Talk 41 Mark 14:1-11 Mary’s Extravagant Worship
Welcome to Talk 41 in our series on Mark’s Gospel. We’ve now reached Chapter 14 which records the events immediately before the crucifixion of Jesus which Mark describes in Chapter 15. Today we’ll be looking at Mark 14:1-11 where we read how:
1. the Jewish leaders are still looking for a way to arrest Jesus and kill him (vv1-2),
2. a woman anoints Jesus with a very expensive perfume which Jesus says she has done to prepare for his burial (vv3-9),
3. and Judas goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them (vv10-11).
We’ll be concentrating on verses 3-9 and considering what we can learn from this woman’s extravagant devotion and how we can apply it to our worship today. But first, to put this passage in its context, it will be helpful to outline the contents of the rest of the chapter:
12-26 The Last Supper
27-31 Jesus predicts that Peter will deny him
32-42 Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane
43-52 Jesus is arrested
53-65 Jesus is tried before the Sanhedrin
66-72 Peter denies Jesus.
So today’s passage is firmly set in the context of Jesus’ imminent death on the cross:
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, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster 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.”
10. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
Bearing in mind the frequent references to the Jewish leaders’ constant hostile attitude to Jesus (e.g. Mark 3:6, 8:11, 10:2, 12:13), we’re not surprised that they are looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him (v1), and that they are delighted to hear of Judas’ willingness to betray him (vv10-11). Whatever their different motives, Judas and the Jewish leaders were all looking for their opportunity (cf. vv1 and 11). How different was the motivation of the woman, who wanted to express her devotion to Jesus while she still had the opportunity. In John 12 she is identified as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and as I read this passage I am challenged by the extravagance of her worship. I trust you will be too.
3. While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
Bethany lies on the opposite slope of the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. You may remember that in Chapter 11 Jesus and his disciples were staying in Bethany and travelling into Jerusalem each day. The day of Passover, the day when Jesus was crucified, was only two days away, and Mary expresses her love for Jesus by breaking open a jar of perfume worth more than a year’s wages (v5) and anointing Jesus with it.
In doing so, she was showing how much Jesus meant to her, and that is surely what should lie at the heart of our worship. We are telling Jesus how much we love him. From this one verse there is so much we can learn about worship.
Our worship should be motivated by love
In John’s account the story of Mary’s worship comes at the beginning of Chapter 12 immediately after the raising of Lazarus in Chapter 11. We need look no further for a reason why Mary acted in the way she did. Jesus had shown his love for her by raising her brother from the dead. Of course she was grateful. Of course she loved him. 1 John 4:19 tells us that we love (him) because he first loved us.
Our worship should be uninhibited
Mary was not concerned about what others might think about her. There is almost an abandoned recklessness about her actions. Who cares about what it cost? Who cares what others might think? Who cares what they might say? She loved Jesus, and nothing and nobody would stop her expressing her love and her gratitude to him.
Hopefully you worship in a church where not everything is dictated from the front and where there is ample opportunity for spontaneous expressions of praise from members in the congregation. For more on this, see my book, When you come together – God’s plans for when his people meet. But even in churches where opportunity is given for individual expressions of praise and thanksgiving, in my experience relatively few participate in this way. Perhaps we need to be more like Mary, cast aside any inhibitions we might have, and publicly tell Jesus how much we love him.
Of course, we all have different personalities. We’re not all like Mary. Some of us are more like Martha, who expressed her love for Jesus by serving him and offering hospitality to others. So be yourself in the way you worship. There’s no need to copy others!
Our worship can be expressed by actions without words
There is no mention in this story of Mary saying anything. But her action is worth a thousand words. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul challenges us, in the light of God’s great love for us, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This he says is a spiritual act of worship, or as the old AV says, our reasonable service. We show our love for God not only by our words, but by our deeds. How can we not love him when we remember all he has done for us? And because we love him, we are able to love others too. Acts of loving service to others are an expression of our love for him.
Our worship should be our lifestyle, not just limited to what we do in church on Sundays
Mary was worshipping Jesus in someone’s home, not in the synagogue and not on the Sabbath. Whenever and wherever we are, our lifestyle should be an expression of our devotion to the Lord Jesus. Notice what Paul says in Colossians 3:16-17:
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Verse 16 seems to refer to when we are gathered as a church. We are to remember what Christ has taught us. We are to teach and admonish one another. We are to sing with gratitude in our hearts. But verse 17 takes us beyond what happens in church to our everyday living. Whatever we do, we are to do it with gratitude to God for all that Jesus has done for us. That certainly applies to what we do in church, but our whole life should be an expression of what we profess in church. Worship should be our lifestyle.
Our worship may cost us something
There was, of course, an immediate financial cost to Mary’s worship – more than a year’s wages. But it also cost her the criticism and condemnation of some of those who watched her.
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.
John’s account identifies one of those present as Judas. One lesson we can learn from these verses is that concerns about cash can lead to distraction from Christ. If our hearts are not right it’s all too easy to criticise the way that others worship Jesus. Notice how one thought can lead to an outright attack on someone else’s integrity. Judas’s heart wasn’t right. This led to a critical thought in his mind. Then it was vocalised, and he discovered he wasn’t the only one thinking that way, and so they ganged up on Mary and rebuked her harshly. It’s not only wrong to criticise others in this way, it can have serious consequences. Remember Michal?
But even if we recognise that it’s wrong to criticise others for the way they worship God, that doesn’t mean that others will not sometimes criticise us. And that’s something we should be prepared for. If we really love Jesus and want to tell him so publicly, we shouldn’t hold back for fear that people will find fault with what we say or the way we say it. Hebrews 13:15 tells us that we should continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name. Mary was criticised for her worship, but the compensation she received for it was the approval of Jesus.
Our worship brings delight to the heart of Jesus
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.”
Notice how Jesus defends Mary from their criticism. What Mary had done she had done for him. And Jesus knows it. He says, She has done a beautiful thing to me. Jesus should always be the reason for our worship. Mary had not broken that jar of perfume over him to show others how much she loved him. She did it for him. And he commends her for it. A single word of commendation from Jesus more than compensates for a thousand words of criticism from others.
Notice too that Jesus says, She has done what she could. Mary had taken the opportunity while she could, while Jesus was still physically with her, to express her devotion to him. And all he asks of us is that we do what we can, whether it’s in worship or in witnessing to others. He doesn’t ask more, but he does expect us to do what we can.
And sometimes, whether we realise it or not, there may a prophetic dimension to what we say or do. As one of Jesus’ close disciples, Mary would surely have heard his frequent predictions of his death, but it’s not clear that she knew quite how soon Jesus was to be crucified. What is clear is that her actions had a prophetic significance. She was anointing Jesus’ body beforehand to prepare for his burial. If we act or speak out of love for Jesus, although we may not realise it at the time, God can speak powerfully and prophetically through us. I can’t remember how many times people have told me, after the event, how what I have said has impacted them greatly, and yet I may have completely forgotten what I had said or had no idea at the time how relevant it would be for them.
And finally, we need to remind ourselves that Mary’s act of devotion was done in the context of Jesus’ death. That’s what her actions prophetically proclaimed. The cross was the reason for her worship, and it is surely ours too. We worship God for many things, but in the final analysis, all our love for him and all our devotion to him are because of the cross. I love Jesus because he loved me enough to die on the cross to save me from my sins. That’s why I’m living for him. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.