want that sin to ALWAYS be a part of your life, lock it up in a hidden closet WAY in the back of your heart and make sure no one else EVER finds out about it.
See, rejection isn’t just the response of Jesus’ enemies, the skeptics and apostates of the 1st or 21st centuries; we’ve got to realize that we ALL reject Jesus every single day. What IS our sin, if not a rejection of Him? The livelihood of our sin DEPENDS on rejecting Him. We MUST keep the light at bay, “lest our works be exposed” for the darkness they are. If we’re honest, don’t we sometimes LIKE our sin? Can’t we ALL identify with Paul in Romans 7. “I mean, I know I SHOULD hate my sin, and I should LOVE Jesus, but the fact of the matter is, I find that I keep on sinning! I don’t WANT to, and yet... I kinda DO. It’s like the taste buds of my HEART have become so acclimated to eating spiritual JUNK food for so long that even though I KNOW now it’s bad for me, that I should prefer that healthy salad, and every time I’ve ever EATEN the salad, it’s left me feeling completely fulfilled and nourished, and even though I’m ALWAYS left feeling un-fulfilled, and gross, and I ALWAYS regret it when I choose to binge eat an entire bag of Cheetos instead... NEVERTHELESS, when I walk into the kitchen and see both Cheetos and salad out on the counter, I can’t explain it, but something in me still CRAVES the Cheetos... what’s WRONG with me?!
Friends – SIN is what’s wrong with us.
And the ONLY way to kill that sin, to REJECT your heart’s natural disposition to reject Jesus, is to bring your darkness into the light. The first step is to admit you have a problem, not because you have to identify the enemy so you know how to tackle it. Not even primarily because you have to come to a place of humility and surrender. The first step is confession, because you have got to STARVE that sin of the darkness it has been feeding on for so long. By bringing it to the light.
So I ask you this morning: In what areas of your life are YOU rejecting Jesus? What closets have you locked and thrown away the key? Because deep down, maybe you kind of like your sin. You have a choice to make this morning. “I set before you today life and death, blessing and curse. [Light and darkness.] Therefore choose life, that you may live.”
RESPONSE #2 to Jesus, is to EXPLOIT Him. We skip forward to vv10-11 now, and we find Judas’ response is EXPLOITATION.
To “exploit” means “to utilize, especially for profit; to use selfishly for one’s own ends”. It’s a little different than outright “rejection”. Both are forms of sin. But while rejection means wanting nothing to do with Jesus at all, exploiting him is even worse, because it amounts to USING Jesus opportunistically for one’s own selfish, personal GAIN. In Judas’ case, it’s for FINANCIAL gain:
Mark records in v4 that “SOME” were indignant at the woman’s waste, but in JOHN’s parallel account of this same story, we discover who the real instigator of the complaints was: “But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and given to the poor?”” (Jn 12:4-5). And WHY was Judas so incensed: “He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.” (Jn 12:6) Judas was STEALING from Jesus.
Haven’t You ever wondered: “How could ANYONE who followed Jesus around every day, and WITNESSED his miracles, and SAW his compassion, who LAUGHED with him around the campfire at night – how could Judas have betrayed him?” Well, because following Jesus for Judas was never about Jesus; it was ALWAYS about Judas. About how JUDAS could profit from the relationship. When did Judas betray him? v10: “THEN Judas went to betray Him”. It was RIGHT AFTER this story of the anointing. AS SOON AS Jesus puts an end to Judas’ racketeering. When Jesus is of no more practical USE to Judas. Judas’ relationship with Jesus was merely PARASITIC.
Have you been in a relationship like this before? Where you eventually realized, “Wait a minute, you don’t actually care about me AT ALL, do you? You’re just in this for the perks.”
For my employee discount. Is that why we’re friends?
For a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on, because I’m the only one who still puts up with your incessant pity parties.
For my wallet; I’m starting to realize you only call when you NEED something.
For the sex – you’re just using me for my body.
Have we ALL experienced some sort of relationship like this [HANDS]? Now here’s the real question: how many of us have been the user? The exploiter?
What about your relationship with Jesus?
How many of us, if we’re honest, first said “Yes” to Jesus NOT because of Him, but because of US? What he could do for us? It wasn’t so much about intimacy with the great Lover of your soul, as it was about a ticket into Heaven. Or a ticket OUT of Hell? How many of us were SCARED into a relationship with Jesus? You can trace back the origins of your faith not so much to wanting Jesus, as to NOT wanting eternal punishment?
Maybe you were after even more immediate, temporal blessings: health, wealth and happiness. How many of us came to Jesus because we believed He was the key to unlocking our “best life now”? Or you were at a low point in your life, you’d exhausted all other options, and in desperation, you turned to Jesus, not in love for Him, but for HELP for YOU. As the remedy for your broken marriage. Your drinking problem. Your financial problems. If you’re honest, it was really more about what he could do for YOU, than about who he is. I told y’all the story of how I “came to faith” when I was young: I was jealous that everyone else got a cracker and juice on Sundays and I didn’t. Jesus was my ticket to an extra snack. We laugh, but how different are we today, really?
