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Mark 14:1-26
!
Introduction
One day I was coming home from Bible School in my black Volkswagen beetle.
I was just driving into Oak Bluff when a car coming toward me in the other lane, suddenly began to drift into my lane.
He tried to steer and I braked, but it was too late and we collided head on.
No one was hurt but as we exchanged information, we wondered “how did this happen?”
The answer was not difficult to find.
There had been a storm and snow plows had pushed high banks of snow on either side of the road, so there was nowhere to turn to avoid a collision.
The highway was slippery and we were on a banked curve and the other car was unable to keep from sliding into my lane.
Last week we began a journey to the cross and one of the questions which we might be asking is, “how did this happen?”
Jesus was popular and was doing good things.
People were being healed.
He was being revealed as the one whom all the Jews were waiting for.
How was it that such a good man was on the road to the cross?
This is one of the questions answered in Mark 14:1-26, which is our text for today.
We will learn the human factors but we will also be reminded that there was, as we saw last week, a divine necessity to this journey.
This passage is clearly aimed at the cross.
It helps us understand how Jesus came to die but also reveals a number of other preparations for the passion which is the story of Christ’s crucifixion.
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I. The Set Up For His Death
!! A. The Intent To Kill Him 14:1, 2
Even though Jesus was popular, we know from Mark 3:6 that the religious leaders intended to kill him.
There we read, "Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus."
That intent was expressed fairly early in Jesus’ ministry and in the intervening years their determination only intensified.
In Mark 11:18 we read that, "The chief priests and the teachers of the law … began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching."
Now in Mark 14:1 this intent is once again expressed.
But notice that they wanted to find a sly way to do it.
They knew that Jesus was popular and that if they tried anything while such a large crowd was in Jerusalem they would have a riot on their hands and they did not want that, so they had to find a deceptive way to arrest Him.
That is why they did not want to do it during the annual feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, which were on at that time.
People came to celebrate this festival from all across the country and from wherever Jews lived.
Some estimates suggest that Jerusalem swelled to five times its usual population during the celebrations.
Many of those who had come would have been from Galilee and would have known Jesus well because he had had such a long and successful ministry there.
So we can understand why they did not want to make the arrest of Jesus a public matter.
But their intent was firm, they were resolved to kill Him.
!! B. Preparation for Burial 14:3-9
Meanwhile Jesus was in Bethany at a dinner.
He was surrounded by his disciples, other followers and it is interesting that he was also in the company of those who, in other settings, would not have been invited – Simon the leper and a woman.
This woman, who is not identified in Mark, broke open an expensive jar of ointment and poured it on Jesus head.
Talk about a socially awkward moment!
Some of those at the meal immediately pounced on her verbally and began to berate her.
They accused her of wasting this expensive perfume.
Nard was a product imported from India.
The text says that it was worth more than a year’s wages.
If we assume that it was a year’s wages for a day laborer and if we calculate using Manitoba’s minimum wage, which is $9.00 an hour that would make it worth about $18,000.
The most expensive perfume in the world today is worth $2,150~/oz.
so this perfume could easily have been worth more than the most expensive perfume you can get today.
They complained that her act was wasteful.
Their concern was for the poor, which is a noble thought.
It was customary to care for the poor during Passover, and perhaps that was in their minds.
Jesus had taught much about caring for the poor and perhaps His teaching was in their minds.
Such an extravagant act would clearly be out of step with everything Jesus had taught, so they began to “rebuke her harshly.”
But Jesus surprised them and told them to “leave her alone.”
He went on to explain that the extravagant gift was not inappropriate, but was very much in sync with the direction which Jesus was heading.
He said “She has done a beautiful thing to me.”
What she did was not in violation of the principles of Jesus, but was a wonderful act of great love and devotion.
One writer suggests that she could have opened the bottle and poured out a little bit, but when she broke the bottle, it had to all be used at that time and so she poured it all on his head.
You don’t give such an extravagant gift unless you truly love someone and she evidently loved Jesus a great deal.
Her act of extravagant love raised the question for the other followers of Jesus and raises the question for us, “Do we love Jesus that much?”
To love Him is a beautiful thing and to act on that love in extravagant ways is a good thing.
Jesus also pointed out that her timing was perfect.
He was not against caring for the poor.
Far too much of His teaching had already revealed His heart on the matter.
But there was another important reality present that, in spite of all the announcements Jesus had made, most had not really caught.
He was not going to be around much longer.
Jesus said in Mark 14:7, “…you will not always have me.”
The opportunity to minister to Jesus would not last much longer and so her act was done at just the right time.
Jesus went on to indicate that she had prepared his body for burial.
Once again we see that things are pointing towards his death, but what Jesus said shows that this act was doing more than pointing to his death, it was actually preparing for his burial.
The anointing of a body for burial was a common practice.
It would have been their way to express honor for the deceased person much the same way we honor and treat a deceased person’s body with dignity.
It is interesting, however, that when Jesus was buried, in Mark at least, there is no indication that he was anointed for burial.
Perhaps because he died on Sabbath or perhaps because He died as a criminal the anointing didn’t happen.
The intent of the women who accompanied Him was to anoint his body for burial after the Sabbath.
But when the women went to anoint Jesus for burial, he wasn’t there anymore, so this anointing was the only anointing for burial that Jesus received.
Geddert suggests that in this sense this anointing actually even points to the resurrection.
By anointing His body for burial she is acting in accord with the announcements of his death.
Three times Jesus had told the disciples that he was about to die and three times they seemed to be in denial.
By her act she acknowledged His death and prepared Him for it.
!! C. The Betrayer 14:10, 11
The outline which Mark presents to us in this chapter is very interesting.
In the first story we have an account of people who wanted to kill Jesus.
Then we have an account of one who loved Jesus and sacrificed for Him.
Then we have the third account of one who was prepared to sacrifice Jesus in order to gain money.
This setting causes the reader to ask, “Where do I stand?
Am I for Jesus and willing to sacrifice for Him or am I against Jesus?”
So when Judas went to the religious leaders and offered to betray Jesus to them, he played into their hands.
This was the “sly way” in which they would be able to carry out their plot.
But in another way it did not quite play into their hands.
Geddert points out, “The religious leaders want to avoid taking Jesus during the coming festival.
When the traitor, Judas, makes a deal with them, they throw caution to the wind and arrest Jesus without waiting for the feast days to end.”
This shift in their plan is a hint that things are not entirely going the way the religious leaders are plotting, but rather in the way that God is planning.
Jesus was killed in connection with the Passover to make a point about his being the Passover lamb bringing the New Covenant relationship with God.
The Jewish leaders did not plan that, but God did and so in spite of the horror of human evil which is present in the story, we continue to see God’s hand overruling and bringing about His purposes.
So in these stories we have various incidents related to the preparation for the death of Jesus.
We understand that it came about by the evil purposes of the religious leaders and by the cooperation of one of the disciples of Jesus.
We see all the worst in humankind in the way things played out and we begin to understand how such a thing could have happened from the human point of view.
But we also see that God had a plan in this.
We begin to understand that Jesus was preparing for death because it was a divine necessity.
!
II.
The Meaning of His Death
In the next section these purposes of God are further explained.
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