B I B L E B asic I nstruction B efore L eaving E arth.

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1 Mark 14:1-11 extravagant love Join me in verse 24 of chapter 13 P a g e 1 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. An earthquake in the heavens preceding the second coming of Christ 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. B I B L E B asic I nstruction B efore L eaving E arth. Proverbs 29:18 Without a vision my people perish vision understanding of God s word perish wander aimlessly Without an understanding of God s word my people wander aimlessly Our duty is to stay awake and WA T C H! As Jesus declares in verse 33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. "I don't know when Jesus is coming so I have to be alert, eager, and ready for His coming." - This should have a purifying effect in our lives - It gives us a sense of urgency - It makes us bold in speaking to the lost - It helps us keep a light touch on the things of this world WE all should wake up every morning and say, Jesus could come back today and I need to be ready. PRAY!

2 P a g e 2 Jon Courson notes about chapter 14 We have now come to the longest chapter in Mark s Gospel. To set the stage for this drama, it should be noted that Jesus is not so much the main Actor as He is the One being acted upon; not so much the Deliverer, as He is the One delivered into the hands of men, for in the chapter before us, we will see Mary anointing Him, Judas betraying Him, the religious leaders arresting Him, and finally Peter denying Him. 14 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. The light of the world shined on their darkness and they didn t like it one bit. The winds of treachery have been gusting around Jesus with increasing intensity. 2 But they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. First two verses display the hatred of man towards Jesus and the following will show a great love so from hatred to love two extremes. So there is a calm eye in the midst of this storm of mounting opposition. It is a home in Bethany, a shelter of intimate friends who come to honor him. Jesus would be free from tension amidst people who loved him. Other gospel writers provide the guest list: 1. Simon, a leper Jesus healed; 2. Lazarus, a dead man Jesus raised, 3. Martha, who served him; 4. Mary, who sat at his feet; 5. the disciples, who left everything and followed him. What conversations must have taken place. Simon, what was the hardest part about being a leper? Knowing I would never again know the touch of a human being. The emotional pain of yelling unclean, unclean everywhere I went. Knowing that all believe it was my sin that made me sick. Always making sure I was six feet away from any other human, being shunned. Watching little children run from me in fear. Older children mocking me and throwing rocks at me. Adults muttering with disgust as they look the other way. Hey Lazarus, what did you see on the other side? Was heaven for real

3 P a g e 3 man. 3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as 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. Again this woman is identified by John 12:3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Jewish women considered their hair their glory, and Mary s letting it down and drying Jesus feet with it meant that all her humanity, all her glory was devoted to him in worship. So now she places her glory upon the feet of her Savior gratefully, lovingly and sacrificially I love you Jesus! To keep their money secure, people in Jesus day often invested it in costly perfumes or ointments that would be hidden in a house or buried in a field. In this case, the spikenard, which was from India, would be worth a year s salary. Lane notes "Early in the first century Pliny the Elder remarked that 'the best ointment is preserved in alabaster.' The value of the perfume, and its identification as nard, suggests that it was a family heirloom that was passed on from one generation to another, from mother to daughter." She broke the flask and poured it on His head: The flask was a small bottle with a thin neck and the bottle was opened by breaking the neck of the bottle. Mark's wording indicates that she poured the entire contents of the bottle on Jesus' head. When a guest arrived for a meal, it was customary to anoint the guest's head with a dab of oil. Here, this woman goes much farther than the customary greeting. She poured the entire contents of an alabaster flask of very costly oil on the head of Jesus. Seems as though there were a lot of talkers in this group. Mary was a doer! She comes with perfume. Expensive perfume. As she anoints him, the aroma of extravagant love fills the room. So pure. So lovely. Flowing from the veined alabaster jar of her heart, a heart broken against the hard reality of her Savior s imminent death.

4 P a g e 4 John tells us that after pouring ointment upon Jesus head, Mary wiped His feet with her hair (12:3). As a result, her hair took on the same fragrance as His feet. She smelled just like Jesus. That s what worship does. Tired of smelling like the world does your attitude S T I N K? Become a worshipper! Pour yourself out in private worship corporate worship morning devotions Worship is the most intimate expression of those who long to smell like Jesus. Furthermore, not only did Mary s fragrance begin to change, but the house began to take on the fragrance of Christ as well. Is there a nasty smell in your house? Courson says, Are tempers flaring? Are cross words being spoken? How long has it been since you ve had family devotions where you ve sat down with your kids or as a couple to spend time worshiping the Lord? When you pour out your praise, when you worship the Lord, His fragrance fills the house. This spikenard was very possibly Mary s dowry that which she would have presented to her husband at the time of her marriage. If indeed this was the case, in pouring it out upon Jesus, she was signifying that she was ready to give up everything, even marriage, in order to devote herself completely, tenderly, wholeheartedly to Him. As we have noted the winds of treachery have been gusting around Jesus with increasing intensity. Now a draft has made his way into this warm circle of friends, and betrayal is in the air. The draft is Judas. But only Jesus feels the icy chill. Jesus, and one other Mary Look at verse 4 with me But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? John tells us in his gospel namely in chapter 12 verses 4-6 it was the man in charge of the money Judas Iscariot who led this charge against her. This money could have been used for the poor, he protested. Yet he said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he held the bag and was a thief. Judas, with calculator in hand, a man who knew the PRICE of everything and the VALUE of nothing, instantly calculated the waste a whole years wages.

