The Inescapable Story of Jesus 14a | Anointed for Burial

Introduction

In various surveys of people’s fears, public speaking is regularly atop the list. We are frightened of standing before other people. This fear is close to the bone. At our core, we often care far more than we should about how people view us, and we fear losing the esteem of others. But to follow Jesus is to be reviled by the world. As Jesus approaches the cross, Mark challenges us to consider the question: Do you know what it means to follow Jesus?

The Text 

After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her…
Mark 14:1ff

Summary of the Text

Jesus has pronounced judgement on Jerusalem, and Mark now brings us into the valley of the shadow of death. The Passover was in two days, and the Jewish rulers wanted to get their dirty business taken care of before then, but without arousing the ire of the adoring crowds (vv1-2). Jesus must be killed. The only question for them was how. 

While the rulers are plotting Jesus’ death, He is feasting with a restored leper in Bethany (v3). During the meal, a woman enters and anoints Jesus’ head with an entire vessel of precious spikenard ointment (v3). The woman’s lavish display incites a bit of fremdschämen in some of the diners, their objection is that this costly gift could have been better used to fund the local soup kitchen (vv4-5). Jesus rebukes the murmuring with two stark statements. First, He reproaches, “You can help the poor anytime you want to.” Secondly, He describes the woman’s actions as a burial anointing, and her act is worthy of timeless retelling (vv6-9). All this is too much for Judas, and he goes off to betray Jesus (vv10-11).

Meanwhile, Jesus gives instructions for the festal preparations. Two disciples are sent to make things ready, and everything is as Jesus instructed—like when He sent for the colt (vv12-16). That evening Jesus and the twelve gather for the feast, and at the meal Jesus declares that one of them would betray Him; one by one they sorrowfully ask, “Is it I?” Jesus doesn’t answer directly, but conveys that it is one of the twelve, close enough to dip the bread in the olive oil with Jesus. The Lord is not dismayed by this, for He knows that sufferings await the Son of Man; but He pronounces a fearful doom upon the betrayer (vv17-21).

Now Jesus takes the Passover feast, and retells the Exodus story in a shocking way. Just as He had done with the feeding of the two multitudes in the wilderness He takes, blesses, breaks, and gives bread to His disciples. But this time He tells them that this bread and wine is not merely a memorial of Israel’s past deliverance, nor is it a hopeful token of future deliverance, but that deliverance will be seen in the very imminent breaking of His body and and the shedding of His blood (vv22-24). Furthermore, Jesus makes a vow to forego wine until He drinks it in His inaugurated Kingdom (v25). The supper ends with a song (Ps. 118, Mk. 11:9)), and then off once again to Mt. Olives (v26).

On the way, Jesus foretells two things: the scattering of the disciples according to Zechariah’s prophecy (Zech. 13:7), and His rising again. Peter objects to all this, and insists that he at least wouldn’t fall away. This leads to a third prediction from Jesus: Peter’s threefold denial (vv27-31). Coming to the quiet of Gethsemane, Jesus goes off with the three for prayer; the coming battle weighs heavy upon Him, and He calls the three to watch (vv32-34, Cf. 13:37). The Lord prays unto Abba, asking that the cup might pass from Him; yet in perfect humility Jesus acquiesces to the Father’s will. Three times Jesus goes off to pray only to return to find the three asleep. The salvation of the entire world rests on Jesus’ alone (vv35-41). When Jesus returns the third time it is clear that He is ready, and that the hour had struck: the betrayer was at hand (vv41-42).

A New Passover

Holiday imagery hangs over this feast: a killed lamb, bread made in haste, a Red Sea crossing, a deadly tyrant defeated. Mark paints a familiar scene. The head of the home retelling the Exodus story. But as Jesus retells the Exodus story, He gives it an unexpected twist. Twelve disciples, like the twelve tribes, are informed that Jesus, the Son of Man, is going before them into the very sorrows of death. He tells them that to truly understand the old Passover story they need to see it in light of His coming act of death.

God was going to bring deliverance for His people once more. Jesus, the Son of Man, would go forth before the tribes of Israel to lead them out of Satan’s kingdom, and into the glory of God’s Kingdom. But Jesus once more insists that the way into the Kingdom comes through Him alone. Furthermore, that pathway was leading to His death. Are you sure you want to follow Him?

How to Honor Jesus

Mark has now given us two examples of women who truly honored the Lord. The widow who gave everything in giving her only pennies; also the woman in this text who anointed Jesus with rare and costly ointment. The crowd responds with a back of the napkin estimate about the ointment costing nearly a year’s wage.

Many Christians are content to follow Christ in a socially acceptable manner. Their obedience to God stays in between the lines of cultural expectations. They may proudly declare their identity as a Christian. But, honoring Jesus, as these two women have shown, doesn’t confine itself to what is reputable. It doesn’t obey only insofar as to be unlikely to meet with ridicule. Honoring the Lord raises the eyebrows of those who only covet worldly praise and prestige. Honoring the Lord isn’t found in mere lip-service, like we see in Peter’s boasting. 

You maybe appreciate the Christian community in Moscow. You can nod along to sermons, give your kids a Christian education, go to psalm sings, baptized your babies, and even offer up public prayers. But have you adopted and preserved certain worldly attitudes, practices, and worldviews?  Do you have one foot in a vibrant Christian community and another in the ungodly worldliness of our age? If you pass along this lip-service following of Christ to your kids, if you do not mortify it, if your obedience to Christ only goes so far, then in another generation the Moscow mood will turn into the sort of soggy and spineless Christianity that describes all too much of modern evangelicalism.

This woman discerned, however imperfectly, enough to see the worth of Jesus and what He’d come to do. Jesus interprets her act as a burial preparation. What on earth could this mean? The disciples could understand Him being anointed as a king or priest or prophet and taking up the throne, or offering up the atoning sacrifices, or defying wicked kings. But anointed for burial? They could not yet see that Jesus had come to die, and in so doing be rewarded the throne of heaven and earth. In so doing, the final sacrifice for sin would be offered. In so doing, the most wicked tyrant, Satan, would be cast down.

In Galilee

Jesus tells the disciples they are gonna chicken out. They are going to shame themselves. One of them was going to betray the Lord. Another would deny Him three times. They thought of themselves as sturdy stones upon which Jesus could build His new kingdom. He tells them that they too are going to be scattered like He had foretold would happen to the temple’s stones. Here is great sin. But Jesus gives a greater promise.

Despite all their coming sin of fearfully forsaking Him, He promises that after His death He would go before them and they were to meet Him. They weren’t to meet Him in some astral plane. He wasn’t casting His body aside as if it was garbage. The Resurrection was not Jesus’ desertion of this earth He had made. No…He tells the disciples, and us, that he would rise again, and they were to meet Him again in Galilee. To follow Jesus is to follow Him into death. Your death. But be of good courage, He died for you; the simple Gospel message is that by faith in Christ, you died in Him. So then, to follow Jesus into His death, is also to follow Him into the Resurrection.

CHARGE & BENEDICTION 

Ask yourself if you’ve slowly hedged and nuanced the extent of your obedience to Christ? To follow Christ means to die to yourself, but oftentimes we redefine this and neuter this to be a bit more palatable to us. But to follow Christ really does summon you to die. Is Christ worthy of all honor and glory and praise? If so…live like it.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessings of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon, and remain with you always. Amen.