Sermon Tone Analysis

The Plot and the Party

Mark 14:1–11

The pure devotion of the anonymous woman throws into bold relief the hostility and treachery of the priests and their accomplice.

It is further suggested that, at the time men were concerned with securing Jesus’ death, Jesus’ body was prepared for burial through an act which expressed faith and love.[1]

Killing Jesus without an Uproar

Mark 14:1–2 (ESV)

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.”

These priests are aware, as Mark makes known here, that time is growing short, that if they are going to act, they must act now.

The days of the Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread are at hand.

That the Passover was yet two days away indicates that it was still Wednesday.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that at these Passover feasts there were sometimes as many as three million people in Jerusalem and the surrounding villages, pilgrims from all parts of the earth.

The Passover could be celebrated only in Jerusalem, so the city was thronged with strangers from various parts of the world.

Demonstrations and riots could always be expected, especially on the part of the excitable Galileans, among whom were many potential supporters of Jesus.

The reference in verse 2, then, is to the noise and confusion of an excited crowd, when mob fever, intensified by the hope of redemption associated with the Passover, could seize the people and the situation become uncontrollable.[2]

The chief priests and scribes know that if they take Jesus at the height of the feast, they are apt to incite a riot; so they want to act beforehand.

As there are only two days left, there is a deep sense of urgency about their malevolent threat.

This is always characteristic of hatred.

Hatred can never wait.

Hatred must act as soon as an opportunity affords.

So the leaders, while they play their little petty games, are merely pawns in the purposes of God.

They’re guilty.

They’re culpable for their hatred and their rejection.

They are also to be held responsible for the murder of the Son of God.

They’re accountable to God everlastingly for their unbelief.

But they do not determine what happens or when it happens.

Our Lord will die by the predetermined foreknowledge and purpose of God.

He Himself is directing everything by His providence, even though it is invisible to everybody except the Lord Himself.

Mark interrupts his narrative at this point with a flashback to the previous Saturday, six days before the Friday of Passover (John 12:1), when the Lord arrived in Bethany just east of Jerusalem.

[3]

The Party

Mark 14:3-9 (ESV)

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.”

This occurs, we are told, in verse 3 at the home of Simon the leper.

He would be a former leper, or he wouldn’t be having a dinner party.

You do understand that.

Lepers were outcasts, right?

They were outcasts.

They didn’t interact with people at all.

They were societal rejects, they were put out of society in every way and people kept as far from them as possible, fearing the contagion of such a disease.

Likely then, this is a man who has been healed by Jesus and that was something Jesus did all over the land of Israel during His ministry.

It is not a stretch to assume that this man named Simon who had been healed by Jesus, planned this meal knowing that Jesus was coming to Bethany to be with His friends and to be there for the Passover to say thanks.

It would have been him, Mrs. Simon, if there was such a woman, and all the little Simons.

There would have been the Twelve and it would have been Mary, Martha and Lazarus, so anywhere from 15 up, not including his family of 15 and other friends and his family would swell the number.

It is a typical meal in that it is an evening meal, reclining is the posture.

You lounge, in a sense, in a reclining position.

That means you’re going to be there a while, that’s how meals were taken in those days.

They were really prolonged conversations … This is a normal posture for the prolonged conversational meal.

This would be the antithesis of drive-through fast food.

There are three movements

An act of loving sacrifice

You can picture it in your imagination: Mary coming into the room with the jar of expensive ointment as Jesus is reclining on the couch.

She breaks the jar and pours the whole contents upon his head and feet, anointing him.

It is a beautiful act, one which captures the attention of all those present.

At that meal, it says, there came a woman.

John tells us this is Mary … Mary of the family of Martha and Lazarus.

Why does John name her and Matthew and Mark not name her?

It was a common custom at a meal to wash feet.

If you were in a reclining position, that would be of great benefit because as you recline your feet necessarily appear in some way.

And so, anointing feet, washing feet, as we see in John 13 where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.

This was a normal thing, even putting perfume on feet was somewhat of a tradition or custom.

And pouring perfume on people was a routine kind of function.

If nothing else, it was a precursor of the modern use of deodorant.

It was a common courtesy.

It also was a way in which because it was necessary in a world of heat and perspiration without the kind of access of bathing and perfumes that we have today, it was a gesture of kindness, not only to the person but to everybody in proximity to the person.

This was commonly done.

Perfume was kept around for such purposes.[4]

A Response is Awakened

Mark tells us the first response was one of indignation that she should waste this ointment.

John says it was Judas and apparently a few of the other disciples whom he managed to persuade in the moment, began scolding her. who raised this objection.

There are always people who try to place a monetary value on things.

They seem to know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

In this account, Jesus is warning us of the foolishness of that attitude, for if you look at the world only in terms of dollars and cents, you are going to miss three-quarters of life.

This is what he wants to teach us here.

The quality for which Jesus commended her was her recognition that the needs of this poor sufferer, whom they do not always have, take precedence over the obligation to help the poor who will always be with them.

This is emphasized in verse 7, where the contrast developed through an allusion to Deut.

15:11 is not between Jesus and the poor, but between “always” and “not always.”[5]

What’s going on here?

Adoring worship of Christ is the ultimate priority.

Did you get that?

Giving to the poor has a place.

Deuteronomy 15:11 says, “Give to the poor.”

You always have the poor of the land and make sure you care for the poor and give to the poor.

That’s a priority.

The ultimate priority is to worship Christ.

Care for the poor is important,

worship of the Lord is more important.

And Jesus wasn’t going to be there very long.

An Extremely Valuable Act

He says five things about it which mark it an extremely valuable act.

First he says, "She has done a beautiful thing to me."

The beauty of it lay in its very extravagance.

This woman did not spare any of the ointment but broke the flask and poured the whole quantity out upon him.