5 P a g e 5? asked, Why was this fragrant oil wasted? Wiersbe gives us a nugget "It is interesting that the word translated 'waste' in Mark 14:4 is translated 'perdition' in John 17:12 and applied to Judas! Judas criticized Mary for 'wasting money,' but he wasted his entire life!" 5 For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor. And they criticized her sharply. Notice they so all chimed in along with Judas The Greek indicates that they snorted their indignation like angry horses. HOW HUMILIATING THIS WAS FOR POOR MARY! 6 But Jesus said, Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a A good work for Me. A good work Kalos In the Greek not only a good thing; but a virtuous, beautiful or lovely thing. 7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. 8 She has done what she could. It s like Jesus is saying, Do Something! Someone has said, "I'm only a man, but I am a man. I can't do everything, but I can do something. And what I can do I ought to do. And what I ought to do, I'm available to do." None of us can do everything. But all of us can do something! Do what you can do! You cannot feed the starving world, but you can feed one person. You cannot comfort all the lonely hearts on earth, but you can comfort one or two. And Mary did what she could. Jon Courson says, Mary wouldn t be able to keep the priests from falsely accusing Jesus, the crowds from mocking Him, the soldiers from crucifying Him but she could pour oil upon Him in an act of worshipful acknowledgment that He had come to die. And in so doing, Mary did what she could. You might not be able to speak to large groups of people. You might be unable to preach, lead worship, or sing. But can you bake some bread for someone in need? Can you make a hospital visit? Can you mow a lawn? Too often I focus on what I

6 can t do instead of seeing what I can do. Mary did what she could. And Jesus commends her. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. P a g e 6 SO WHO WAS BL OWI NG I T HE RE? WAS I T MARY? I T HI NK NOT! Listen to the words of Ken Gire Did they not see the shadow of the cross lengthening to overtake the Lord? Did they not know his hour was fast upon him? Time and again, Jesus warned them. Both in parable of the tenants killing the landowner s son and in plain language: We are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him, and kill him. How much clearer could he have spoken? What were these men thinking? Did they ignore his words? Dismiss them? Forget them? Hear only what they wanted to hear? Were the words too painful that they suppressed them? Or their minds too occupied with the work of the kingdom that they lost sight of their King? For the disciples, the ministry was fast becoming a business to be budgeted rather than a Savior to be served. What a stab in the heart this must have been to their honored guests. Bickering about the poor when one sits in their midst famished for a crust of human understanding. They are the most intimate confidants, yet none has a clue to the gnawing hunger inside him. Peter doesn t. James doesn t. John doesn t. Jesus is so moved by Mary s act of worship in verse 9 He says, 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. Mary s act of worship affected the entire community. Throughout history, Bethany is a place of which people who know the Word and love the Lord have been very aware. Why? Because one woman poured out worship. The early church referred to this event often in its preaching and teaching. So does the church today as all around the world Mary s singular act of worship is spoken of constantly. As G Campbell Morgan has stated, I would rather be a successor to Mary of Bethany than to the whole crowd of the apostles. She truly loved Jesus. 10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to

7 betray Him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him. P a g e 7 Why would one of Jesus' own disciples betray Him? What motive could Judas have? Many have speculated through the years. Perhaps his feelings were hurt when Jesus rebuked him when Mary poured the ointment over Jesus' feet. Perhaps it was plain greed. Some speculate that Judas wanted to "force" Jesus into an open display of Messianic glory. From John 11:57 it seems that the religious leaders originally intended to seize Jesus during the feast. When they saw the popularity of Jesus at the triumphal entry and His authority on the temple mount, they changed their mind and decided to try after the feast. Their plan changed again when Judas volunteered to arrange a private, quiet arrest. Soon the alabaster body of Jesus would be broken. Blood would spill from the whip from the thorns from the nails and finally, from the spear thrust in his side. A P E R F U ME MOR E P R E C I OU S T HAN N A R D. It would cover the stench of mockers rabbled around the cross. It would flow to fill the earth with its fragrance. It would ascend to heaven to reach the very nostrils of God. So pure. So lovely. So truly extravagant. The Savior had come to earth to break an alabaster jar for humanity. And Mary had come that night to break one for him. It was a jar she never regretted breaking. Nor did he. P RAY E R : by Ken Gire Fairest Lord Jesus: Grant that my heart would be a Bethany for you a quiet place of friendship where you were the honored guest. Grant that I may respond to you not with the prudence of the disciples but with the extravagance of Mary. To realize that there is a time to sell perfume for the poor and a time to shower it on you. Grant that where betrayal is in the air I might fill that room with a beautiful thing said or done for you. Without thought of what others may say. Help me, O Light of the World, to see all my possessions illumined by your presence. And to remember that their true worth is only in proportion to how they honor you. So teach me to value all you have entrusted to my care in the short life I have on this earth.

8 P a g e 8 Should I ever hesitate and cling to any alabaster jar of my own, bring to my remembrance the precious jar you broke for me. And in the fragrance of that thought may I fall at your feet, as Mary did, lavishing upon you not only what I treasure most but also my tears Spurgeon said, "Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior. Get you close to Christ, and carry the remembrance of him about you from day to day, and you will do right royal deeds. Come, let us slay sin, for Christ was slain. Come, let us bury all our pride, for Christ was buried. Come, let us rise to newness of life, for Christ has risen. Let us be united with our crucified Lord in his one great object - let us live and die with him, and then every action of our lives will be very beautiful.