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 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, 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.
Traditionally, Wednesday has been known as ‘Spy Wednesday’ as it is the day that Judas Iscariot conspired to hand Jesus over to the authorities. Mark’s gospel purposes
to set up a profound contrast between those who loved Jesus and those who had another agenda altogether.
Jesus is at the home of a former leper, Simon, more than likely a leper that He had healed. Jesus was always hanging around “the wrong kind of people”! Some have suggested
that this particular Simon, (a very common name in that day) was the father of Lazarus, Mary and Martha!
This woman began her extravagant show of devotion to the Savior by breaking a jar of expensive perfume instead of simply opening it. The bottle could not be reused,
she had no thought of cost or financial setback, only to demonstrate her love for the Savior. As many have pointed out, a woman in those days would not ordinarily have had the means to purchase something so expensive, this perfume was probably imported from
India, so perhaps the perfume was a family heirloom. If so, to use it up in this way further indicates the greatness of her gift. The text tells us that the value of the contents of this jar was more than one year of a working man’s wage; This was an extraordinarily
expensive sacrifice!
Some there, perhaps Judas himself, were indignant, saying that this could have been sold and the money used to help the poor. Hiding under a pretense of piety, or
what we call today, ‘virtue signaling’ is not new by any stretch of the imagination! Often our moral outrage and dogmatic stances about what should or should not be happening in the church are not as sanctified as we like to make them look and sound. It is
easy to know the right words and the right doctrine but to miss the point of those words and doctrine.
Mary knew she had to do something and that something had to be worthy of who she knew Jesus was! She needed an expression of the depth of her feelings and the overwhelming
sense of gratitude and love that she had for the Savior. So, she found the most expensive thing she had, the most precious gift that she owned and throwing caution to the wind, caring not for its monetary value, poured it out on Jesus.
The woman’s devotion prompted her extravagance. I want us to read that again; The woman’s devotion prompted her extravagance. While it is probably true that
our lives are not always an overflow of such devotion, is it not also true that we so want them to be? While realizing that our lives cannot continuously be filled with the unusual acts of dramatic love, the poor do need to be cared for after all…but still…where
in your life and mine do we ever see such expressions of devotion, love and commitment?
The isolation of these days gives us an opportunity for such devotional creativity. How can we, will we, express our love for the Lord and His people
or just settle back with Netflix? We all bemoan the fact that the liturgies of our lives need depth but alas, we don’t have the time. That excuse no longer works.
We hear that all the time in our day: Religion is fine as long as you don’t take it ‘too far’. As one commentator put it: The cry today is, to not be overzealous
or extreme as if the problems with Muslim jihadists are that they take Islam too seriously! They are a threat to peace of course, but not because they take their beliefs seriously and feel them deeply; but because they have bad, and evil beliefs.
A great love, such as we have lavished on us in Christ Jesus, ought to work a great love for Him in return. “Would anyone say that a mother ought to love her children
only moderately or that a husband ought not to overdo his love for his wife?” Over and over again, the Bible illustrates the nature of the godly life by showing us people who act immoderately, zealously and who are moved and motivated with great thanksgiving
and joy because of the love of God. One could never read the Gospels and conclude that you could follow Jesus half-heartedly, devoted to anything other than His purpose.
This woman’s devotion is set in contrast to the last lines of the text where we read that Judas went to betray Jesus and that Christ’s enemies were “delighted”. Mark
gives us a stark picture and sometimes it is precisely this stark, of two kinds of people: Those who are thankful for what Christ has done for them and must express love and gratitude, come what may…And those who think Christ and his followers to be a nuisance
and want to be rid of them.
Those who are true followers of the Lord want more than anything to be like this woman. We desire to find ways to extravagantly express our love and devotion to our
Savior because we know and are seeing deeper all the time, what He has done to rescue us from destruction.
As we journey with Jesus to His crucifixion the lines are becoming more distinct even as they appear to be more clear in our day: Those committed whole-heartedly to
the Savior and those who oppose Him. But we also know that when ultimate shake ups come, and they do, even if we will be rocked to our core, we will find out what we really believe and how much we will be able to endure for the sake of our Savior. We must
be ready!
Prayer: Father, give us an ever-deepening desire to live extravagantly for You and for our Savior. Lord Jesus, Son of the living God, we pray that you would set
your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now, and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living, pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy Church, peace and unity; and to us sinners, everlasting life, through Jesus
Christ our Lord, Amen.
Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted
