Mark 14:3-9 KJV 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.
Mark 14:3-4 Moffatt’s When he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, lying at a table, a woman came up with an alabaster flask of pure nard perfume, which had cost a great sum; the flask she broke and poured the perfume over his head. [4] This angered some of those present. “What was the use of wasting perfume like this?”
l. INTRODUCTION -- PERFUME
Somewhere way back deep in my mind, I happened to lodge an article in my memory from National Geographics that I knew would come in handy one of these days. In October, 1998, NG had an article entitled “Perfume, The Essence of Illusion.” One major player in the industry stated, “Perfume is a promise in a bottle. Perfume speaks more to our vulnerabilities than our strengths. We sell hope.”
Perfume comes from a multitude of sources. It can come from the fragrant fields of lavandin along the country-sides in France. It can come from the dew-kissed petals of the Damask roses that come from Bulgaria’s Valley of Roses. Some may even come from the jasmine fields of India.
It takes 2.5 million flowers to yield just one pound of jasmine concentrate. It takes 800 pounds of crushed roses to bring just one pound of concentrate. But those pounds of concentrate can turn into dollars. One rose concentrate ran $3,650 a pound. The jasmine of India was as costly as $12,000 per pound.
Ancient history bears out that the Assyrians perfumed their beards. Nero literally washed in rose wine. In the 18th century, there were many homes that were built with wood paneling that had been scented.
One of the most riveting things about the great perfumes of the world is the way that it is mixed. At this point, the perfumer acts as a composer. The work is done almost as a three part musical piece. The part of the perfume known as the top note, or head, spins off the skin immediately, it is a fanfare and vanishes literally in minutes. The middle note, or the heart, which is compounded of the heavier materials, can last for several hours. Finally, there is the base note, or the dry down, it can literally last for several days after the wearer of the perfume has left. I might add that Mary’s ointment, Mary’s perfume, has resonated for centuries. . . . It appears to be gathering strength as time passes.
-Remember though and I again quote one of the industry’s leaders: “Perfume is a promise in a bottle. Perfume speaks more to our vulnerabilities than our strengths. We sell hope.”
-With every sacrifice that is offered, there is a sense of hope that accompanies that sacrifice. . . . no matter what it is!
ll. MARK 14
A. The Setting and the Anointing
-The day was probably on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Here was Jesus with some of His closest friends and His disciples in the house of Simon the Leper.
-The very event for the supper appears to have been motivated by gratitude that Simon had for Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
-While they are silently eating the meal, a woman approaches the Lord. This woman, we learn from John 12:2-3, was Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha.
-She, without uttering a word, comes with a vessel that has a long, narrow neck that could be easily broken or crushed, is broken and the Lord is anointed. William Barclay refers to this act as “an oasis of sweetness in the desert of bitterness.”
-Mary’s container was what is commonly referred to as “soft marble.” Curiously enough, her broken alabaster box has long outlived the ruins of marble that was once called the Roman Empire.
-Mary is literally preparing Him for His burial (John 12:7-8). The disciples had been around and had heard all of His words and yet it never connected with him.
-How is that Mary “knew” what was going to happen to Him? The clue is to look at the place where she was.
• She is at the feet of Jesus anointing Him and wiping His feet with her hair in Luke 7 (37-38).
• She is at the feet of Jesus in Luke 10 (39-40) when Martha is preparing supper in their home.
• She is at the feet of Jesus in John 11 when Lazarus has died.
-In all three of these times that Mary is specifically mentioned to have been in the presence of Jesus, she is at His feet. There is a posture and position that comes with real spiritual hunger.
Proverbs 16:19 KJV Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
B. The Reaction to the Anointing
-The silence is shattered by murmuring disciples.
• They had indignation among themselves. The original indicates that they “ached with vexation.”
• They murmured against her. Again the original sheds greater light when it suggests that “they growled at her and rebuked her vehemently.”
-“Why this waste?!” These are the words that come from a man who has lived all of his life without really learning very much at all. Little did he realize that there is much, in fact a great gulf that exists between wasting and giving. Mary did not waste it, she gave it.
-There will always be a cost involved in consecration. No matter how pure, holy, or sacred the act may be, there will be those who question and accuse the person who goes beyond.
-Much comes from worship that is given. Worship that is not coerced, or demanded, but is spontaneous and real.
-“Let her alone!” These are the words that came from the mouth of the Lord, the words are calm but the command is unmistakable.
C. A Memorial To Broken Things
-There are memorials that come with things that are broken:
• Crushed grains and wheat becomes bread that sustains us.
• Bruised plants give up substances that help us to heal.
• Broken pitchers helped Gideon to defeat his foes.
• It was a wasted barrel and empty cruse that the prophet of God was sustained.
• It was on the boards and broken pieces of the ship that Paul and his companions were saved.
• Although no bone of the Lord was broken, it was His broken life that brought salvation to those who need it.
• It was by the scattering of the early Church that the Gentiles were saved.
-The broken parts of life sometimes yield the greatest motives for service to God.
-It became a memorial in the eyes of God. The memorials of God are far more lasting than are the memorials of man.
-That will be the catch of life, some memorials are for God and others for men. But those who offer memorials will always have to understand that Mark’s narrative displays to us two distinct classes:
• The Gripers
• The Givers
• The griper always hangs himself. . . . . If not with rope then he does so with words.
• The giver gives himself to immortality.
-“Why this waste?” There is always imminent danger when the cost of love is attempted to be calculated. This precious perfume was not wasted. Judas had the perception that allowed him to understand the price of the perfume but not the purpose of the perfume. This perception would dog his trail because later he would understand the price of blood but never grasp the beauty and power of love.
The wife of Thomas Carlyle (a British historian and thinker) wrote in her diary of her hunger for a word of appreciation and love from her husband. After her death, Carlyle read the diary and with a broken heart, repeated over and over, “If I had only known! If I had only known!” That is certainly the way it is sometimes. . . if we had only known and been aware of the value of God’s economy.
-This precious perfume was poured out by a loving heart and it was not wasted! The question: Would it have been “wasted” if she had used it on the body of her brother, Lazarus? She never got the opportunity to do so, because a miracle had walked into her life and have caused her to save the perfume for another day. . . . a far more important day.
-She did not waste the perfume on the dead but she allowed it to consume the living. This is what life is really about. . . . . Allowing what God has given to you to be consumed on others.
D. The Horror of Hoarding
-There is a purpose for all things in life and the greatest waste in life comes from hoarding things, in keeping them from their proper use in life. The perfume would have been wasted had it not been used.
• Some hoard up bitterness when they ought to let go of long past and often forgotten hurts.
• Some hoard up anger when they ought to pour out forgiveness.
• Some hoard up jealousy when they should find contentment with life.
• Some hoard up long nurtured grudges when they ought to pour out thankfulness.
• Some hoard up old hurts when they ought to give in to spiritual healing.
• Some hoard up past mistakes of others when they ought to hold themselves to the same expectations. . . . this will generate mercy in your life.
-Hoarded up perfume will never become a memorial before God. It is only when we really let things pour out of our spirits that God can use us as He sees fit.
-Mary had to break open the alabaster box. If she would not have broken the vase, her heart would have been broken.
-This perfume cost her a single year’s work. Perhaps her life’s savings was wrapped up in the cost of it. But love and worship has its moments—and when they pass us by, they are gone forever. You may not always have the opportunity to express your love.
One man related that after the death of his oldest child, he was standing in an airport waiting for his flight. He noticed a little blonde girl, ten years old or so, and she was looking at some dolls in one of the mall areas. She had an elderly man with her and she said, “Granddaddy, loan me the money to buy this doll and I’ll pay you back out of my allowance when I get home.” He thought to himself, how many times have I heard similar appeals. If we do not respond to the privilege to give, there may come a time when our hearts will break at the loss of opportunity.
