#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.
II. IN VERSES 3-9 NOTE AN EXTRAVAGANT EXHIBITION OF SACRIFICIAL LOVE.
Now we come to the middle of the sandwich. The story of the plans being made to kill Jesus is interrupted by this beautiful story of true and unbridled worship. – Verse 3 – “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of ointment of spikenard, very costly; and she broke the flask, and poured it on his head.
Simon the leper, who had been healed by Jesus, hosted a meal for Jesus and His disciples and perhaps others as well. Suddenly a woman came in with an alabaster flask with a very expensive perfume and began to pour it on Jesus’ head, and John’s gospel tells us that she also poured it on His feet and wiped the excess off with her hair. John identifies this woman as Mary, the sister of Martha.
Once, Mary and Martha had a meal for Jesus and Martha was much distressed about the meal while Mary, the true worshipper, spent quality time with Jesus. So worship and adoration of Jesus was what Mary was all about. Mary’s act in today’s text was an exceptional act of pure love for Jesus, as we’ll see.
But it didn’t go over so well with others at the meal. – Look with me at verses 4 and 5: “And there were some who were indignant 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.’
Again, John fills in a detail Mark leaves out: He says that the one who started the murmuring was Judas—the treasurer, the one who had been stealing from the treasury, the one who was greedy and earth-centered in His view of Messiah’s Kingdom.
The value of the perfume bottle Mary poured on Jesus was 300 pence, or literally 300 Roman denarii, which was about a year’s wages for a typical worker. The typical yearly wage in the U.S. today is about $50,000, so that gives you some idea of what kind of value we’re talking about. Some scholars believe this would probably have been a costly family heirloom, and if so, it would have also had great sentimental value to Mary. At any rate, this flask of pure spikenard was a VERY costly perfume!
Looking at things strictly from an earthy level, the criticism seems legitimate. It seems at first look to have been a great waste that could be given to the poor.
But that was not the evaluation of Jesus – Look at verses 6-8: “And Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why are you troubling her? she has done a good work to me. 7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you do them good: but me you do not have always. 8 She has done what she could: she has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying.’”
Unlike Mary’s critics, Jesus did not criticize her; rather he defended her and commended her for her act of true love and devotion and worship of Jesus.
Jesus was not denigrating giving to the poor. Yes, we should give to the poor, but the poor you have with you always. Jesus, the Son of God, was only on this earth a short while longer.
Unlike the others led by Judas, Jesus saw Mary’s act as an expression of love and devotion in light of His approaching death. He said she was anointing His body beforehand for burying. Did she have an inkling of Jesus’ death?— Jesus seems to indicate that was possibly the case.
Notice that He describes her act as a “good” work. The word translated good literally means “beautiful.” Jesus was saying what she had done was a beautiful act of worship.
So admirable was her act that verse 9 says Mary’s act of devotion would be a memorial for generations of believers to come the world over. – “Verily I say to you, Wherever this gospel will be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she has done will be spoken of as a memorial to her.’”
Wherever the Gospel was preached throughout the whole world, believers would read this beautiful story in the Bible. Here we are in Europe, with folks from as far away as the United States, South America, Africa and Asia, and we’ve all heard this lovely story.
These facts probably went over the heads of the disciples, for their minds were earth-bound, focused on money and numeric values and earthly costs and benefits. Jesus recognized what really counts: the extravagant love we should have for Jesus.
III. NOTE WITH ME LAST THAT JUDAS PLOTS TO BETRAY JESUS IN VERSES 10-11. – “And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests, 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”
Now Mark circles back to the original story of the plotting and planning of the Sanhedrin to destroy Jesus—the top of the sandwich. They were afraid to do anything at that time because it might cause a disturbance of the people and spoil their plans.
And then one of the twelve Apostles walks in out of the blue and offers to betray Jesus to them and deliver Him over to their custody at a place away from the crowds. So they didn’t have to wait any longer; an opportunity to strike was dropped right into their laps. Of course, they were overjoyed and promised to give him money for his evil deed.
But why did Judas betray Jesus? In our Easter series we looked at seven possible motives for Judas’s act, but to me the most logical was the motive of greed and self-aggrandizement. Bible scholars think he saw the writing on the wall. Judas had signed up to follow a Messiah who would deliver the Jews from the hands of Rome, but Jesus was charging headlong towards certain death. So, his love of money moved him to salvage something for himself and save his own hide from the authorities in the process. Ultimately, Luke tells us he came under satanic control.
Now the die is cast: The Passion of Christ truly begins.
CONCLUSION
The main thing to take home with you today about today’s sermon is found in the middle of the sandwich: How does God want us to worship? People seem to get all up in arms over worship styles in our churches. But true worship is really only tangentially related to music worship styles. That’s more a personal preference.
