Message

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JESUS WAS ANOINED BY A WOMAN

Mark 14:1-11

Key Verse: 14:8 “She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”

  In human history there have been many heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for others, especially those who were in need and in poverty. Dr. Albert Schweitzer was a prominent author, physician, and musician. He could have lived a luxurious and comfortable life in Germany if he had wanted. But he left everything behind and went to Lambarene Africa to take care of the sick and poor people there. Until he died in the Lambarene Hospital, he spent the rest of his life with the African people. There was a beautiful American lady who was from a rich family in Mississippi. After being converted to Christianity, at the age of 24 she went to Korea as a missionary to teach the Bible to college students. There she met a Korean pastor and started a campus evangelical ministry. It was the birth of this church, UBF, and her name is Miss Sarah Barry. She said that she was too busy to marry. In reality she sacrificed her marriage for God and for world campus mission.

Why do I mention them at the beginning of my message? It was because today’s passage teaches about a woman who was praised by Jesus because of her love and devotion to him. While studying this passage, let us learn who Jesus really is and why he praised her. 

First, the meaning of the Passover to Jesus (1,2) Look at verses 1,2. “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. “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or the people may riot.” As we know Passover is one of the three annual Jewish holidays along with the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacle. Passover is the same as the Fourth of July, Independence Day, in America. As we Americans celebrate the Fourth of July to commemorate independence from the English, so also the Israelites celebrate Passover to remember God’s grace that delivered them from the bondage of Egypt. It commemorates the final plague on Egypt when the firstborn of the Egyptians died and the Israelites were spared because of the blood smeared on their doorposts (Ex 12:11, 21,27).

Passover was also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread because only unleavened bread was eaten during the seven days immediately following Passover (Ex 23:15). Unleavened bread reflected the fact that the people had no time to put leaven in their bread before their hasty departure from Egypt. (Ex 12:15-20, 13:6,8) Even though we Americans enjoy the Fourth of July with fireworks and delicious barbeque meals, the Israelites ate the tasteless unleavened bread in order to remember God’s grace.

  During the Passover feast, according to the Law of Moses all the Israelite men who were over 12 years old brought spotless and faultless lambs to the temple to sacrifice for their sins. They believed that the lambs which they brought to be slaughtered could take away their sins. They believed that the blood of the lambs sacrificed could wash away all their wrongdoings.  It was two days before the Passover. Jesus also came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. However, this Passover was very special and significant to him because he himself would be the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). Jesus knew that two days later he would be arrested and crucified and die on the cross as the Lamb of God. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “…For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed…” It was the last Passover for Jesus to celebrate on this earth.

  Then, who were the chief priests and the teachers of the law? They were the religious leaders of Jesus’ days. Why were they looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him? It was because they did not know who Jesus really was. A few days earlier, Jesus cleared the temple by driving out all the money changers and merchants (11:15). Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy and corruption of the religious leaders who made money in the temple in the name of God. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were greatly humiliated and challenged by Jesus. They thought that Jesus was destroying the church order and violating the Law of Moses. They also did not understand Jesus who welcomed all kinds of sinners, ate with them and helped them one by one. They thought that if Jesus were the Promised Messiah, he should not get along with such sinners. They were angry with the people who listened to Jesus and followed him. But they were also afraid of them. They wanted to remove Jesus without irritating the people at the Passover Feast.

Second, Jesus was anointed by a woman.(3-5) Look at verse 3. “While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of 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 is a small satellite town of Jerusalem. Jesus must have been invited by a leper whose name was Simon. Definitely Simon invited Jesus to his home out of thanks for his healing from leprosy. In the middle of the joyful banquet, a sudden and unexpected thing happened. A woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard and broke the jar, then poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. An alabaster jar was a sealed flask with long neck which mainly contained expensive perfume. Pure nard is a costly aromatic perfume which was imported from China or India. Some Bible scholars say that the woman might save the perfume for her marriage.  The perfume was very expensive in that it cost more than a year’s wages. But, the woman broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head.  Soon the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. How did people react to her abrupt behavior?

Third, the meaning of her pouring the perfume on Jesus.(4-9) Look at verse 4. “Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wage and the money given to the poor.”  And they rebuked her harshly.” According to Matthew’s gospel, they were the disciples of Jesus. (Mt 26:8).  The disciples were indignant with the woman who poured the perfume on Jesus. They thought that she wasted money for nothing. So they rebuked the woman harshly. The disciples thought she could use the money for more people in better and wiser ways than just pouring it out on Jesus’ head. To their calculation, she could feed at least five thousand homeless people with Big Mac sandwiches.

  However, how did Jesus himself respond to her behavior? Look at verses 6,7. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.”  Instead of rebuking her, Jesus defended her action. More than that, Jesus praised her by saying that she had done a beautiful thing for him. How did her wasteful behavior in the eyes of his disciples become a beautiful thing to him? While his disciples saw the money, Jesus saw her heart. The disciples did not know the reason why she poured out the perfume on Jesus, but Jesus knew it. Jesus knew that she did it out of her thanks and gratitude. She was so thankful to Jesus who forgave her sins and gave her new life. She knew very well that the perfume was the most precious treasure to her. Probably she saved it for her marriage. Nevertheless, she broke the jar and poured all the perfume on Jesus. Nothing was more precious and valuable than Jesus to her. She was willing to give everything even her life to Jesus out of her joy and thanks.

