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14:1 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.”
3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,1 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 denarii2 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.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
[1] 14:3
[2] 14:5
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Do you have a Bible? I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 14. If you're new to the church, we have been working our way through the gospel of Mark. We've been in it for just over a year. We'll probably wrap up in February, but we are in Mark chapter 14.
Joel Brooks:It's also there in your worship guide. As you're turning there, I do wanna take just a moment to thank you. I realized that a month ago when I asked you guys to be praying for our elder retreat, I never gave you an update on that. I didn't thank you. But the Lord was so kind to us that weekend, really filled our elders with just a sense of gratitude for what the Lord has been doing for the last 16 years as a church, And, gave us just such unity, as to, to what we should be doing, in the weeks and the months ahead.
Joel Brooks:I hope in those weeks months ahead that I can give you a little more details about that. But I just wanna thank you guys for praying, and the Lord really did show up and do a work in our midst that week. I also wanna say that's obvious we have facility needs. And one of the things, you know, we've done over the last year to address that is we've built the new, Redeemer kids building or education building. We were able to purchase it and to renovate it.
Joel Brooks:And I have some good news concerning that. A little over a month ago, we were able to go ahead and pay off the whole thing way ahead of schedule. And so we are debt free as a church. And that's just really, that's just a sign of the Lord's kindness to us once again and to your generosity. So thank you from doing that.
Joel Brooks:It also gives us confidence in the days ahead for whatever the Lord might have for us that he will provide. So thank you. Alright. So Mark chapter 14. It's co coincidence we'll have it.
Joel Brooks:We're actually gonna be looking at the price of things, the price and the value of things. That's 2 different words, price and value. I've heard that we often know the price of everything and the value of nothing. And here we'll be looking at how different people value Jesus. Mark 14.
Joel Brooks:It was now 2 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. For they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people. 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. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was this ointment wasted like that?
Joel Brooks:For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denari, and given to the poor, and they scolded her. But Jesus said, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want you can do good for them.
Joel Brooks:But you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 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. Then Judas Iscariot, who's one of the 12, went to the chief priest in order to betray him to them.
Joel Brooks:And when they heard it, they were glad, and they promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him. This is the word of the Lord. If you would pray with me. Father, thank you for, preserving this story for us for such a long time that we might read it and benefit from it.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for the memory that we have of this woman. And Lord, and I pray that her story would deeply shape us as a people. I pray that in this moment my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord your words would remain, and they would change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So we've now entered into the final section of the gospel of Mark. And from this point on every story, every conversation is going to center on the suffering and the death of Jesus. It's what we know as the passion narrative. Passion being the Latin word for to suffer.
Joel Brooks:This is all gonna be about the suffering of Christ. And Mark begins this passion narrative by giving us another one of his mark in sandwiches, in which he begins one story, then he goes to another, then he goes back to the original story. And so here he's gonna begin with the religious leaders all plotting to kill Jesus, and then we're gonna go over and we're gonna have this story of a woman worshiping Jesus, and then we're gonna go back to a story of somebody plotting to kill Jesus. So we have this story of this woman adoring and worshiping Jesus, and on either side, we see people plotting and scheming against him. And whenever Mark does this, he put stories in that kind of format.
Joel Brooks:What he wants us to do is compare and contrast these stories together, and when we do, we will find a common theme. All of these stories are about value. How do people value Jesus? What is Jesus worth to each one of these groups? For Judas, Jesus is worth a mere 30 pieces of silver.
Joel Brooks:He's worth more dead than alive. For this woman, there's no amount of money. There's no gift too costly that she would not offer to Jesus. And so what I want us to do is to look at these two groups. Let's look at how the enemies value Jesus, and we're gonna look at how this woman value Jesus.
Joel Brooks:So let's start with the enemies. The story begins with the chief priest and the scribes. They're trying to figure exactly how they can, arrest Jesus and kill him, but to do it quietly. This was gonna be an enormous challenge because Jesus is wildly popular with the people, and there are a whole lot of people in town for the Passover. The Passover was by far the largest of all the Jewish feast.
Joel Brooks:It was actually mandatory that everybody living within 15 miles of Jerusalem had to go to the Passover. Lodging was free in all of Jerusalem for the Passover. And so what this meant, historians tell us that between 1 to 3000000 people would have crowded the streets of Jerusalem, those narrow windy streets during this week, which would have made it nearly impossible to try to arrest Jesus and to kill him and to do it quietly. So so this was gonna be a tremendous challenge for them, but then thankfully they had this stroke of luck. Someone from Jesus's inner ring came to them on his own volition, and he said, I could tell you how you can do it.
Joel Brooks:Judas came, and he was eager to betray Jesus. There's a whole lot of speculation about Judas's motives as to why he would, commit such a heinous act. And it's evil. Perhaps the most evil act in history, and that's why Dante has him in the lowest ring of hell. But it's a lot of speculation over why he did it.
Joel Brooks:And the reason there's speculations because we're not really sure. It doesn't really tell us here in the text. We do know from the gospel of John that Judas was a thief. He had been put in charge of the disciples, purse, and he would take out a little for himself from time to time. This is likely one of the reasons that he was so upset at this woman for wasting all of that perfume when he thinks it could have been sold.
Joel Brooks:It could have been sold, you know, for for, for 300 denarii and and money given to the poor. He's not really concerned about the poor. He would have just been the one who had all that money to give to the poor. It had been more money for him to take from. So he was a thief, but that doesn't actually tell us why he betrayed Jesus.
Joel Brooks:But it does give us an insight into his heart, and it lets us know this one thing. That although he liked following Jesus around, he didn't think Jesus alone was enough for him. Jesus alone wasn't enough. He wanted more than Jesus was providing. Be honest.
Joel Brooks:Have you ever felt that way? Have you wanted more than Jesus was providing for you? I know we want to demonize Judas here, and for good reason, but have you ever once felt that way? Have you ever once been disappointed with Jesus? We're not actually sure why Judas decided to follow Christ.
Joel Brooks:We don't know anything about why he was called or how he was called. We only know that he was the only non Galilean of the group, which to me speaks of maybe his devotion. He he wasn't part of already a circle of people that likely kinda were familiar and knew one another. So his calling and his following of Jesus looked different than theirs, but perhaps that even spoke to a greater devotion. But somewhere along the way, his expectations for what was gonna happen didn't match the reality.
Joel Brooks:His his dream, that he envisioned, it it never materialized. But when I was little, I really wanted this Spider Man web shooter that I saw in a catalog. I mean, I wanted it so badly. I already I was dreaming about it. I just knew, like, I could get it and I could like in the halls of my elementary school, I could probably shoot it on the ceiling and swing from class to class.
Joel Brooks:If I wanted my little Debbie snack, I could just kinda shoot it and then just pull my little Debbie to myself. I mean, I I had all of these dreams. I went to my parents, to ask if I could have money for it because you this was back in a time where you actually had put money in an envelope. You had to mail it off, wait weeks for it then to come to you. And my parents said, no way.
Joel Brooks:It's not gonna be anything like that. I was undeterred, and so, I said I'm gonna use my hard earned birthday money, and, and I mailed it off. And I waited weeks for this thing, and it came in. And I remember I Velcroed it to my wrist, and I went out and I'm like, and it shot about 2 feet. It had a little suction cup with a string, and then it would just fall.
Joel Brooks:I never could get it to stick to anything. It was the first of many, many disappointments in my life. Dreams just squashed, but some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you, you've booked this really expensive vacation all based on somebody's Instagram picture. And then you go there and you're like, oh, this is what it looks like without the filters.
Joel Brooks:This is what it looks like when I don't know how they cropped all the crowds out of these pictures, and your dreams didn't match the reality. What did you think following Jesus was going to look like? I think Judas thought Jesus was going to do more for him. I mean, after 3 years, what exactly had the disciples gained from following Jesus? I mean, sure they got a few free meals from time to time.
Joel Brooks:Peter had his mother-in-law healed, so plus negative, not sure. But but besides those things, I I mean, what did they gain? They hadn't gained any more money. You know that and gained another home or the ability to to add on to the renovation they wanted that and gained any power. There was no more political clout that they had.
Joel Brooks:They hadn't really gained anything. The only thing that they gained were dirty feet from traveling from town to town to town. So Judas, he decided he would steal some from the money bag as a way of, you know, compensating himself for not receiving the things that he thought Jesus was going to provide. It was just a little compensation. Let me ask you.
Joel Brooks:Have you ever been disappointed with Jesus? We are most disappointed with people when we know somebody has the power to give us something, yet refuses to do it. We're often most disappointed with Jesus because we know he has the power to do things for us, and yet sometimes for reasons completely unknown to us, he doesn't do it. And so we know that Jesus he may has the power to, to give us a spouse, but he doesn't do it. He doesn't even provide a date, or he might have, the power to heal us, but he doesn't do it.
