Passage: Mark 14:1-11
The Big Idea
Mark sets two people side by side so we can see the two paths before us. In Bethany, a woman broke an alabaster flask of costly perfume and poured it all on Jesus. Others called it a waste. Right after, Judas went to the chief priests to sell Jesus for money. One found Jesus beautiful and gave Him everything; the other found Jesus useful and tried to get something from Him. Appearances can be deceiving. The question is whether our hearts love Him, and that love only grows as we receive His extravagant love for us.
Two People, Two Paths
Mary of Bethany was the sister of Martha and Lazarus. You remember Lazarus: he died, was buried, and four days later Jesus raised him from the dead. John tells us it was Mary who anointed Jesus here (John 12:1-8). She’s a beautiful example of love for the Lord.
Judas was chosen as one of the Twelve. He spent years with Jesus and looked like one of the gang. The other disciples thought he was a normal guy. But hidden in his heart was something else. He’s a sobering example of betrayal and rejection, the opposite of love.
These are the two ways we can relate to Jesus. We’ll either love Him or despise Him, receive Him or reject Him, surrender to Him or resist Him.
And just because you go to church doesn’t mean you’re Mary. Judas was at every meeting. Judas was in ministry leadership. Judas was one of the original twelve apostles. Appearances can be deceiving.
Which are you today? Do you love Jesus from the heart, longing to give yourself to Him? Or do you resent Him from the heart, bitter about His lordship, wishing you didn’t have His Word telling you His will, wishing you were your own boss?
Judas looked close to Jesus. He even kissed Him. Maybe we do too. And Mary was at Jesus’ feet; every time we meet her in the Gospels, that’s exactly where she is.
The Plot (Mark 14:1-2)
It was two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill Him. “But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be an uproar among the people.”
- The bad guys wanted to kill Jesus without any consequences.
- Judas was about to help them out.
The Alabaster Flask (Mark 14:3)
While Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of very costly ointment of pure nard. She broke the flask and poured it over His head.
- This was Mary of Bethany.
- Nard came from a plant grown in the Himalayan mountains of India, imported at great expense.
- It was worth about a year’s wages. What do you make in a year?
- She wanted everyone to know the priceless value she placed on Jesus. She went public! No one could doubt where her loyalty lay.
True love doesn’t calculate the cost. Genuine devotion doesn’t weigh the investment. It simply and spontaneously does all it can, disappointed only that it can’t do more. Mary loved Jesus, and she did what love moved her to do.
Ken Gire, in a poem called “Broken Vases,” imagines that fragrance clinging to Jesus’ hair and garment all through the coming days: through His trials, the mocking, the beatings and the cross, a hint of her extravagant love rising through the smell of sweat and blood, until His garment was stripped and gambled away. He pictures that scent lingering in Mary’s own hair as she walked away from the cross, a reminder of the greater love poured out from His broken body. It was a vase she never regretted breaking, and neither did He.
“Why This Waste?” (Mark 14:4-5)
Some there were indignant and said to one another, “Why was this ointment wasted? It could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her harshly.
- John tells us Judas led this complaint. He questioned her motives and actions.
- Not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the money bag and helped himself to what was put in it (John 12:4-6).
- And notice: Judas and the others didn’t just insult Mary. They insulted Jesus, implying He wasn’t worth such honor, that worshiping Him this way was a waste.
- Here we see what was really in Judas’s heart. He didn’t want Jesus praised and exalted. He didn’t think Jesus was worth it.
There are plenty of voices like this today: “You’re a Jesus freak. Don’t waste your life on church, Bible study, fellowship, worship…”
But Jesus is worthy of our love and our sacrifice!
This can’t be a matter of “I have to.” It has to be a response of love. Church, Bible study, fellowship and worship can all be a loving sacrifice of praise, or a bitter duty under law: “I have to do it, and I resent it.” The difference is whether we’ve seen how much He loves us.
“She Has Done a Beautiful Thing” (Mark 14:6-9)
Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. You always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you won’t always have Me. She has done what she could. She has anointed My body beforehand for burial. Truly, I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Jesus said three important things about Mary:
- “She has done what she could.” She held nothing back. She gave all she had to Jesus.
- “She has anointed My body beforehand for burial.” She was being used almost like a prophet, preparing for what God was about to do through Jesus. He was about to become a fragrant offering to His Father (Ephesians 5:2). Did she fully understand? Maybe not. But she certainly understood more than the disciples did.
- “What she has done will be told in memory of her.” True! The fact that we’re reading this right now proves Jesus never lies. His promises always come true.
Judas Goes to the Priests (Mark 14:10-11)
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. When they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he looked for an opportunity to betray Him.
Look how Mary’s extravagant love is set right beside Judas’s betrayal:
- Some people find Jesus useful for what they think they can get from Him.
- Others find Jesus beautiful because they get Him.
- Mary found Jesus beautiful and gave everything to Him.
- Judas found Jesus useful and tried to get all he could out of Him.
- Judas had his calculator out, but he knew the value of nothing.
- He criticized Mary for wasting money, but he wasted his entire life.
- Ministry and life are never about money. They’re about a love relationship with the Lord.
- He gives everything to us in love. We give everything to Him in response.
For Judas, following Jesus became a business to be budgeted, not a Savior to be loved and served. May we never become the same!
Our Response
Oh, how I want to be like Mary. But how often it’s Judas who shows up when I look in the mirror. Only the gospel of my Savior is enough for my sin-sick soul. I’m broken.
And that’s the good news: Mary’s love was a response. The One she anointed was about to pour out far more for her, and for us. His body would be broken like her alabaster flask, and His love poured out for the Judases and the Marys alike. When we see that, our love begins to flow.
Frances Ridley Havergal wrote this prayer in 1874:
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose.Take my will, and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne.Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Grace Takeaway
Mary broke her most precious possession and poured it all on Jesus; Judas sold Jesus for silver. One saw His beauty, the other only His usefulness. If you see more Judas than Mary in yourself, take heart: Jesus was about to be broken and poured out for exactly that kind of heart. Receive His extravagant love, and your own love will start to flow, held back no longer.
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