A Costly and Fitting Deed

A COSTLY AND FITTING DEED

An Exposition of Mark 14:1-11

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: October 3, 2021

Series: Mark: Knowing and Following God’s Son

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

I invite you to turn to Mark 14. As we've been working through the Gospel of Mark in the early chapters, Jesus’ ministry was focused far north of Jerusalem in Galilee. That's where most of his ministry took place, up through Mark 9. In Mark 10, Jesus began to move south toward the region of Judea. At the end of Chapter 10, he is passing through Jericho. At the beginning of Mark 11, he is drawing near to Jerusalem.

We know that Jesus knows that he has an appointment in Jerusalem, where he is going to offer the perfect sacrifice. For the last few chapters, Jesus has been interacting with the religious leaders and with his disciples in the shadow of the great temple there in Jerusalem. And now, as we turn to Mark 14, the time of the sacrifice is drawing near. This morning I'd like to read Mark 14:1-11.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says,

¹ 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, 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 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. (Mark 14:1-11)

This is God's Word and it is for our good. Let's pray.

Father, I pray that by your Holy Spirit, we would be enabled to enter into the riches of this passage. Father, we pray that we would, as it were, be sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from him and observing what he himself calls a beautiful deed. Draw us near to Jesus during this hour. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

THE CONTEXT

So the passage begins with this great Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread just a couple days away. We don't need to go into a lot of detail about that in this particular sermon. We will have opportunity to look at that more next week. But this is one of the holiest times of the year for the Jews. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was the occasion when they remembered the redeeming grace of God, when he rescued them out of the land of Egypt. And so, Jews from all over would come to Jerusalem on an annual basis in order to celebrate this great festival.

Remarkably, during this time when they ought to have been thinking about the grace of God and the redeeming power of the Lord and his saving mercies to them, the chief priests and the scribes – the religious bigwigs – are thinking about how to carry out their murderous plot. We know that there has been this adversarial relationship between the religious leaders and Jesus over the last few chapters. After Jesus critiqued the temple because what was supposed to have been a house of prayer for all the nations had been corrupted and turned into a den of robbers, and the religious leaders didn't like that critique, we are then told that “the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking to destroy him (Mark 11:18). And then in Chapter 12, Jesus told the parable of the tenant farmers in which he was again critiquing the religious leadership, because instead of proving to be faithful and offering up their fruit to the vineyard owner (that is, to God), they were unfruitful and unfaithful. And so Jesus spoke this parable against the religious leaders and afterward it says that “they were seeking to arrest him” (Mark 12:12). And the next verse says that “they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.” (Mark 12:13) So there is this adversarial relationship and they are seeking his demise.

These priests and scribes were at the center of Jewish religious life and Jewish religious institutions. They had their traditions, their power and influence. And Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. But, as it turned out, these religious leaders had hearts that were far from God. And Jesus didn't play by their rules. So they wanted to eliminate him, and they wanted “to arrest him by stealth”, by craftiness, by deceit, by sneakiness. They didn't want to do it out in the open, in public, because Jesus was popular with the people. And so they couldn't just do a frontal assault and public arrest, because then they would risk an uproar from the people – a great disturbance – and that would be a big problem. So they needed to do it under the cover of darkness. And that's how this passage begins – the religious leaders are plotting and scheming.

This storyline in verses 1-2 is developed further in verses 10-11. Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, enters into their scheme. Judas is the answer, so to speak, to the religious leaders’ need to arrest Jesus by stealth, because Judas is an insider. Judas has access to Jesus and the other disciples. He can follow their movements, and he can tell the religious leaders the time and place where they can arrest Jesus in private.

By the way, I know that the connotation of betrayal is treachery. And of course Judas is treacherous. But the actual meaning of the word that is translated ‘betray’ simply means to hand over. So Judas agrees to be the informant – the insider – who is going to bring the religious leaders to that private scene where Judas can hand over Jesus to them, so that they can carry out their plot. Not surprisingly, the religious leaders were thrilled about Judas’ defection. And the passage ends with Judas seeking an opportunity to betray the Master.

Now that is the outer story of our passage – in verses 1-2 and verses 10-11. And before we leave that outer story, it is worth issuing a lesson and a warning from this. What you see here is that you have these religious leaders, these guardians of Israel's religious life, these students of the law, these theologians and teachers, as well as Judas – and they had access to holy things. They had access to the holy traditions that had been passed down through the ages that God had given to his people Israel. They had access to the holy Scriptures. They mingled with holy things. And in the case of Judas, he spent time in the presence of the Holy One. Now here’s the lesson: you can be very religious within an orthodox doctrinal context, and yet have a heart that is far from God. The really important question is: has your heart been transformed? Do you have a heart for God? Do you have a warm-hearted devotion to the Lord and to his kingdom? Because if you don't, sooner or later your true colors will show.

So that is the outer story and there is this stunning contrast between the murderous plotting and treachery of these religious leaders and Judas, on the one hand, and this holy moment of true worship that unfolds in verses 3-9 on the other hand. What a contrast!

A HOLY MOMENT OF TRUE WORSHIP

Verse 3 begins, “And while he was at Bethany…” Bethany is just a hop, skip, and jump from Jerusalem. In fact, if you go back to Mark 11:11, we were told that Jesus entered Jerusalem, and then at the end of verse 11 it tells us that “he went out to Bethany with the twelve”. At night, Jesus lodged in Bethany. And then the next verse begins, “On the following day, when they came from Bethany” (Mark 11:12). So Jesus is spending daytime in Jerusalem and nighttime in Bethany, which was just a couple miles from Jerusalem.

Bethany is the home of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. Not long ago in Bethany, the Lord Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead – and this created quite a stir (see John 11:1-12:19). And many people believed in Jesus on account of the resurrection of Lazarus (see John 11:45, 12:10-11). So Jesus had some fame in Bethany.

What is envisioned here in verses 3-9 is a dinner party, with mainly disciples and friends gathered together to honor the Lord. We are told that it took place “in the house of Simon the leper”. We don't know much about Simon the leper. Perhaps the earliest readers would have known who this Simon was. Quite possibly, this man Simon had had leprosy in the past and had subsequently been healed, and was now able to host this dinner party.

A Costly Deed

They were sitting around the table, enjoying this meal, and then something remarkable happens in verse 3: “a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly”. And I just want to pause there because the costliness of this ointment is really important if we are going to understand this passage. 

This ointment of pure nard would have come from the spikenard plant, which was native to India and perhaps was able to be grown in other places as well. But notice that in verse 5 we get a little insight that this jar of ointment was potentially worth “more than three hundred denarii”. Now do you realize how valuable that is? I have mentioned before that a single denarius – one denarius – was a day's wage for a laborer. Therefore, three hundred denarii would have been worth about a year's wages for a laborer. 

Now I know that it's very difficult to translate monetary value across the centuries and locations, so I'm not really attempting to do that. Instead, I'm just trying to get you to appreciate how scandalous the cost of this sacrifice was. Last night, I did a search on my phone for the most expensive perfumes in the world, and I found one. It said that one particular perfume cost $4,200 per ounce. Now John seems to recount this same anointing in John 12 (verses 1-8), and he mentions that the amount of nard was one liter, by which is meant eleven and a half ounces. Now think about this: eleven and a half ounces of a $4,200 per ounce perfume would cost about $48,000. Can you imagine having a bottle of perfume worth a year’s wages? Can you imagine having a jar of ointment worth over three hundred denarii or over $48,000? A year’s worth of wages was contained in a small jar of ointment. This is a jar of extreme value. This is not like going to the shelf and pulling down a $20 bottle of olive oil or a $20 bottle of ointment or a $20 bottle of perfume. It's not like that. This is high end stuff.

Now, we don't know how she came into the possession of it. Some commentators suggested that it might have been a family heirloom that was passed down from one generation to the next. Perhaps, but we don’t know. But here's the thing: this ointment was really costly and everyone knew it. And she takes this jar – this flask – and she breaks it. She's not getting out just a little dab of the stuff. She breaks it and pours it over Jesus’ head. And at least some of the people at the dinner party are deeply disturbed and distressed by what seems to them something very wasteful in one fleeting moment. A year’s worth of wages – represented in this jar of ointment – is poured out and forever gone, never to be recovered again, and is flowing down the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, Mark says that some of the people there were indignant. We know from Matthew’s account of the same episode, that the disciples were among the some who were indignant. Although among the twelve only Judas was treacherous, nevertheless the other disciples, who were truly disciples and friends of Jesus, along with some other dinner party guests, were indignant and outraged. And they say in verses 4-5, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” Then verse 5 says: “And they scolded her.”

