The Unforgettable Perfume - Mark 14:1-8 Series

Mark 14:1 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." 3 While he was in Bethany, re-clining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabas-ter jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly. 6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Introduction

Head in the Game

What does mean when people say: “Get your head in the game”? Suppose someone from another country saw a football coach grab a player by the facemask and shout at him, “Get your head in the game!” And they asked you, “What does that mean?”—how would define it? Probably what just hap-pened was that player missed a play because of a lapse in concentration. College stars who are drafted always say the same thing after their first game in the NFL—they can’t believe how fast the game is in the pros. The slightest, split-second hesitation means the quarterback you’re protecting gets sacked. Or the receiver you’re guarding gets a half step on you and catches the touchdown pass. And so the slightest bit of distraction or daydreaming or foggy thinking and you’re going to get beat. The only way you’re going to survive in the big leagues is if you’re able to keep your head in the game from start to finish.

We just finished about 6 months of studying the Olivet Discourse, and do you remember what the bottom line was? What the very last thing Jesus said in that sermon? “Stay awake.” And for any-one who might have been nodding off, he repeats it four times in the closing paragraph: Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake … what I say to you I say to everyone, stay awake! From right now until I re-turn, keep your head in the game. Do not drift off to sleep.

And in that paragraph about staying awake , Jesus mentions four examples of moments when we need to be awake: evening, midnight, rooster crow, and dawn. Then you turn one page and see those are the four key moments when the disciples failed. By doing that Mark is cluing us in that we are to read this passion narrative in light of the command to stay awake. So that’s what we’re going to do, and there’s a whole lot we can learn about exactly what sleepiness and alertness look like in this open-ing paragraph of ch.14. We’re going to learn what it looks like to keep our head in the game.

Intro to the Series: Holy of Holies

Chapter 14 of Mark begins the passion narrative. Everything from this moment on is focused on the cross. This is where we step inside what one preacher called the holy of holies of God’s Word. The holy of holies was the inner sanctum of the Temple where the high priest would enter on the Day of Atonement and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on behalf of the people for forgiveness of sins. But that whole system was nothing but a picture or illustration of the real sacrifice in the real holy of ho-lies, which is described beginning here through the end of the book.

The Plotting Chief Priests

And it all starts with the account of Jesus being anointed for burial. Normally the embalming pro-cess doesn’t begin while the person is still alive, but it has to in Jesus’ case. We’ll see why in a mi-nute. But first, before launching into this story, Mark gives us one verse that seems totally unrelated. But as we look at it more closely we’ll see that, as always, Mark’s arrangement of the material is mas-terful.

Mark 14:1 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot."