Jesus: Our Greatest Treasure

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“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.”

Mark 14:3

Main Readings: Isaiah 55 & Mark 14

Supporting Readings: Psalm 73 & Revelation 5

Almost all the remainder of Mark’s gospel unfolds over the course of five or six days from here at the beginning of Mark 14.

Mark tells us that the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were just two days away.

They were Jewish festivals that acted as annual reminders of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt.

The Passover recalled the blood of the lambs painted on the door posts so that the angel of death would pass over Israelite households and spare the lives of the firstborn.

And the Festival of Unleavened Bread commemorated the readinessand distinctiveness that the bread without yeast symbolised.

God told them, through Moses, to make bread without yeast and to eat it with their cloaks tucked into their belts, and their staffs in their hands; and to eat it in haste.

They were about to be brought out of Egypt and this meal signified to them their distinctiveness from the Egyptians and their readiness for the Lord’s deliverance. So similar to what Jesus called our attention to last time in chapter 13!

The Passover meal took place on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan.

And the Festival of Unleavened Bread came right on the back of the it and lasted seven days.

At this point in Mark’s account, the Passover is two days away, and by the end of that Passover day, Jesus will be dead - crucified on a cross with criminals on either side of him.

The Son of God, who never committed a single sin or crime – who was completely holy and worthy of all honour and majesty - will have been betrayed, tried by the Jews, handed over to the Romans, rejected by the crowd, stripped, beaten, mocked and finally hung on the cross to die, just two days from now.

Mark tells us that the chief priests and teachers of the Law had thistimescale in mind because they feared a riot.

The mass influx of Jews to Jerusalem for the celebrations, would have meant that any riot would have resulted in a serious Roman clamp down that would have wrecked the festival.

So, they wanted this done quickly if possible – before the festival started. But how to get at Jesus? That was the difficult part.

Now it seems like Mark cuts away in verse 3 of his account to tell us something simultaneous that Jesus was doing whilst these teachers were plotting. But that’s not the case.

Mark is actually cutting away to tell us something that happened four days earlier. We know this because the account in John’s gospel tells us that the event Mark is about to tell us, took place six days before Passover.

So why is Mark giving us this flashback? The answer is, I believe, to ground the reason for Judas’ sell out of Jesus which he’s going to record in verses 10-11.

Verses 3-9 are a segway that reveal how Judas got from disciple of Jesus to betrayer of Jesus. The story that we’re about to encounter, connects the plan of the Jewish leaders in verses 1-2 with the solution they were looking for in verses 10-11.

So, let’s see what happened that connects these two parts of Mark’s narrative.

Four days earlier, Jesus had gone to Bethany - not far from Jerusalem - to the town where his friend Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, lived.

From John’s account we’re familiar with Lazarus’ sisters Mary and Martha. But here Mark supplies another name - Simon the Leper. Perhaps another member of Lazarus’ family and maybe someone Jesus had healed of leprosy - we’re not told.

What we do know is that Jesus and his disciples were eating at this man’s house when a woman came with a very expensive alabaster jar of perfume and, breaking the jar, poured the contents on Jesus’ head.

There are three parts to this event. There’s what she did. There’s how the disciples reacted. And there’s Jesus’ response to their reaction.

And because the significance of what this woman did - who we knowwas Mary, the sister of Lazarus, from John’s account - was so radically different from the way the disciples interpreted it, Jesus becomes the referee in determining who got it right here.

And it’s his determination that Mary got it right, not his experienceddisciples!

Mary’s action was intentional. And it was costly. And it was controversial. And, according to Jesus in verse 6, it was beautiful.

It was intentional because Mark says she came with this jar of perfume. It’s likely she lived in a different house and that, hearing Jesus was in town, got her perfume and made her way to Simon’s house where Jesus was.

It was costly because Mark, quite deliberately, tells us the perfume was very expensive in verse 3 - not least because it was made from a rare substance called nard – derived from a flowering plant that grows in the Himalayas.

The disciples tell us how valuable it was in verse 5 - ‘worth more than a year’s wages’ they say. Imagine your own year’s wages in a jar of perfume - that’s what she came with.

