Jesus’ Last Days

Scripture Reading

Well, will you turn in your Bibles with me now to the book of Mark, chapter 14. Mark, chapter 14. If you're using your pew Bibles, the New King James ones provided for you, find that on page 898. And as you turn to Mark chapter 14, we've come to a pivotal moment in the book of Mark, where the next few chapters, as Mark concludes his gospel, we are now on a unrelenting march toward the cross and the resurrection. And so from here on out, it is stories and small bits of that walk toward Golgotha. So let's turn to God's Word now, Mark chapter 14, and we'll look at the first 11 verses. After two days it was the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread.

And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and put him to death. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. and being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, he sat at the table.

A woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. But Jesus said, let her alone.

Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always. And whenever you wish, you may do them good. But me, you do not always have. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's end this portion of the reading of God's Word. Let's pray to God now. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that there's not a single word that You have ever said that will die away. And Father, we pray now that as we get into looking at this passage, Father, we need your spirit to teach us, to turn our hearts toward you and away from sin, to warn us of the pitfalls that would lie in front of us with temptation, and Lord, to stir us toward loving you and loving others. Please, Lord, use this time for your glory and for our edification. In Jesus' name, amen. One of the things we often have to do in our family is there's been a big conflict. When the children start fighting and something's going wrong, we have to line up the children, each one.

Sermon

And one of the things that grandma has instituted, she has this little foam football. And the only person who's allowed to talk is the child with the foam football. So you don't have everybody trying to talk over each other, but you look at one character and you say, okay, now you tell me what happened. And when they're done, you ask any qualifying questions, and then you give it to the next child, and then to the next child.

And that's what we're going to do in this text today, right? There's a lot that's going on here, and I think it's helpful to stop and look at each character in this story to see how Jesus is setting up everything here to show how He is going to fulfill the office of Messiah. How He is going to become their leader, their King, their Savior, their Redeemer. And there's parts going on here that each person's playing and they sometimes don't even recognize everything they're doing. So as we move towards that idea, let's first examine Simon the leper.

When we come to verse 3, we find that being in Bethany, it's almost like Jerusalem's the capital city. Bethany is kind of like a town just off to the east. It's kind of like if you lived in Burlington and you wanted to go out to morning sun for the bed and breakfast, right? It had the small houses, it had less people, more peace than the city, right? So instead of being in the city during the Passover where it's busy, Jesus goes to this bed and breakfast area. But notice where He goes in Bethany. And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. as he sat down at the table."

Now, we might just want to gloss over this, right? But I think the Lord gives us all sorts of things like this that should pique our curiosity. Simon the leper? Does this guy literally have leprosy? Does he have sores on his body? Has he been declared unclean by the priests and the Levites?

Because there's something problematic here, right? Is Jesus ignoring what the prescriptions in Leviticus said? That he's not to enter into a leper's house. Why? If he did, he would be unclean and not allowed to eat the Passover. So is Jesus ignoring this? Does he just come into his home and heal him so he can eat that meal there?

We don't have that information. Or is Simon one that Jesus has already healed? We don't know. We don't know, but what we do know is that Jesus enters into Simon's house, and it doesn't seem to be any problem for him, Jesus enters in unashamedly, and He goes into a leper's house.

Now, I've got to say, just as I think about this passage, how many people come, and they think that to come to Jesus Christ, they have to be perfect. They can't have any type of spot or blemish in their life. It's only when they're perfect, then Jesus will accept them. Well, it's clear here that Jesus doesn't wait for that to happen.

Jesus doesn't wait for Simon to cleanse himself or to heal himself or to be declared clean, but it seems that Jesus knows the circumstances and still enters into this man's house. God doesn't walk into perfect situations Jesus walks into believing homes.

And Simon's leprosy may have been healed, and yet it's interesting that even years and years later, as Peter is preaching his sermons to the people in Rome, Mark is writing down these sermons, and as he's hearing it, Simon has a title. Simon the leper. I need to warn you, in your life there's going to be times that even though you may have past things that you've done in your life that are sinful, or even blemishes in your past, they may still stick to you. That's how people remember you, even though you wish they might not remember you that way anymore. Simon is remembered as the leper. And yet, we remember him as the one Jesus ate this meal at his house.

Well, the second person I want you to take notice of in this passage is Mary herself. Now, her name isn't actually mentioned in the book of Mark. You can read through verses 3 through 9, and you're not going to find her name anywhere. But if we looked at the parallel passage in John chapter 12, we would find that her name is listed. It's Mary, and then you have her sister Martha, and Lazarus.

They're also at this meal. And it's Mary who breaks this alabaster jar. Now, one just interesting side note I want to bring up with Mary in this whole situation, right? I don't need to rehearse the story. I read it to you. You're smart people. But one just basic principle, right?