Joel Brooks:He has the power to give children, but he doesn't always. He has the power to give us a better career, maybe one that we actually enjoy, but but he won't, and all for reasons that we don't understand. We don't know. And because of that, knowing he has the power to do those things, but he actually doesn't do those things. There's times when we're following him, we get disappointed.
Joel Brooks:All he gives us is just dirty feet and another road to follow him on. Sometimes the Christian life feel like that? Great. Another road I have to travel with Jesus. So have you ever been disappointed in him?
Joel Brooks:If so, the life of Judas is a cautionary tale to us, because disappointment can lead to us selling them out. I mean, none of us here are gonna, you know, sell them out for 30 pieces of silver. That's already been done. You can't do that again. But when looking at the value of following Jesus versus the foul value of what we might see as a really fun Friday night, yeah, we'll sell out Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Seeing the value of following Jesus versus, versus the value of pursuing money or power at all costs. Well, yeah, we'll sell out Jesus. There's actually a number of times that if we were to be honest with ourselves, our lives are not totally different than Judas. We can identify with him. We can identify with this feeling having Jesus alone is not enough for us, And when this happens, what we have to do is we have to remind ourselves of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:We have to remind ourselves that Jesus actually has given us the most precious valuable thing he can give to us, and that's himself. There's nothing of greater value. I mean, haven't you always wanted to know your creator God, and Jesus says, you're looking at him. And in my presence, there is fullness of joy, and in my right hand, there are pleasures for every more. Jesus could not offer anything greater than himself, and Jesus has worked on our behalf.
Joel Brooks:He gave himself as a sacrifice. He died. He has forgiven us. He offers us eternal life. So when disappointment comes, preach to yourself the gospel.
Joel Brooks:So that's Judas. That's the enemies. Let's now look at the woman. The story takes place at the house of Simon the leper in Bethany. As far as nicknames go, Simon, the leper's not a good one.
Joel Brooks:He likely didn't have leprosy anymore. I mean, it's not like you're gonna go eat at the house of an active leper. Jesus is likely healed him. I would have gone with Simon, the former leper or, Simon, the guy with beautiful skin, something to that effect. We know from the gospel of John and Luke's account of this story, other people were there besides just Simon.
Joel Brooks:The disciples, they were all there. Lazarus was there. Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and and Lazarus was now eating there with him. Lazarus's sisters were there, Martha and Mary. And so this was a large dinner party happening.
Joel Brooks:And as they're all reclining at the table, a woman comes. A woman that we know from the other gospels whose name is Mary. Lazarus's sister, Mary. She comes in with this alabaster flask of pure nard, Very costly. She breaks open the entire bottle, and she pours it over the head of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:When I was in high school I used to wear Brute cologne. It was enough to attract Lauren. It served me well. Sometimes sometimes I would switch to English leather. Actually I had to testify under oath that I wore English leather one time because my my car had been broken into.
Joel Brooks:A guy stole a bunch of things. But before he could get all those items into his car, he passed out. Only one item made it into his car, my English leather. And no lie, I had to in court, they say, is this your English leather? And I said, that's my English leather.
Joel Brooks:So under oath, I have testified that was my cologne of choice. But the only reason I used brutes or English leather was because I couldn't afford what I really wanted. Polo. Like, that's what the rich kids were wearing. It's what what I wanted.
Joel Brooks:I mean, but polo is not even in the ballpark of nard. Nard, it was a perfume. It was extraordinarily expensive because it was made from a plant from far away in India. We're actually told that it could have been sold for more than 300. 300 would have been entire years wages for a day laborer.
Joel Brooks:So we're looking at about $40,000 or up just for a bottle of perfume. Most scholars think that because of this enormous cost of this item, it was likely a family heirloom. This perfume, it was kept in this, what I would imagine, would have been a beautiful alabaster jar sealed at the top. Now since this was a special occasion, Mary, she could have come in, and she could have just broken off the seal, and she could have put a few drops on the feet of Jesus. That would not have been unheard of.
Joel Brooks:I mean, if if you were Especially if you're hosting a party a lot of times you would wash the feet of your dinner guest. And then if you really wanted to go above and beyond, do a really nice gesture. You could add a few drops of perfume to the feet. Mary is not interested in making nice gestures. She actually breaks the bottle, not the seal, breaks the bottle.
Joel Brooks:And she pours it all out. She pours it all over his head, which of course it would have gone down to his shoulders, all the way down to his feet. It would have spilled onto the floor. The gospel of John tells us that the fragrance filled the entire room. I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I did read that fairly recently, one of the oldest and most expensive bottles of wine.
Joel Brooks:It was just sold at auction. It's called It was the the sherry de la Frontera 17/75. It was sold at auction for $43,000. The buyer was anonymous. So anyone here?