What could you buy with a year’s wages? On the national living wage in this country right now, we would have £22,300 in a year. We could certainly get away for 2 or 3 or 4 very nice holidays on that kind of money!

So, for Mary, to come with this incredibly valuable bottle of perfume, with the intention of doing what she did, was in the full and certain knowledge that it would cost her something very valuable.

Verse 3 says she ‘broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head’. Breaking the jar probably means she broke the thin neck of the bottle.

After that there was no going back. She was totally committed to using the entirety of the costly contents.

But you sense no hesitation in her. What she had come to do was not a wrestle for her. She didn’t have to convince herself it was the rightthing to do, she was committed to the rightness of emptying every last penny’s-worth of the perfume on Jesus’ head.

In her mind, it seems to me, that it was not that the perfume might be too expensive for Jesus. But the other way around - Jesus was too worthy for anything less than a year’s-wages-worth of the bestperfume.

Her action speaks to her heart. Jesus said, earlier in his ministry, ‘where your treasure is there your heart will be also’. In Mary’s case, her treasure is not in the jar, it’s in Jesus. And therefore, her heart is totally for Jesus too.

If I could wish my heart to be more like anything, it would be that it was more like Mary’s. I would like a heart that so treasures Jesus that everything else in my life would be not for me but for him.

If I had a heart as on fire as Mary’s for Jesus, it would serve my wife better because every design to do my wife good would be ultimately to bless and honour Jesus.

If I had a heart as on fire as Mary’s for Jesus it would serve my children better because every design of mine for their good would be for the honour and glory of Jesus.

In that case, whatever I did for the least of God’s children, I would do for him. It would fulfil what Paul said when he exhorted us to this, ‘whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31).

I want a heart like Mary’s that does not count the cost of pouring it allout on Jesus.

Mary stands as a signpost at the beginning of the age to all Jesus’ followers, of what heartfelt devotion for Jesus looks like.

I think I can say that with confidence, because of what Jesus says about her in verse 9, ‘wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her’.

But what she did was controversial too. We can see the controversy start to unfold in verse 4. It’s not controversy from without; it’s controversy from within.

It’s not the Pharisees who don’t like what she’s done, it’s the discipleswho are indignant about it. Literally, they were undignified about what they witnessed.

First, they were mad about it in the background - talking it over between themselves. John’s account makes it clear that Judas was the one who led the team on this one.

But then, having got on their high horses about it, they took it to Mary herself, and Mark says, ‘they rebuked her harshly’.

John tells us about the motive behind Judas’ objection to Mary’s extravagance - he was a thief. He wanted the money bag to be as fullas possible so that he could steal more from the bag which he was in charge of.

But, so far as the other disciples were concerned, there’s no reason to think that their motive was anything other than genuine.

Their objection was this: the perfume could have been sold and given to the poor. They thought what Mary had done was a needlessextravagance and a waste of money.

But Jesus is quick to defend Mary. ‘Leave her alone’ he says, ‘why are you bothering her?’ Here are the reasons he gives for rejecting the noble concerns of the disciples for the poor:

First, ‘she’s done a beautiful thing to me’.

Second, ‘the poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time. But you will not always have me’.

And third, ‘she did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial’.

All three of these reasons for approving of Mary’s actions centre on Jesus himself.

Jesus approves of Mary’s excesses ultimately because they honourhim. Her actions speak to Jesus’ worth and value. They speak to the blessing it was to have him with them. And they speak to his imminent death.

Jesus is so worthy, and his death so necessary, and so effectual, that there is not even the slightest hint of waste in what Mary did.

The disciples were concerned with the needs of the poor - something Jesus was massively concerned with too. But because of their focus they missed that the honour of Jesus must come first.

And it’s more than just a priority thing. It’s an effectual thing. The goal of everything that the disciples did - that we do - must be the glory and honour of Jesus.

If it isn’t, then the glory will fall to another. If we feed the poor without discerning the honour of Jesus as the goal for it, then the honour will either fall to us, or it will fall to the poor person.