Mary had every right to do with this jar of Spike Nerd whatever she wanted to do with it. It was her personal property. She had full freedom. If she wanted to save that for her burial, she could. If she wanted to save it for when Lazarus eventually died again, she could. She could use this however she wanted to. It was hers. It wasn't sinful for her to use it this way, and it wasn't sinful for her to use it in any other way that she wanted. It was her stuff. But my question is, as I come to this, is how is she able to afford this? I mean, 300 denarii, guys, we're talking about 10 months of the average person's wages at the time. How did she get this?

I mean, alabaster is imported from Egypt. It's crazy fragile. And then the spikenard is most likely coming from the region of the Himalayas. So she's getting this imported vessel with imported oil, sealed in wax. So to use it, it's not like you can just use a little bit. You have to break the neck off to be able to actually use it. It's one and done. It's all or nothing, right? You save it for one special occasion. How does she afford something like that? 300 denarii? I mean, was it her dowry? Was it given to her as an inheritance by her father? Was she married before and her husband died and he left it to her? We don't know.

Or what I'm inclined to think, and this is just speculation, I think she was one of these women of her own resources. I think Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had their own house, and I think Mary was a woman of resource. The reason why I'm going to say this is I think Luke chapter 8 gives us an identification that Luke chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 actually mention that there are a series of women who support Jesus' ministry. This is one of the things I was just reading in my Bible on devotions time, and I'd never read this before. Well, I'm sure I'd read it before, but it just didn't stick, right? I was shocked. I was reading through Luke chapter 8, and the first four verses list a series of women who they decide it's their blessing, it's their mission, that they're going to support Jesus financially.

And so we find there are women like this who follow Jesus, who are of their own resources. And so however Mary gets this, it's extremely valuable. Enough so that it would, you know, this is... It's like buying one of those essential oil kits with all the oils in it, right? Not just one of them. This is very costly.

But Jesus does the impossible. If this Mary is rich, Jesus has made her pass through the eye of the needle. Because she values Jesus and his ministry more than she values even the most valuable possession she would have with her. But why? Why would she do this? As the woman comes with an alabaster jar of very costly oil and spikenard, she breaks the flask and she pours it on his head.

I don't know about you, but if I was sitting at church meal downstairs, and all of a sudden somebody came up behind me with a bottle of oil and started pouring it out of my head, I'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? Not so during that time in Jesus' life. In Jesus' life, would have been courtesy as somebody walked into the room that they would actually offer oil for your head and for your hands and for your face.

I remember when I was in the Middle East We were about to come on to port in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. And all of a sudden, right before you came on port, they would have these little boats that came out. It was like merchants. And the merchants would set up shop near the mess decks, where we would eat food. And they would have these tables. And they would be selling all their oils and their perfumes, and he'd walk past and he almost got lightheaded because of how much it smelt in that area of the ship.

But the point was, in that culture, in a largely desert culture, your skin gets dry really, really easy. And they didn't have lotions like we have lotions, and so your skin would crack, and it would bleed, and it would get nasty. So one of the things that you would do in those cultures is you would put oil on yourself.

So this is one of the things that's not out of the realm. I still think it's a little bit odd what she's doing, but it's culturally okay. You can understand that. Theologically, we've seen this happen before though. And I think this is where Jesus is pointing us towards.

There's two other times that oil would be poured on someone. One would be what Saul does, or what Samuel does, when he goes to the house of Jesse. And there he finds the different sons. And as he goes from youngest to oldest, and do you have another son yet? But he's a runt, he lives out in the fields with the sheep, you know, call him here. What does Samuel do?

He takes the oil and he pours it on David's head. That's actually the word. The word anoint, or pouring oil on someone's head, is the word Messiah. To anoint someone to an office is to essentially messiah them. To anoint them. And so this pouring on of this oil on Jesus' head I think has theological significance. But there's another aspect of which Jesus specifically points out.

This oil was most often used, especially the spikenard oil, was most often used in this culture when somebody died. You would take the body, you would wrap it in linen, and you would pour fragrant oils over the cloths to almost preserve the body and help against any stench. And so you would lavish this oil on people, especially during funerals. But what does this tell us about Mary?

It tells us about Mary that she values Jesus More than her most costly possession. More than the most valuable thing, the most precious thing she has in her home. When Jesus enters in, he's more important. He's more valuable to her than all the riches of this world. I love what Jesus says. I remember when I first became a Christian and I read this for the first time. Even though I scratched my head at a lot of it, what Jesus says is so beautiful.

Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. This is a memorial to what Mary did for Jesus. I want you to think about this. This happened outside Jerusalem, thousands of miles away, in a culture very different than ours. And here you are, 2,000 years later, sitting in rural Iowa and hearing about the beautiful thing this woman did for Jesus. Everywhere that this gospel is preached, this is meant to be a memorial, to remember what she did, anointing Jesus for his death. But it's more than just the house assignment. It's more than just Mary who pours this oil on Jesus' head.

It's also the disciples. Look at how the disciples respond to this. In verse 4, But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and they said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? And then at the bottom of verse 5, "...and they criticized her." They, plural. These are multiple disciples who are criticizing her.

And in the Greek, it's the idea that it's not just like they say it underneath their breaths one time. They're making enough of this and continuing on enough that Jesus actually has to intervene. Almost like, hey boys, shut your mouths. Alright? Something's happening here and you don't understand. They're criticizing her, the disciples are criticizing.

Now some things to recognize here and take note of is that some religious people will cloak their cruel words with pious overtones. Let me say that again. Some people will cloak their cruel words with pious overtones. What were they really saying to Mary? You're so wasteful. Don't you have two brain cells? Why would you do something so flippant and thoughtless?

I mean, you could have sold this for the poor people. Yes, you could have. But it was hers. This is one of those examples of people who are very religious, And they'll cloak their criticisms of you and of others under a language of piety. Not thinking about the principles underneath it. Sure, she could have given it to the poor. She also could have saved it for her own funeral. And I bet they wouldn't have criticized her if she had done that. But here, because it's done in front of them, it's not according to what they want. They're going to critique her. But if we looked over at John chapter 12 verse 6, I want to warn you about something.

John tells us a little piece of this puzzle that helps us get some light here. He says, this he said, not that he, being Judas, cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money box, and he used to take what was put into it. I think what's happening here is that there is probably one disciple who started whispering, man, why didn't she sell that for the poor? And the other disciple's like, yeah, yeah, why didn't she sell that to the poor?

We could have done all this. I need to warn you that there are people even in churches who will essentially act as the rotten apple in the bunch. And they may be able to influence. Right? Judas is the one who instigates this criticism against Mary. And we know he's not doing it from pure motives. He's doing it because he didn't care about Jesus. He didn't care about the oil and he didn't care about the poor. What he cared about was the money he could have gotten if she sold it and put it in the poor people's box.

So sometimes good disciples can be influenced by the wrong motives of one bad disciple. And so we need to be careful even about who we listen to, even though they may call themselves Christians. Or lastly, to bring up the group here, sometimes people in the moment may ridicule you for your sacrifices to Jesus. Sometimes people, even today, religious people, may criticize you because you decide to take a stand for or make a costly gift for Jesus. You may decide to go work in a mission field, and people may think that you're absolutely stupid. People may think that, hold on, you've been working this hard and you're going to tithe? What is wrong with you? Don't you know that there are poor people who could use that money? You may make any type of decision that is religiously motivated out of a love for your Savior. And I promise you, if you talk to enough people, you will find someone who will criticize you for your sacrifice to Jesus.

It's one of the things we have to learn, how to grow thick skin and love Jesus more than loving the praise of others. Because it's not about their opinion. It's about your intention in serving your Lord. So we need to turn our eyes now to another character in the story to understand things. We need to look at Judas. We look at verses 10 and 11. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray him. I need to warn you about something that Judas didn't understand.

You may, for a period of time, be very close to Jesus, and yet be the furthest person away from Him. You may, for a period of time, ride on the heights of religious affection, and feel like the spirit of revival has entered into your soul, and feel like, man, I am just so close to God, and then quickly forgetting. We need to be careful. I think one of the blessings that God has given us, even though we might be Reformed people and we believe in the perseverance of the saints, I don't believe Judas persevered, because I don't think he was a saint. I believe Judas got close to Jesus. He tasted that gift, but he wanted the world more.

This is exactly what Jesus warns us about when He talks about the seed going on the rocky soil, or the weedy soil. That as a seed goes in, it sprouts up, but then the weeds choke it out, and Jesus tells His disciples, those weeds are deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this life. And so be careful about a love of money that can choke out your heart for Jesus. This is why Paul warns us in one of his letters that covetousness is idolatry.

Take Judas seriously. Also, we need to look at the leaders. We kind of skipped over them in verses 1 and 2, but now we need to turn our eyes back to them. After two days, it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests. These are the head honchos. These are the main families. These are the guys in charge. And the scribes, these are the guys who knew the book better than anybody else.

They sought how they might take him by trickery and put him to death. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. Sometimes those who are the most cruel in life also are very culturally aware. They can read a crowd, They can perceive what's going on in a moment, and they're willing even to believe that the ends justify the means. Sometimes people who are the most cruel, even the most religiously cruel people, will see an end and they'll just say, you know what?

