The Last Week of Jesus Series: The True Worshipper (Mark 14:1-11)

We began this series in Mark 11, with the triumphant entry, and the clearing of the Temple, the scribes questioning Jesus goes into chapter 12, and his teaching on that Tuesday goes into chapter 13. This morning we begin chapter 14 – the longest chapter in the book of Mark.

We’ll be starting in verse one:

“Jesus Anointed at Bethany

14 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ² “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

³ While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages^[a]and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you,^[b] and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”

 In all our stories that we have gone through in the past four weeks, I don’t believe any are as foreign to us as this. I mean we understand the basics – but to ask the hard question of – “what does this actually mean for me today?” “How does a story like this impact my life?”

The title for today’s sermon is “The True Worshipper” – what does it mean to truly worship? And so to help us answer this I’m going to ask three straight questions of the text.

And the first is “What is it that she offered”?

 In climates where it is incredibly dry and dusty, the use of oil in anointing the person is still a common practice and it certainly was in ancient Greece and Rome. It keeps the skin cool and soothes it, and is believed to be healthful. In any house where Jesus was an honoured guest, it would have been likely he had His head anointed with oil. It was like the washing of the feet, a refreshment. And so the act of Mary was not something embarrassing and peculiar as it may seem in our culture today, but rather the very highest form of a service which was expected and welcomed. The difference however was that instead of the anointing with oil, which would have cost less probably than a few coins, she provides a rich anointing oil. Judas estimated its value at three hundred silver pieces. So, except in drops, it was only used in this fashion by kings and by the richest classes; and was costly enough to be made a royal present. So there are two thoughts, either Mary must have been a woman of property to be able to bring such a holy anointing oil; or, the more probable explanation is that this amount was the total of her life savings – really the only thing she had of value. What this means then is that with this gift she is just like the widow we spoke about last week, who with her few small coins, gives all she had to the Lord in the Temple offering bag. She is sacrificing all she has.

It is enclosed in an alabaster vase or jar, the expression in the original language is simply, "having an alabaster of ointment." The commentators explain that perfumes were best preserved in alabasters. The vessel, because it is made of alabaster, was called an alabaster, just as we would call the glass container we drink from - a glass.

And so what she brings, while foreign to us, is well understood at the time. The practise of anointing would have been standard but the gift of the perfume was well beyond the expectation. As she broke the jar then, the smell of this perfume would have been overpowering and would have filled the room – it couldn’t be missed. Everyone would know, as we saw the comments flying, that this was excessive. And thus the cause for the criticism.

But Jesus rebukes them instead. He recognises that this is an act of love. Generous, Lavish, all-encompassing devotion. And he praises her for it.

And so the question that we can ask ourselves from this is – what do we give Jesus? Do we give him generous, lavish, all-encompassing devotion – or do we give him our left-overs? There was a beautiful
sermon written where the preacher wrote of this act saying:

“Away with the cheap bottles of stale perfume when you may fill the banqueting hall of Christ with exquisite aroma. Paul had made great speeches before, but he made his best speech for Christ. John had warmth of affection in other directions, but he had his greatest warmth of affection for Christ. Jesus deserves the best word we ever uttered, the gladdest song we ever sang, the most loving letter we ever wrote, the healthiest day we ever lived, the strongest heart throb we ever felt.”

The second question we can ask was How did she offer it?

Almost every time we encounter Mary she is at the feet of the Lord. In the well-known story of Mary and Martha – where Martha criticises her, it is because she is doing exactly that – sitting at his feet and listening to her Lord. A place where we must understand, in that time and culture was reserved for men, in the privacy of her own home, Mary breaks with social conventions and follows her heart.

And this seems to continue into our story today. While the anointing would have been normal, she was doing it in someone else’s house, and with expensive and excessive lavishness. When John tells this story in his Gospel – he adds a detail we don’t read about here.

In John 12:3 we read,

“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

This is an act so demonstrative of love that it feels somewhat inappropriate, and would have been uncomfortable for those at the meal. A woman’s hair was seen as her glory, and thus kept tucked away only to be seen by her husband. And yet here, Mary lets her hair down and uses that which is her glory and crown – to wipe Jesus feet.