We will either be honoured, or the poor person will be honoured. But that would be to rob Jesus of the honour he deserves.

‘Everything that does not proceed from faith is sin’, Paul says. What the disciples wanted to do is take the value of the perfume, convert it into food for the poor, and miss the value of Jesus. If that had happened it would have been an empty act, because the glory would have gone to another.

Romans 1 says people can serve created things - like poor people - in exchange for serving God and when they do it’s evil.

Even Jesus, who did not consider equality with God something to be used to his advantage - even though he had it – said in John 17 that he brought glory to God by finishing the work God gave him to do.

The goal of the cross was ultimately the glory of God.

So, the disciples got this one wrong, and in the process, they steam-rollered a woman who had done a beautiful thing to honour Jesus.

And it shows us that our first impulse must always be the honour of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. If we get that part right, then what flows out of it will be truly good.

And it will keep us from mishandling people – like the disciples did this woman.

I know how guilty I am of getting this so badly wrong!

What a contrast there is between Mary and Judas! Mark tells us in verse 10 that Judas went to the chief priests of verse 1 to betray Jesus to them.

Unlike the rest of the disciples who were sincere in their error, the real reason behind Judas’ objection was money.

He really loved money! And so, it’s not surprising that in verse 11, we learn that the chief priests promised Judas money for handing Jesus over to them.

Mary thought there was no amount of money that wasn’t worth spending on Jesus, he was totally valuable to her. And Judas thought there was little money that wasn’t worth turning Jesus over for - Jesus was worth that little to him.

The chief priests and Pharisees had put the word around at the festival that anyone who had knowledge of Jesus’ whereabouts should report it.

Presumably it was this that prompted Judas to go to them. Be that as it may, Judas’ action here was conceived much further back, and will deepen yet further, until finally, it will tragically result in death.

It’s like James points out about sin. How it begins with temptation - and what a person does with that moment is absolutely crucial.

James says that each person is dragged away by their own evildesires and enticed. He describes being in the grip of those evil desires, as desire having ‘conceived’.

Such a person is pregnant with sin. Their desire then gives birth to sin. And then, after sin is birthed, it grows. And he says, when it is full-grown, it brings about death.

Judas’ desire for money was not put to death it was coddled. ‘Coddled’ means to slowly and gently cook something. It’s cooking with sympathy.

Judas cooked his desire for money with sympathy and his love for it was conceived. And then, with the money bag in his possession, he had the opportunity to act on that desire. Which he started to do.

Probably infrequently at first, but then with more regularity as time went on.

And then, when he sees an alabaster jar of perfume worth a year’s wages, he can see no worth in Jesus anymore. He can see only an opportunity to satisfy his evil desires for money.

And then when the chief priests offer him money to hand Jesus over to them, he sees only that which satisfies his desires most – namely thirty pieces of silver.

And even when Jesus reveals that he knows one of his disciples will betray him - in verse 18 - Judas can fake surprise and remain unperturbed in his quest for money.

Even when Jesus says in verse 21, ‘woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born’.

Even, then Judas cannot let go of what has so completely claimed his heart – money!

Eventually, he will give vital intel as to Jesus’ whereabouts. He will betray Jesus with a kiss – a hideous irony. And afterwards he will feel guilt for what he’s done, but he will be so far gone, he will believe in his heart that there is no place for forgiveness, and so in utter despair he will hang himself.

Sin will have had its way with him. He will go to his own place – to hell - because he loved money more than he loved Jesus.

Verse 11 has a telling and chilling word in it. It says that Judas ‘watched’ for an opportunity to hand Jesus over.

That word ‘watched’ has to be processed in light of Jesus’ last word in chapter 13 which was also ‘watch’.

Just a few days have elapsed, perhaps, since Jesus said ‘watch’. And Judas is watching – except he’s not watching for deception; he’s already deceived!

Under the grip of sins deception, he’s watching for an opportunity to betray the Son of God into the hands of evil men who will have him crucified.