Joel Brooks:I just wanna make sure before I go on with this story. I just wanna make sure. Can you imagine though if you were at a friend's house and they were to bring out that bottle? $43,000, And they would say, you won't believe this like I had some whatever uncle die and I just inherited this thing. And you'd be like, woah, what are you gonna do with it?
Joel Brooks:And they just go pop. And they pour you a glass. You would think, you idiot. That's what the first thing you would think. What are you doing?
Joel Brooks:But if the person did that and served you glass, what does that say about how they value you in their eyes? They see you have a tremendous worth to them. Now, I would think you're wasting it, but you know what? Jesus didn't. He said, you're not wasting a drop.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said, what you're doing is absolutely beautiful. So he in no way objects to what this woman is doing. Now, there's others in the room who thought she was being wasteful. Look at verses 45. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment wasted like that?
Joel Brooks:For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii, and given to the poor. I don't think these disciples actually wanted to give the money to the poor. I mean, they suddenly become these social justice warriors right at this moment. It's more like when I was little and, I wouldn't eat my vegetables, and I would start to scrape them in the trash, and my mom would go, what are you doing? There's kids starving in China.
Joel Brooks:And I'd say, well, you could give it to them if you want. I'd call my mom's bluff because I knew the logistics. How do you mail it there? How do you keep it fresh? Like I mean, I knew, but her whole point was not that she actually wanted to give that to the poor.
Joel Brooks:It's that I was being wasteful. And that's what all these disciples are thinking. Woman, you're being wasteful. You're you're just throwing that away when you put it over the head of Jesus. I mean, there's better uses for a $40,000 bottle of perfume than to just pour it all on Jesus.
Joel Brooks:They're all embarrassed. I mean, what is she thinking? We actually read that they scolded her. Jesus immediately comes to her defense. Leave her alone.
Joel Brooks:Why do you trouble her? She is in a beautiful thing to me. They scolded this woman because in their minds, she obviously hadn't thought it through. Because if she had actually taken the time, not been so emotional and thought it through, then she would have thought practically and logically about it. She could have realized that, hey, you know, just a little dab will do you, and then you could actually stretch out that perfume for many, many years.
Joel Brooks:If she'd been a responsible woman, well then she could have just put a little dab on and sold the rest and put it in her 401 ks. If she hadn't been so impulsive or so emotional, she could have realized that, maybe after using just a little bit of perfume, she could have sold off the rest, and she could have helped a lot of really needy people. But Jesus doesn't what call what she said practical. Doesn't say she was practical. Doesn't say she was responsible.
Joel Brooks:Doesn't say what she was strategic. He says what she did was beautiful. It's beautiful. That's what worship looks like. There's no such thing as worship done in moderation.
Joel Brooks:That's not worship. We're never to just pour out a drop of emotion, to pour out a drop of affection. We're supposed to empty the whole thing before Jesus. That's what worship looks like, And the reason it looks like that is because how we worship reflects what we believe to be the value of the object we worship. Did you get that?
Joel Brooks:How we worship reflects what we believe to be the value of what we worship. This woman did not think it a waste to pour $40,000 of perfume over the head of Jesus because she actually understood the value of Jesus. She only wishes she had more to offer. I can't help but think of the great hymn when I survey the wondrous cross. We'll sing it in a little bit.
Joel Brooks:The last line is, were the whole realm of nature mine. That would be an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all. These disciples immediately could tell you the price of the perfume, but they had no idea as to the value of Jesus. And because they valued him so little, they thought she was wasteful.
Joel Brooks:Hear me. Costly worship will always seem wasteful in the eyes of the world. I mean, I was I was as I was chewing on this text. I was thinking the world, it couldn't care less if you pursue everything else to the extreme. Go all in and sex.
Joel Brooks:Go all in and wealth. Go all in at work or your career. Go all in and binge all night on Netflix. Nothing wrong with any of those things. But if you go all in in religion, if you actually go all in in your devotion to Jesus, well, I mean, what what do you do with your life?
Joel Brooks:You're just wasting it. Worship will always seem wasteful in the eyes of the world. I mean, what are you guys doing here on a Sunday morning? Have you gone outside and seen the day? It's spectacular out there, yet you're in here listening to a sermon.
Joel Brooks:You're in here singing. Praise team, they got in here at 6 AM to practice. Why? I hope it's because you see Jesus as supremely valuable. When you do so, this is no longer done out of a duty.
