The Unforgettable Perfume - Mark 14:1-8 Series

Did Know What She Was Doing?

Most commentators assure us, for some reason, that the woman probably didn’t intend this as an anointing for his burial. She had something else in mind, and Jesus just took the occasion to make a point about his death.

I don’t know why they think she didn’t know. Jesus said her reason for doing it was to anoint his body for burial—why not just take that at face value? Jesus honors her by saying she would be re-membered forever wherever the gospel is preached. And why would she be so honored if it was just an accident? All through Mark, the people who are commended are the people who had spiritual insight. And the people who are rebuked are the people who were spiritually blind. I don’t think Jesus is saying this woman will be forever honored because she was just as blind as everyone else but she accidently stumbled into doing something Jesus could use as an illustration.

I don’t even understand why commentators are reluctant to believe she knew what she was doing. I even heard one pastor say maybe she did know through female intuition. Now, far be it from me to say anything against female intuition. I happen to believe females are incredibly intuitive—even more intuitive than males. But figuring out that Jesus was about to die didn’t require any kind of intui-tion—male or female. Jesus has been announcing over and over and over that he was going to be killed. He described how it would happen and who would do it. He couldn’t have stated it any more clearly. Even his enemies picked up on it. That’s why the chief priests and Pharisees asked Pilate to put a guard on the tomb.

Matthew 27:63 They said, “while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'

If they understood what Jesus was saying, why is it so hard to imagine this woman understood.

She understood. She’s intentionally anointing his body for burial. But why is she doing it while he’s still alive? Typically you don’t start the embalming process until after the person is dead. No mat-ter who you are, if you died, before you were buried, someone would prepare your body. That’s true of everyone … except for one category of people. There is one situation where they would bury you without any kind of preparation, and that was if you were executed as a criminal. Criminals’ bodies were thrown to the dogs or tossed in a common grave.

Could this woman have known that not only was Jesus about to die, but that this was the only chance to prepare his body because he would die as a criminal? How could she possibly know that? She knew it because, unlike everyone else, when Jesus spoke, she listened.

Mark 10:33 "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "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, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him.”

It didn’t require a towering intellect to know this. It just required faith—believing what Jesus said.