That’s a wicked and disastrous dismissal of Jesus’ warning in chapter 13. And a deadly irony which he evidently missed because of his hardened heart!

Judas stands then as a signpost also - one for all generations – showing what making peace with sin can do to our hearts.

We are meant to take heed and to resist temptation when it presents itself, and to kill sin when it has been born in our hearts and in our lives.

I think Judas (practically) and James (doctrinally) remind us that the longer we go on embracing a sin, the more comfortable we get with it.

So, the strategy is this: take our sin to Jesus. Confess it to him and repent of it. Believe in Jesus’ perfect work on the cross to cover it. And walk in the opposite direction from it.

And if that sin affects a brother or sister, it is also to confess it to them and to ask their forgiveness too. And all this Jesus will help us do, by his Spirit. But we cannot make peace with sin anymore - now that we have come to faith in Jesus.

Jesus died that we might make war on our sin, Romans 6 says so. He died on the day of Passover – a connection that is pregnant with meaning.

He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and by his blood spilt on the cross, the angel of death passes over all of us who trust in Jesus for our forgiveness.

Jesus painted his own blood on the doorposts of the Calvary cross, and by his wounds we are healed. The crucifixion of Jesus is the fulfilment of all that the original Passover event foreshadowed.

And so, Jesus gave two of his disciple’s instructions to prepare for the Passover feast at a location he had already determined, and which had been reserved for their use - ‘a large upper room’ Mark records Jesus saying in verse 15.

But when we listen to the account of Mark describing what went on at that Passover meal, it doesn’t sound very Passover-ish to me. There’s no mention of lamb, just bread. There’s no mention of stories of old, just a new story about to unfold.

Jesus takes bread and calls it his body and tells them to eat it. He takes the wine and calls it his ‘blood of the covenant poured out for many’ (v.24). And he gives it them to drink.

In short, the focus of this meal is not what the disciples were expecting. They expected what all the Jews expected - a Passover focus. But Jesus is making this meal all about himself.

The lamb of the Passover meal signified the sacrificial lamb that savedthe Israelites. But the bread and the wine at this meal, signify Jesus’body and his blood given over for them.

The overtones are sacrificial, but not a sacrificial lamb; a sacrificial man. Not just a man - the man; the Son of Man.

His sacrificial blood created a new covenant agreement between God and people. And it has been poured out ‘for many’, Jesus says.

He’s speaking of his own death that would happen that day.

And he’s showing it’s not like any other death. It’s special. It’s mightily effectual. It saves to the uttermost. It makes enemies of God into sons and daughters of God. It covers over a multitude of sin so that God’s anger is deflected from people and lands on him instead of them – like the slaughtered lamb.

The people of old trusted God’s promise that the blood of the sacrificial lamb would make the difference.

Jesus calls on us to trust that the blood of the sacrificial Lamb of God will make all the difference - for all eternity!

In this meal, Jesus inaugurated a new and better Passover meal - it’s called the Lord’s supper and if Jesus is our Passover Lamb, then I think we will want to celebrate this supper together often.

Mark says they sung a hymn together, which speaks of the joy that is bound up in that meal. And I love that Jesus ate it with them. It’s a very intimate meal.

And even though Jesus calls out Judas’ betrayal at it, yet there is a tangible fellowship at this meal. The disciples have their devotion to Jesus in common.

And Jesus is serving them and talking with them. And they’re singing together. It’s a precious time - and I think it should be for us too when we gather to celebrate it.

Jesus says, in verse 25, that he won’t drink wine again until he comes into the kingdom of God - when he will drink it anew.

At the first new-covenant table, Jesus had an eye to the future. He anticipated his own return and the feast that will accompany that moment.

Isaiah anticipates it like this: ‘on this mountain the Lord will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and finest of wines’.

And Revelation 19 speaks of it like this: ‘Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready…Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb!’

Jesus holds promise then, not only for this life, but for the life to come.

Mary got that, Judas didn’t. Let’s not be deceived like Judas! Let’s have Jesus as our ultimate treasure like Mary.

And, like Mary, let’s live our lives out here for the glory of God and his Son, Jesus Christ.