True worship can be summed up as “an expression of adoration of God.” It can take many forms: in prayer, in song, in giving to God and others; in serving; in music, in the arts, in the way we live our lives before others—essentially, these are all forms of expression of love for God.
The Hebrew word for worship is sagad, which means “to bow down.” That’s an expression of humility and adoration. The Greek word for worship is proskuneo, which literally means, “to kiss toward.” It’s like throwing a kiss to someone. There are many ways to express your adoration to God.
When everybody else criticized this woman, Jesus heaped on the praise, because of her lavish expressions of love. And as such, she shows us what real worship is all about. You see, if we truly love Jesus like this woman loved Jesus, then…
• We will love Him extravagantly.
We will go overboard in our expressions of love. Our love will be lavish, extravagant. That’s how Mary loved Jesus in our text.
Remember the story of Mary and Martha I talked about earlier, when Martha was freaking out in the kitchen and Mary was in the room where Jesus was, fellowshipping with Him and listening to His every word? Martha ran in and told Jesus that Mary should be rebuked for not helping out. I suppose Martha thought Mary was wasting her time with Jesus. In today’s text, the disciples were criticizing Mary for wasting her money.
People criticized her for her love for Jesus, but Jesus praised such lavishness on Him. Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the better part and it would not be taken away from her. To the disciples in today’s text, Jesus said in verse 6 – “Let her alone. She has done a beautiful work for me.”
Jesus also said of Mary, “She has done what she could.”
The problem is too many of us are content to get by with as little as we can…
as little effort during the worship service as possible;
as small an offering as we can get by with;
as few church services as absolutely necessary;
as little serving as possible in the church, and so on.
Illus. – In one of the Apollo projects, someone looked inside the capsule and asked the astronauts getting ready to take off, “Well, how does it feel?” With a grin, one of them replied, “It really makes you think twice in here when you realize everything in this whole project was constructed according to the lowest bid!”
That’s the way a lot of people live their lives—according to the lowest bid—and sadly, that’s how too many of us love our Lord.
Brethren, especially when it comes to our worship, don’t go for the lowest bid. Instead, let’s go way beyond the ordinary when it comes to loving Jesus. Love Him with all your being! Love Him to the point where others may consider it a “waste,” for if we truly love the Lord, we will love Him extravagantly.
• Second, if we will love like Mary loved, we will love Jesus sacrificially.
We will love Him at great cost to ourselves. We will gladly pay a high price to show our love for Jesus.
We have many examples of sacrificial love for God. The poor widow woman gave all she had to God. In the Old Testament King David wanted to buy a threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite in order to build an altar to the Lord. Araunah said, “I’ll give you the land for free, plus all the oxen and the wood for the sacrifice. Take whatever you want. There’s no charge for the King.” But David made a powerful statement about worship. He said, “No, but I will surely buy it from you at a price: nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that which costs me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24)
Brethren, true worship always costs us something. If it doesn’t, it isn’t real worship. If it doesn’t, it is not a true expression of our love for the Lord.
Do we really love Jesus? In Mark 12 the widow gave two copper coins—all she had to live on. Here in Mark 14 Mary gave a whole year’s wages. Are we giving even a tenth—our tithe on our income—to show our love for Jesus? If we love Him, we will love Him extravagantly and we will love Him sacrificially.
• There’s one final lesson I take away from this beautiful act of worship: Worship isn’t about coming to GET something from God; it’s all about GIVING Him something.
But here’s the thing: When you bless the Lord, you can’t help but be blessed in return. Did you notice what happened when Mary poured out the perfume? John writes that the fragrance filled the house—and when Mary wiped the feet of Jesus with her hair, the fragrance that was on Jesus was now on her. What she had poured out on Jesus came back to her as a blessing. For the rest of the night and the next day, wherever Mary went, she carried with her the fragrance of worship and people would have said, “My, you smell lovely.” And she would have been reminded of being with Jesus.
Even today, you can usually tell when you’re around someone who has poured out his or her life to Jesus. There’s a certain spiritual fragrance about them. There is a beautiful perfume that accompanies their life. Paul wrote, “For we are to God a sweet aroma of Christ, among those who are saved and those who are perishing.” (2 Corinthians 2:15)
Remember, what you give to Jesus always comes back to bless you. [SNIFF] Say, what’s that you’re wearing?—Is it the fragrance of worship? This morning, pour out all of who you are and give it all to God: your pride, your assumptions, your rights, and let Him have complete control of your life.
Let the only thing that remains of you be a sacrifice to God and may your fragrance be a beautiful blessing to all who come into contact with you.