Do you remember what I said last week? I said that in view of the Lord's coming to judge his people at the end of history, you need to have one primary question in view. And that one primary question is this: “Is it pleasing to the Lord?” The Lord's assessment is the only assessment that matters. “And they scolded her” – and remember that those who scolded her are not the enemies of verses 1-2 or simply the traitor of verses 10-11. Although Judas was among those doing the scolding, nevertheless most of the people who were scolding her were disciples, friends, and supporters of Jesus. They scolded her, but their assessment doesn't matter. Only Jesus’ assessment matters, and he comes to her defense. 

Jesus said in verses 6-7, “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.” Let's pause right there. The problem with the way that these people (the ones who were scolding the woman) were thinking is not that they valued ministry to the poor. Of course, how we should minister to the poor is a source of great political division in our country. But for Bible-believing Christians, that we should minister to the poor should not be a controversial issue. In fact, Jesus’ words – “For you always have the poor with you” – echoes Deuteronomy 15:11, which says: “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

In fact, at least one commentator called attention to the fact that back in Mark 10, Jesus said the rich man, “[Sell] all that you have and give to the poor.” (Mark 10:21) It is a good thing to care for the poor. Just considered as an independent action, selling an expensive jar of ointment and giving the proceeds to the poor is a good thing. In fact, in Matthew 25, Jesus says that one of the primary ways that we demonstrate love for him is by loving his poor, suffering, persecuted, and needy people (Matthew 25:34-40). So, loving the poor for Jesus’ sake is a biblical duty and privilege. And yet, if you go back to that instruction in Mark 10 about selling everything that you have and giving to the poor, even though that is an important part of Jesus' instruction to the rich man, it is not the primary thing. The primary thing is: “come, follow me” (Mark 10:21)

So, Jesus says that “you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.” If you have a heart for the poor, live it daily. Opportunities abound to care for the afflicted. So, I want you to think about this (because we haven't gotten to the heart of this passage yet, I'm kind of holding it off till the end): the disciples and the other houseguests, who were critical of the woman, rightly estimated the value of the ointment. And they rightly valued ministry to the poor. So far, so good. Here's the problem. There are two very important things that they did not rightly value. And here's what they are. First, they did not rightly value the moment. And second and most centrally, they did not rightly value the Lord.  

Rightly Valuing the Moment

Let's start with rightly valuing the moment. Jesus says at the end of verse 7, after saying that “you always have the poor with you” – that “you will not always have me.” He is referring to his physical presence. His physical presence on the earth is drawing to an end in just a few days. He is going to be crucified, buried, and dead. He will rise again, and after spending 40 days off and on with his disciples, he will ascend into heaven to sit down at the right hand of the Father, and he will be physically absent from his people until he returns. This woman seized a moment when she was in the physical presence of the Lord, and she took advantage of that moment to demonstrate her devotion and to honor the Lord.

Rightly Valuing the Lord

But even more important than rightly valuing the moment is rightly valuing the Lord. Jesus says in verse 8, “She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” Isn't this remarkable? The disciples and other people there valued the ointment and valued the poor, but they didn't see Jesus as worthy of the woman's costly sacrifice. It didn't make sense to them.

But the woman saw the Lord Jesus. She knew him. I don't know how much she understood at this point, but she must have known that Jesus is the Messiah. He had come and, not long ago, he raised Lazarus from the dead. Maybe she had heard from Martha what the Lord had told to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25) And for this woman, it wasn't about some careful calculation of the value of the ointment and calculating its potential pragmatic uses. She had the ointment, and she did what she could, and she opened up her heart. She opened up her resources, and she laid them out before the Lord in a wonderful act of worship, because Jesus Christ is worth everything. He is worth more than the poor. He is worth more than the most expensive ointment on the planet.

And Jesus said, “[She] has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” I'm not sure that the woman herself understood her action in that way. But Jesus ascribed anointing significance to her action. Because his body – although pursued by Judas and the religious leaders to arrest him and kill him – Jesus’ body was being offered up by Jesus as a sacrifice for the life of the world.

