#56 Lavish Love Series

#56 Lavish Love

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

November 7, 2021

NOTE: The conclusion of this message was adapted from David Dykes’ sermon on the same text on SermonCentral.com. It’s worth reading his whole sermon.

TEXT: Mark 14:1-11 – “After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. 2 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.

3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. 4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? 5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. 7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. 8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. 9 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.”

INTRODUCTION

We now come to the sixth major section of the Gospel of Mark, referred to as the Passion of Christ, which includes His betrayal, trial, and death on the cross.

Besides the ultimate theme of Jesus’ sacrificial work on Calvary for our sins, on the human level, the main theme we will observe is abandonment! Today’s chapter begins with a plan to destroy Jesus by the Sanhedrin, while Jesus is at the height of His popularity with the Jewish people. Following the Lord’s Supper, the groundswell of support for Jesus evaporates. A plot forms with Judas to capture Jesus, and eventually, even Jesus’ disciples desert Him, with one betraying Him and another denying Him, and all fleeing Him. On the cross, Jesus dies utterly alone—condemned by Rome, and abandoned by His nation, His people the Jews, His own disciples, and even the Father in heaven.

Yet abandoned, accused, attacked, mocked, and beaten—through it all, Jesus suffers silently, as Isaiah put it, “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, he opens not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)

But before all this happens, here in chapter 14 is a beautiful story of someone who showed extraordinary love to Jesus, having a perceptive inkling of what His fate would be.

Let’s look at Mark 14:1-11:

I. NOTE FIRST, IN VERSES 1-2, A RESOLVE BY THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES TO PUT JESUS TO DEATH. – “After two days it was the feast of 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. 2 But they said, ‘Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.’”

We have noted before a unique, but effective, literary devise Mark employs: a “sandwich structure” in which…Mark begins a story (represented by the bottom piece of bread), interrupts the story with another story in the middle (the meat in the sandwich), and finally finishes the first story (the top piece of bread).

There are two sandwiches in chapter 14, the first in today’s text. The bottom bread piece is a resolve to take Jesus by trickery to have Jesus killed. But they feared an uproar of the people, so they decided to delay until after the two feasts coming up, a time when Jerusalem would be crowded with pilgrims from all over Israel and even the larger Middle East and southern Europe. With such multitudes, and animosity towards the Romans always percolating in the background, these two feasts were always dangerous flash points, so the Roman government put into place elaborate security measures to prevent any disturbances during these feasts each time they were held. The Sanhedrin wanted to make sure their plans were not marred by Roman interference, so they decided to wait until after the feasts had finished and people returned to their hometowns and villages to take action against Jesus.