And there are a few things we can learn from this:

Firstly – this reminds us of what we see Jesus do the following night with his disciples. Just as she has poured out oil on his feet and wiped it with her hair, so Jesus stoops down and washes his disciples feet.

I’m sure you’ve experienced those times where you catch a scent of something and immediately it takes you somewhere else. There is a certain salty sea breeze smell that takes me back to my childhood holidays in Port Alfred. There is my Mom’s perfume that I recognise from a mile away and it reminds me of precious times spent with her. Our smell receptors in the brain are closely linked with memory and emotion.

And you have to wonder when Jesus knelt to wash the feet of his disciples – whether the memory of the smell of the ointment came  back to mind for the disciples as they reflect on Mary’s act of love.

Secondly, we live in an age and belong to a denomination where right thinking and understanding and belief are all important. We often experience our faith very cognitively, we believe in Jesus because historically its most likely that this is how things happened, we understand logically the need for the cross when we see our own failure and we respond with a belief and a faith that is quite knowledge based. And yet here we see an act not just of knowledge and belief – but huge affection and love. An act that is so extravagant that it defies common sense and seems out of proportion. Its worship.

 This is not a head thing.

This is a heart thing.

This is an act of deep raw emotional love.

The last time we encounter Mary she is falling at the feet of her Risen Saviour – the one who was crucified, and yet is alive forever more.

The final question we need to ask is Why?

We have looked at the love that has prompted the action, we understand the social custom of the time, but was there more to this – Jesus certainly seems to think so, he says to those criticising her,

⁶ “Leave her alone, why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Jesus is talking about his burial… even here this moment of beauty, of love, of generosity – the cross overshadows it all. It points to the coming death, in just two days he would be lying in a tomb. Our passage today begins with saying

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

And the passage ends with

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”

 And sandwiched in between this political manoeuvring, this betrayal, this darkness – is an act of light.

Remember Jesus had told his disciples again and again that he was on his way to be killed. He told them that this would be his final journey to Jerusalem – and emphasised it so much that they wondered at the courage with which he led them on towards his death.  Did Mary actually get it? Was she the only one who was really listening? Was she prompted by the Spirit of prophecy to point out that they were heading out into the murky depths of darkness?

We don’t know.

But Jesus points to what she has done – and he says… it is a beautiful thing.  Worship is a beautiful thing.

Where does this leave us today – what is the story – that as Jesus says, “wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” What is it meant to teach us?

Firstly – what we give is important. And Jesus values it. In fact our gifts to him can be beautiful. But there is a caution I believe… In 2 Samuel chapter 24, we read this story about David, who needs the Lord’s intervention – and so in verse 18 we read:

¹⁸ On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to theLord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. ²³ Your Majesty, Araunah^[d] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

Let me restate that final line – I dare not give to the Lord my God, that which has cost me nothing.

Our warning is against giving God the dregs because it’s expected. Mary gave it all. The widow last week gave it all. And we do it because we understand the cross – because we see the love poured out for us. Our verse for this period reminds us that he gave his life. And so when we survey the wondrous cross - as the old hymn tells us, it leads us to a response of -

“Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were an offering far too small

Love so amazing, so divine –

demands my soul, my life, my all.”

The second thing we can take from here; is a reminder that this man called Jesus – he isn’t an academic exercise. He is a person that we know and love with affection and heart. That our faith and our worship while we can understand and explain it – at times needs to be experienced and expressed. And we aren’t all demonstrative people who are about to break out into interpretive dance – I get that. But there does need to be a point where we offer ourselves and all we have as a love offering. Just as we stand at the alter with our wives or husband and promise allegiance based on a love that is both a choice and a deeply felt heart experience – so too with our Lord – we choose him with our heads, and we love him with our hearts.

So to end off, I’m going to ask you to close your eyes and imagine yourself as we pray, kneeling at the feet of Jesus. In the time of silence I offer, offer him whatever you have. Your heart, your time, your affection, your focus, your skill, your life – whatever it is that you have – make that your offering… break open your alabaster jar and pour it out for him in an act of love. If this is too personal an action to do here – may I encourage you to set some time aside when you get home, or this evening before you go to bed – and do the same exercise.

The incredible news that Scripture tells us – is that Jesus wants us. And that which we offer he sees as beautiful.