• Did Mary really understand her actions on that day?
• Did she understand what her heart was feeling on that day?
• Did she really know that she was stepping into immortality without that single act?
-I doubt that she really knew. . . .She simply was responding to a much deeper call. A call that knew that there was some good work in wasted ointment.
-She hath anointed my body for burial aforetime! Mary put her gift into His hands rather than saving them for His grave. He did not need a marble monument, He longed for true worship.
In the Orient, an old custom would cause a host to go to the seat of the honored guest and take the glass that he was drinking from and break it at the end of the meal. This was done for a reason. . . . The reason was that “no lesser hand” would ever touch the glass again. Perhaps this was in Mary’s mind that day when she broke the alabaster box.
-But there was one thing in the mind of Jesus that probably never entered into Mary’s mind on that day in His last week. Jesus knew the custom in the East was first to bathe a body and then anoint the body with oils and perfumes. After the body had been attended to, then the flask that contained the perfume was dashed into pieces and placed in the grave with the body.
-Although Mary did not mean it as such, this was exactly what she was doing.
E. Greek Word Study
Mark 14:6 KJV And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
-In the Greek language, there are two words that are used for “good.” There is agathos which describes a thing that is morally good and then there is kalos which describes a thing which is not only good but lovely.
-A thing might be agathos and yet it can be hard, stern, austere, and even unattractive. Justice, ethics, and honor can fall into this category. They are good and necessary but they are rigid and sometimes can be unmerciful and hurtful.
-But a thing can be kalos and it is winsome and lovely and have a certain appeal to it. That is exactly what Mary did. Love does not do only good things, love does lovely things.
• If love is true, there will always be some extravagance about it.
• If love can see, there will be a sense of recklessness that comes with it.
• If love is alive, it will not calculate, in fact if it gave everything, the gift would be too small.
lll. “WASTE” THE OINTMENT
-One of the greatest tragedies of life is that we are often moved to do something great and we do not do it. We may give in to a certain sense of shyness or awkwardness or even give in to second thoughts.
-It often occurs with the simplest of things—the impulse to send a letter of thanks, the impulse to tell someone how much they really mean to us, or the impulse to give some special gift. . . . . and far too often we give in to the ordinary. . . . and we never “waste” our perfume for the occasion that it was meant to be “wasted” on.
-To Mary, Jesus Christ was all of the world to her and she would not save her treasure for a lesser use! Why do so many insist on keeping their treasures, their alabaster boxes, their hoarded gifts away from the highest use of the Master?
-Was it really reckless extravagance of an impulsive and demonstrative woman?
-“She hath done what she could!” This was the description of the Lord as to her actions. Our actions will always perform a ministry beyond our immediate intentions. When you live your life this is crucial to understand.
-If I could, I would:
• Energize your prayers with faith and desire.
• Give you a restlessness that tormented your mind until you let your whole life collapse in the presence of God.
• Give you an insatiable hunger for God.
• Bless you with a desire for holiness.
• Touch you in a way that crippled your flesh but would exalt your spirit.
• Impact you with passion that raged to have true revival.
• Entrust to you a holy, godly, and awe-inspiring devotion to God.
• Impart to you a burning zeal to not just know the Word but to live the Word.
• Touch you with a transparency that caused you to live life before all men without reproach.
-I would do something to you that caused you to break the alabaster box into a thousand pieces. . . . but none of this can ever happen, in fact none of these things is entrusted to me to allow to happen, no matter how much I pray for you, preach to you, and fast for you. . . .all of this has to come from somewhere within. . . . . . you must long for a good work to come from “wasted ointment.”
-Remember though and I again quote one of the industry’s leaders: “Perfume is a promise in a bottle. Perfume speaks more to our vulnerabilities than our strengths. We sell hope.” With every sacrifice that is offered, there is a sense of hope that accompanies that sacrifice. . . . no matter what it is!
Philip Harrelson
June 25, 2006
barnabas14@yahoo.com