Do we sometimes love the perks Jesus affords us more than we love Jesus himself?
Jesus makes me feel GOOD about myself. I like feeling like a selfless, upstanding moral person.
Jesus gives me PURPOSE. I like having a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
Jesus gives me ANSWERS. I like knowing why I’m here, how to live, and where I’m going when I die.
Jesus gives me SECURITY. I like not having to stress out about my salvation. Grace!
Jesus gives me DIRECTION. I like not stumbling around in the darkness anymore; having a clear, objective standard to live by.
Jesus gives me POWER. I like the 24/7 access to the same Holy Spirit that brought Him back from the dead.
Jesus gives me COMFORT. I like knowing no matter what this life throws at me, I’ve got Heaven waiting for the rest of eternity!
Friends – None of these things are BAD. But an idol is when a GOOD thing becomes the main thing. So the BEST things in life naturally make for the worst, most insidious idols.
Who was that list I just rattled off REALLY about? Did you notice the repetition?
“Jesus GIVES ME. I like...” Me... I. Me... I.
If you came to Jesus for YOU, not for HIM... If even this morning, you’re realizing that you’ve come to love the GIFTS more than the GIVER... the Lord is giving you an opportunity today to confess that, to repent, and to turn back to Him for no other reason than that He is WORTHY. He is WORTHY.
Response #3 to Jesus: We APPRAISE Him, like the disciples in vv4-5.
To “appraise” means “to estimate the monetary value of; determine the worth of; assess”. I love how Kent Hughes puts it: “Judas, with calculator in hand, a man who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing, instantly calculated the woman’s waste.” (Hughes, Mark vol.2, p.146) And what WAS the value? v5: “This ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii[”. That’s one year’s wages for a common worker in the 1st c.. Maybe 40,000 US dollars today. But Mark tells us it wasn’t JUST Judas who was upset; he says “some were indignant”, and Matthew specifies in his account who the “SOME” were: it was the other “disciples”. Judas gets the whole GANG riled up. How? Because he makes a pretty compelling argument, doesn’t he? I mean, isn’t Jesus the champion of the poor?
“Blessed are the poor; theirs is the kingdom of God”.
“Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me”
Jesus specifically directs wealthy inquirers on MULTIPLE occasions in the Gospels to give their money away to the poor!
So if we’re just assessing this decision on paper: “You can EITHER sell the perfume and feed a starving family for a whole YEAR, OR dump it all on Jesus... HOW DOES IT MAKE ANY SENSE to choose Jesus?!” The disciples have got a point here, don’t they?
Listen: I am the consummate pragmatist. My favorite food is leftovers. I eat dinner out the garbage can at least once a week, when Polly’s trying to clear out the fridge. There is NOTHING I hate more in life than WASTE. I would have been the first in line, well, hopefully not JUDAS, but I for sure would have been the SECOND in line, to tar and feather this thoughtless, CARE-less woman. What are you DOING?! Do you have absolutely NO concept for the value of things?
Jesus says, “She’s actually the ONLY one who understands the true value of things.” The RELATIVE value. See, that’s the thing: it’s not that Jesus stopped caring for the poor all of a sudden. When he says, “you’ll always have the poor with you”, he’s NOT saying, “Oh well, POVERTY... what are ya gonna do, am I right?” No – he goes on to say: “whenever you want, you can do good for them”, with the implication being... you should ALWAYS want! You should ALWAYS seek out opportunities to do good for them. We are commanded by Scripture, according to one list I found, over 2,000 times in the Bible, to care for the poor. THAT’S how important the poor are to Jesus. And YET, His utmost concern for the poor serves here to reveal how even much MORE valuable Christ HIMSELF is; if by contrast, caring for the poor would actually be a MIS-use of the woman’s resources. It’s like Jesus’ appraisal of FAMILY. Jesus wasn’t exactly the ideal poster boy for “Focus on the Family”. He said “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children... he cannot be my disciple.” It’s not that Jesus hates families. He just thinks that’s not where our “focus” should be. In fact, if your love for your family looks like anything OTHER than HATRED compared side by side with your love for ME, JESUS, then you need to get your priorities in order.
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not there yet. When I APPRAISE the relative value I give, in my OWN life, to my wife, my daughter, if I did a side-by-side comparison of my love for them with my love for Jesus, I’ll just be honest: it doesn’t look like hatred. What about you?
Judas APPRAISED Jesus’ life. He betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver; that’s roughly $200 dollars today. That’s how much Jesus was worth to Judas. But I ask you again this morning, friends, “What’s he worth to you?”
Is Jesus worth your Sunday morning chance to sleep in? Maybe every OTHER Sunday? If it doesn’t conflict with the kids’ soccer schedule?