We can't do it this way because there will be political damage over here. And we can't do it this way because we know that we're going to suffer with our reputation or our office over here. But if we just weave this narrow, windy road just enough, we're able to get to the ends. And it doesn't matter that we had to do it through lying and trickery and unrighteousness, because we know that the end is better than not getting there.

I was talking to a judge, a retired judge recently, and he was just talking to me, and he said, you know, Brian, I'm never surprised by how easy it is for people to justify everything they've ever done. And he was a criminal judge. I have no doubt the religious leaders justified in their minds what they were doing with cruelty and trickery, because the ends justified the means.

We need to be on our guard. I think this is one of the reasons why Jesus even tells us, right? We need to be wise, even as we walk in this world. Because there are those Christian in this world who would love nothing more than to see you put in a silent box somewhere, never allowed to influence anyone.

And they'll use whatever means they can, through trickery and power plays, to get the church and to get religious people to just be quiet. Because they have an agenda to push. And they will use political power and systems to manipulate, reading the crowd, knowing the cultural moment, to try to stop the Messiah. And to try to stop His kingdom on this earth.

I just need to warn you about that. But then we come to the part that I love. Let's look at Jesus. And when we look at Jesus and He responds to His disciples and their criticism in verse 6, look what He says, Leave or let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish to do them good, but me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. This is the beautiful thing that Jesus says. He knows what's coming. He is not surprised that the cross is just ahead. He is not surprised that he is going to be put on trial. He is not surprised that he is going to be betrayed by the Jewish religious leaders.

Jesus knows that He is the Messiah, but He also has sang Psalm 2 enough times in His life to know that He would also be the one that they would try to stop the Messiah's sway. He knew Psalm 22 was about Him. He knew that He would suffer, that they would divide His clothes by lot. but that He would raise victoriously. Jesus knew what was coming, Jesus knew who He was, and Jesus knew the uniqueness of this moment. And even though He Himself was going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He knew He was walking it toward a goal.

And one of the beautiful things here that Jesus does in this moment is He defends against attacks He honors Mary, and He doesn't turn away her costly gift. Jesus is anointed for His burial, which will lead to His resurrection, which earns Him the crown of the kingdom forever. And in this moment, He tells them, leave her alone. See, they don't understand what's going on. I'm not sure Mary fully understands what's going on, but Jesus says, she's anointing me for my burial because Jesus knows that that burial needs to happen for him to inherit the kingdoms of the earth. So what does this teach us about the gospel?

Well, there's a cost that Jesus was going to have to pay too. And it was going to be far more valuable than the 300 denarii of this alabaster jar with spikenard in it. Because Jesus knew the price of redemption wasn't going to be with the silver, the 30 pieces that Judas would get from the high priest, but Jesus knew that He was going to redeem us, His people, with something far more valuable than silver or gold, but with His very own blood. Jesus knew the cost.

And wherever this gospel is preached, this good news is preached, we would remember Mary, and we would remember the price that was paid just to anoint the King. I do need to warn you though. Jesus said something very helpful that I wish some people would pay attention to. And Jesus gives us a very practical truth here in verse 7. The gospel is not eradicating poverty. The good news of Jesus Christ is not that nobody will ever be poor again. No, Jesus actually says the exact opposite of that, doesn't He?

For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish to do them good, Whenever you want, guess what? You're always going to have poor people around you. It's always going to happen. But what's not going to be with you always, I'm not going to always be with you.

Because the good news isn't about Jesus eradicating poverty, or alleviating everybody of their sickness. That's not the good news. The good news is that the Kingdom of God is amongst men. That He sent His one and only Son, that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for sinners. Jesus was a willing servant and a king. And he didn't have to do this. I want you to think about that just for a moment.

Jesus chose to be in this house. Jesus chose to surround himself with these people. And Jesus is choosing in Mark chapter 14, even though He knows His death and burial is coming. Every moment of Jesus' life is highlighted in chapter 14 and following. That He is willing to go to the cross as the unspotted Lamb of God. Willing to take away the sins of the world. He accepts this anointing for His burial because Jesus sacrificially gave Himself to those who would believe in Him.

So I have to ask you this morning, do you believe in Him? Is this just a story that Mary did some silly stuff with oil and she wasted a bunch of valuable things Do you take away from it that Judas did the right thing? You know, he just had to stop Jesus in His tracks. Because He was fooling people. Or... Or did Jesus know that His burial was coming? And that that was good news for the entire world? For all ages?

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank You. That you have preserved this moment in time for memory for all ages. That you are anointed for your burial. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you. That you would give us hearts to believe. Lord, we pray that you would make us wise to the ways of our adversaries. Lord, but that we would be those. who would see that you paid the ultimate price for our hearts and for our eternities. And Lord, we pray that we would live our lives in thankfulness in response to that. Lord, please do this work. We pray in Jesus's name.