Jesus Sees the Gospel

It is remarkable to me that in the midst of all that is going on with the plot to kill Jesus, and the disciples again demonstrating immaturity in their outlook, and Jesus knowing that he himself in just a few short days is going to be dead and buried – Jesus sees beyond all that and he sees the gospel. Jesus sees the good news. He says in verse 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.” Jesus knows how the story ends. The plotters and schemers and traitor are not ultimately successful. And though Jesus will die, and he will stay dead as evidenced by his burial in a tomb, he will not stay dead for long. And on the third day, he will walk out of death and bring immortality and eternal life to light for all who believe in him. And so, Jesus sees beyond the plot and the treachery and the immaturity, and he sees the gospel – the good news that his sacrifice will pay for the sins of the world and will gather together all of his people globally from all over the world. And he says that “wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world,” the account of what this woman has done – this woman's beautiful act of devotion – is going to travel with the gospel message all over the world.

And one demonstration of Jesus’ promise is the fact that Mark wrote it down, and Matthew wrote it down, and John wrote it down. And wherever the Gospel of Mark has been translated, wherever the Gospel of Matthew has been translated, and wherever the Gospel of John has been translated – all of which proclaim the glory and the grace of Jesus Christ – those who read these Scriptural books learn about this woman's beautiful act of devotion.

WHY IS THIS WOMAN’S COSTLY DEED SO IMPORTANT?

And I want to ask the question: Why? Why is it fitting for this woman's costly act of devotion to be told and retold all over the world, wherever the gospel is proclaimed? I think there are at least two answers to that question.

First, what she did is bound up with the facts of the gospel message. The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, recounts the bottom line facts of the gospel when he says: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The burial of Jesus is part of the proclamation of the gospel. And so, someone might ask, after that shameful death on the cross, was Jesus honored with an anointing? How would you answer that question? You could point to the women who came to the tomb on the first day of the week, and they came with their spices and ointments to anoint the body of Jesus, but the body of Jesus wasn't there, because he was risen. You could point to Nicodemus, who worked alongside Joseph of Arimathea after Jesus died and had all kinds of spices to wrap Jesus in. But then there is also this woman that we have met in Mark 14:3-9. She anointed Jesus beforehand. Usually you anoint a dead body after it is dead, but she anointed the Lord for burial while he was still alive. She did it beforehand. So what she did is bound up with the facts of the gospel.

Second, there may be another reason why this woman's sacrificial act of devotion is to be told and retold alongside the preaching of the gospel. And I would put it like this: her extravagant devotion reflects the infinite worth of Jesus and the infinite value of his sacrifice. You see, this is what the gospel is all about.

This woman's sacrifice does not give value to the gospel. It is the value of the gospel that gives meaning and value to her sacrifice, because the gospel is about the beloved Son who gave everything in order to redeem his people. The apostle Paul told us in his letter to the Philippians that we should conduct ourselves in a manner “worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). What is worthy of the gospel of Christ? What is worthy of the Lord's generosity? What is worthy of the Lord's sacrifice? What is worthy of the Lord's resolved to pay your debts in full? What is worthy of him laying down his life for the redemption of his people? What is worthy of that? Faithful acts of sacrifice, generosity, service, and self-giving love.

Of course, there is something that is obviously unrepeatable about what this woman did. Because Jesus said: “you will not always have me.” There is something about the Lord's physical presence that contributed to making this such a special act of worship, and you can't duplicate that. But what you can replicate in your own way, as opportunities allow, is that you can take what you have, you can offer what you have – who you are, your life, your gifts, your resources – and you can lay them at the Master’s feet, and you can be poured out. As Jesus said, we are supposed to lose our lives for His sake and the gospel’s (Mark 8:35). Therefore let us help and serve and sacrifice and give in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you have set before us today a commendable, praiseworthy act of devotion that reflects the beauty and the worth and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray for all of us, that we would be so overwhelmed by the self-giving love of the Lord Jesus Christ that we would be compelled to give all that we have for his sake, to advance his kingdom, and to honor his name. Father, I pray that you would stir us up and renew us and revive us by your gospel. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Greek Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Vol. 2). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.