Is Jesus worth your tithes and offerings? If expenses this month allow it? 10% might be a little demanding...
Is Jesus worth your comfort in relationships? Because it could get awkward and even heated if you bring religion up with THAT friend; is it safer just to leave Jesus out of interactions with NON-church friends?
Is Jesus worth your family? Your job? Your lifestyle? If he asked YOU to sell it all and give it to the poor? If he asked you to move to Somalia to evangelize an unreached people group? Answer this question for yourself: “What would I NOT be willing to give up for Jesus?” That is your honest appraisal of his worth. And that brings us, to...
RESPONSE #4: WORSHIP.
Literally, to “assign or attribute worth”. THAT’S what Mary does in this passage. That’s who this woman is, by the way; Mark doesn’t give us her name, but John does in his parallel account: this is the same Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, who Jesus has already praised for her worship back in Luke ch.10, remember that story? Martha was busy cooking, and cleaning, and serving Jesus, again, all good things you’d THINK Jesus would commend, but what does he say when Martha complains about Mary, who isn’t helping because she’s sitting at the Lord’s feet, enraptured by his presence and his teaching: ““Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.””
Friends: Serving Jesus is good; worshipping Him is better.
Feeding the poor is good; feeding your SOUL is better.
Jesus says “indeed, only ONE thing is truly NECESSARY... Only ONE thing cannot be taken AWAY from you.” Perfume washes off. Okay, so SELL it and buy food for the poor? They eat the food; it’s gone. EVERYTHING in this world is passing away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. JESUS, God’s incarnate word, endures. But not in the body. And Mary knows that. Jesus has already warned them, “I’m about to suffer and die.” We are 42 hours away from Jesus’ last breath. This is NOT the time to focus on the poor. To focus on the dinner preparations. Focus on the family. Focus on your future. Your investment portfolio. Your 401k. Where’s your FOCUS, friends? Is it on JESUS?
Worship means to “assign worth”.
Mary has no interest in appraising Jesus’ relative worth. Anointing dinner guests with perfume was customary in this culture. The more important the guest, the more perfume you might use; this stuff wasn’t cheap. Mark emphasizes that: alabaster flask (expensive)... pure, undiluted nard (expensive)... “very costly” (expensive)... could have been sold for $40,000 (EXPENSIVE!). But Mary has no interest in measuring out drop by drop how much Jesus is worth to her. What does she do? v.3: “she BROKE the flask, and DUMPED it over his head”. Her worship is LAVISH... it’s EXCESSIVE... it’s borderline RECKLESS. “Jesus: you deserve it ALL; I’m holding NOTHING back!”. But it’s not WASTEFUL. Jesus PRAISES her for it – “She has done a BEAUTIFUL thing for me”.
Friends, what beautiful thing can YOU do for Jesus today? This week? What is Jesus worth to YOU?
The only proper response to what Jesus has done for us is a life lived RECKLESSLY, almost WASTEFULLY for him and his glory alone.
ENDING
But here’s the really fascinating ending to the story, and to this sermon: Jesus says, “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.””
Don’t you want to ask Mark, “How are we supposed to remember her if you haven’t even given us her name?” See, I think Mark knew this was Mary. I think he intentionally omitted her name, to remind us again: this isn’t ABOUT Mary. It’s not about retelling the story for HER sake, about assigning HER worth.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve shared the gospel a number of times in my life, and never once have I referenced the anonymous woman who anoints Jesus in Mark ch.14. No, I think when Jesus says, “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed, she’ll be remembered,” I think he’s talking about the SYMBOLIC VISUAL that her anointing offers us, for what Jesus HIMSELF is about to do for us on the cross.
Because a whole FLASK of the finest perfume the world has ever known doesn’t begin to compare in value to a single DROP of the cost that JESUS paid for you and for me. It was his BLOOD. The holy, perfect, SPOTLESS blood of the God of the universe – was shed for YOU. For the forgiveness of YOUR sins. And friends – he didn’t measure it out, drop by drop. “Well, let’s see, if you sin THIS much... okay; but if you sin THAT much, I mean, come on, let’s be REASONABLE here...” No, he POURED it out! LAVISHLY. EXCESSIVELY. Borderline RECKLESSLY. For you.
But not WASTEFULLY. Jesus didn’t waste a single drop. That means if you don’t acknowledge your sin, your REJECTION of Him, and therefore accept your NEED for his sacrifice, then his sacrifice doesn’t cover you. The Bible is absolutely clear about this; it makes NO room for any notion of universalism; the idea that Christ’s blood was shed for EVERYONE. ALL are saved. No – it is by GRACE you can be saved through... what? [FAITH] And friends, our faith is the best form of WORSHIP that you and I can offer back to the Lord this morning. In fact, Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.” So I ask you one last time: Who is Jesus for you? And what is he WORTH to you? Let’s pray...