Joel Brooks:It's done out of a sense of joy, and you only wish you had more to give. You see worship is beautiful, not wasteful. After calling what this woman did is beautiful, Jesus then addresses the sudden concern for the poor that his disciples had. Verse 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.
Joel Brooks:She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you wherever the gospels proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Now Jesus obviously had a concern for the poor. Can't read through any of the Gospels and not see that.
Joel Brooks:He's already said, hey. Whatever you do to the least of these, you're doing it unto me. So Jesus's point here is don't give to the poor. His point is this. I'm here.
Joel Brooks:And the window in which I am with you guys is vastly going shut. And I'm infinitely more valuable than the poor. That's that's his point there. Not that you shouldn't give to the poor. It's just that he's right there, and he's only there for a moment longer.
Joel Brooks:He goes on to say that Mary has actually anointed my head. She's anointed me for burial. Now, Jesus has been talking about the cross for a while. I mean, at least, 3 times in Mark, he's explicitly told his disciples, I'm going to die, and then I'm going to rise again. So at least 3 times, he's likely told them many more times, and yet they just don't get it.
Joel Brooks:They don't understand at all why Jesus is going to Jerusalem, and that he's going to die. But Mary does. She seems to see what they cannot see, and it makes sense actually, if you know the life of Mary. If you remember, Mary was the one who was described as sitting at the feet of Jesus while her sister Martha, you know, is in the kitchen banging pots and pans trying to get Mary's attention to come and help her, but she refused because she just wanted to sit at Jesus's feet and listen to him. And Jesus said, she's chosen the better portion.
Joel Brooks:So she used to sit at the feet of Jesus and just listen to him. Mary was also there when her brother Lazarus was raised from the dead. She was outside of that tomb, and she saw Jesus walk right up to him and say, Lazarus, come forth. And so she knew that Jesus had power over death itself. And so she's she's putting these things together.
Joel Brooks:She has listened to what Jesus has said and she knows Jesus is going to die. She also knows that Jesus has power over death, and so that leads her to this sacrifice. She sees that Jesus is going to sacrifice for her. That leads her to make a sacrifice for him. Her sacrifice is actually It's it's just a mere recognition of the much greater sacrifice that Jesus is going to make on her behalf.
Joel Brooks:And I think it's important for us to realize here that when she anointed him, she started with his head. That's how you anoint kings. You anoint their head. Actually, the word Messiah literally just means anointed one. So she anoints the anointed one, the Messiah, as he goes to the cross for her.
Joel Brooks:And the other gospels that actually let us know that later she will wash his feet with her hair, which means she lets her hair down. A woman's hair was her glory. She lets her glory down. She humbles herself. She washes his feet with her hair.
Joel Brooks:It's beautiful. This is the last act of kindness that Jesus will receive before he is crucified. The last one. And he says of this that wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, which notice he knows the gospel of his kingdom will be proclaimed over the whole world. He says, what she does is gonna be spoken of in memory of her, and it has been.
Joel Brooks:Here we are gathered 2000 years later, and we're talking about her. Is that remarkable? We're remembering the beauty of what this woman did. Do you know what we are not remembering? Anyone who worshiped Jesus in moderation.
Joel Brooks:We're not remembering anybody like that. We're not remembering anybody who came to Jesus in a sensible, practical, respectable worship Because worship in moderation is never to be remembered, but we will always remember the beauty of what this woman did. She's gotta be looking around like, don't you understand My King is going to die for me. There's no gift that I could give that would be too great. That's that's a heart that's moved by the gospel.
Joel Brooks:And it was at this moment that Judas said, I'm out, and he goes off to betray Jesus. Judas, he sets a value of about Jesus, a value of Jesus just like the woman does. His value is just considerably less. It wasn't $40,000. It was 30 pieces of silver, which according to Exodus 21 was the price of a slave.
Joel Brooks:Think of that. Mary thought Jesus to be a king. She knew him to be a king. Judas sold him off as a slave. So let me ask.
Joel Brooks:What is the value of Jesus in your eyes? Exactly how much is he worth to you? Let me tell you when you come to see him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who came to sacrifice himself for you, well then were the whole realm of nature yours that would be an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, it demands your soul, your life, your all. You would only wish you had more to give.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me church. Jesus, thank you for preserving the memory of this woman. And as great as her sacrifice was, it just points to the infinitely greater sacrifice of you that you have made on our behalf. So thank you. There's no greater gift that you could give us, Jesus, than the gift of yourself.
Joel Brooks:And so I would pray that we would see you as having infinite value. And your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Thank you, Jesus. And it's in your name we pray.
Joel Brooks:Amen.