Sermon Tone Analysis

Open your Bibles to Mark 14:1-9.

•We are continuing our study of the Gospel of Mark.

•This morning we will be looking at the account of our Lord Jesus being anointed with perfume while He was in the town of Bethany.

We’ve come to the beginning of the end of Mark’s Gospel.

•In chapter 14, Mark begins his Passion narrative.

Passion comes from the Latin that means “to suffer.”

•In this chapter, we begin the narrative concerning the preparation, betrayal, arrest, trial, condemnation, crucifixion, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

•This heart of our Faith is Christ crucified for sinners.

•And so, it makes sense that Mark, who is usually pretty quick in his narratives, slows things down at this point.

•Chapters 14 and 15, compared to the rest of the book, are an unusually long account of the events surrounding the death of Christ.

Everything is coming to a head.

•The crucifixion of Christ is soon to take place.

•The purpose for which Christ came into the world, to die for sinners on a cross, is right on the horizon.

•But before His death, a series of events take place.

•And, since they are recorded for us in the Scriptures, we know that God wants us to meditate upon them.

•He wants us to behold Christ in His glory, see the worth of Christ, the wickedness of sin, the sovereignty of Jesus over His own death, the sacrificial love of Jesus, the cost of our redemption, and the salvation that Christ has wrought by His blood.

And this morning we are going to be focusing on the worth of Christ.

•And to do that, we now come to a beautiful portion of Scripture about a woman who anoints Jesus with perfume.

•We will read of a disciple’s act of love and devotion to the Christ who would die for her sins.

My prayer is that, through this sermon, God would show us Christ.

•And that God would show us how we should esteem Him, love Him, and gladly give everything we are and have to Him. 

•And, from that, may God remind us that what is done for Christ matters forever because, in grace upon grace, Christ remembers His servants.

If you would and are able, please stand with me now for the reading of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.

Mark 14:1-9

[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, 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 denarii 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.”

(PRAY)

Our Great God and Father, 

We come before you now in eager expectation of what you will do through the preaching of your Word.

You love your Word.

And you have promised blessing to those who receive it with faith.

And so, we ask that, by your Spirit, you would open our hearts to receive what you have revealed in the text of Scripture.

Teach us and reveal wonderful things to us this morning as we turn to your Word.

Show us your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Show us something of His infinite worth.

For we know that if we get even the smallest glimpse of who He is, we will be changed.

Grant that we would behold Jesus Christ with the eye of faith.

And, from that, grant that we would give all that we are to Him in love, for He first loved us.

We ask these things in Jesus’ Name and for His sake.

Amen.

1.)

The first two verses of our text tell about the plot of the religious rulers of Israel to arrest and kill Jesus.

•I intend to return to these verses more thoroughly next Lord’s Day, God willing.

•But it is sufficient for our purposes this morning to have this in mind from those opening verses:

•Passover is going to take place in two days.

It was the most important religious festival for Israel.

•Passover is the celebration of God delivering Israel out of slavery to Egypt.

•On the evening before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a lamb was killed and eaten by those celebrating.

And it was to remind Israel of when God commanded that the blood of a lamb be put on the doorposts of each house so that God’s wrath would PASS OVER the house as God judged Egypt.

•And when this Festival took place, the population of Jerusalem increased greatly, since sacrifices had to be offered at the Temple.

Now, our Lord was a very popular rabbi.

We read of that throughout the Gospels.

•Hear me: Not many truly believed in Him.

Not many recognized who He is really is.

But He was nevertheless very popular as a healer and someone who taught.

•And so, because of His popularity and the increased population in Jerusalem during Passover, the religious leaders thought that it would be best to arrest Jesus by stealth so that a riot wouldn’t break out over a popular figure being arrested.

•The chief priests and scribes knew that the Romans would violently and quickly put down any kind of rioting.

•So, the religious leaders were looking for an opportunity to stealthily arrest Jesus and have Him killed.

•In light of this, there is actually a good chance that they hoped to do this AFTER the festival was over.

But that was not God’s plan.

•There is a whole sermon that could be preached from these verses, but let me say this: 

•God was sovereignly orchestrating the sacrifice of the True Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

And it was the will of God that Jesus die for the sins of His People during Passover.

•God controlled this whole thing.

Not the religious leaders.

And Jesus would be crucified on Passover.

But see this very simple truth: Jesus was hated.

•The chief priests and scribes want Him dead.

•And so, they are seeking a way to have Him arrested and killed.

•The first two verses of our text are full of hatred from the enemies of Christ.

But Mark quickly transitions to another scene.

•And the difference could not be greater.

•And we will see that, even in the midst of being hated by some, Jesus is loved by others.

2.)

In vv3-9, Mark flashes back to a scene a few days before in the town of Bethany.

•The parallel account in John 12 tells us that this event happened six days before the Passover (Saturday).

•Mark says that this happened “while He was in Bethany.”

But he DOES NOT explicitly link it to being two days before the Passover.

•So, there is no contradiction between Mark and John.

•Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has taken this event chronologically out of order.

And he has done so to make a couple of theological points.

But John records it chronologically.

•Remember, the Gospels aren’t meant to be read like newspapers.

Sometimes events are recorded out of order to make theological points.

But it is always done in such a way that there is no actual contradiction.

But the text says they are in Bethany.

•This is a town right outside of Jerusalem.

It’s where Jesus was staying before His crucifixion.

•And in v3 Mark says that they were “in the house of Simon the leper.”

•Obviously, Simon is a former leper.