When she poured out the perfume, she poured out all her heart to Jesus. She loved Jesus with all her heart and with all her soul and with all her strength. (Mk 12:30) Jesus valued her heart more than anything else on this earth. Jesus valued her sacrifice more than feeding 5,000 people. Of course Jesus cared for the hungry and fed 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish and 4,000 with seven loaves of bread. (Mk 6:30-44,8:1-13) Jesus’ disciples did not see her heart in the alabaster jar. They only saw the money. When the perfume dripped from the head of Jesus, they began to count, “One hundred dollars. Two hundred. Three hundred. Oh. No! What a waste!”

In this money-oriented and materialistic society, many people do not see something more important and valuable than money. What is it? They do not understand Christians who close their stores on Sunday and offer their money to church. Actually we give offerings to God who is the head of the church. Their value system is largely based on money. According to their value system, those who make lots of money are good people and those who make little money are bad people. Above all, they are spiritually blind so that they cannot appreciate devotion, sacrifice and love for God and for his people.

To the eyes of Jesus’ disciples, the woman was wrong. According to their value system she wasted the money. But in the eyes of Jesus she did what is right. According to Jesus’ value system she did the most beautiful thing on this earth. Jesus valued her heart more than all the treasures of heaven and earth. There was another reason why Jesus valued her action and praised her. Look at verses 8,9. “She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” We are not sure whether the woman knew of the coming of Jesus’ death on the cross or not.  We don’t know whether she brought the perfume for his burial. However, Jesus accepted her action as preparation for his burial after the crucifixion. Two days later Jesus would be crucified on the cross as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world. No one prepared for his death. No one knew about it. So her pouring perfume on his head was very precious to Jesus and very meaningful in God’s redemptive history. Therefore, Jesus honored her saying in verse 9, “wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she had done will also be told, in memory of her.”

  Through the woman’s action and devotion, we learn who Jesus really is. Is Jesus worthy to be praised, loved, honored and worshiped by her? Yes. Jesus deserves to receive all her sacrifice, love and devotion because he is God himself. God is the only one who deserves to receive our love, devotion, and worship. To some people Jesus is known as one of greatest men in human history, together with Confucius, Buddha and Mohammad. But Jesus is fundamentally different from all others. They were born as descendants of Adam and died in their own sins.  But Jesus is different. He is the Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary. (Lk 1:35).  Jesus is God in nature. He is the Creator God who participated the creation of the world in the beginning.(Jn 1:1-3)  Nevertheless, this Creator God made himself nothing and appeared as a man to be with his people. He came to this world not to rule, but to die for our sins.

  Jesus himself became a sacrifice lamb for the sins of the world. On the cross, he poured out his life. He shed his precious blood to wash away all our sins and to forgive all our wrongdoings. As the angels of God passed over the house stained with blood of a lamb, God forgave anyone who had the mark of the blood of Jesus in his or her heart. The power and effectiveness of animal’s blood is limited. But the blood of Jesus, the Son of God has no limitation. The blood of Jesus has power to wash away all our sins; original sin, our past, present, future sins, and sins which we commit knowingly or unknowingly.

  I love Jesus and he is still my true object of love, devotion and worship. It is because he is the only one who died for me and saved me from my sins. In the past, I was a promising art student. After reading the book written by William Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence”, I decided to become an artist like Paul Gauguin. I thought that art is my God to which I should devote my life. Despite my zeal and effort to achieve the goal, I suffered from unceasing and unknown emptiness and thirst in my soul. In the course of struggling with these problems, I hurt many others. My soul suffered all the more from guilty feelings and fear of judgment. I needed help, but there was no one who understood me and helped my inner problems. Worse than that, I lost my health due to heavy drinking and smoking cigarettes. I hit rock bottom. At that moment, Jesus came to me through Bible study. Jesus taught me that God loved me very much and that he died on the cross for me even though I did not deserve it. Jesus forgave all my sins when I confessed and accepted him as my Lord and Savior. God also healed my spiritual and physical sickness with his hand of love and made me a new creation. Since then, Jesus became everything to me. I was willing to give my life to him because he gave his life first to me on the cross. He is worthy to be praised and worshiped throughout my lifetime. Although 25 years have passed since I gave my life to him, he is still the object of my love, worship and devotion. Praise Jesus!

  Verses 11,12 explain how Judas Iscariot betrayed his master Jesus. He was simply deceived by the love of money. He was spiritually blind when he loved the money. Let us pray that God may teach each of us a spiritual value system to see beautiful things behind all human activities and incidents. Above all, let us believe in Jesus so that we may receive forgiveness of sin, eternal life and the kingdom of God as inheritance. May God make America a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Amen. 

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• pamk14am-2009.doc