Costly or Conveniently? - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

The last time we looked the ‘end times’ warning that Jesus gave His disciples in Mark 13. He warned them, and us, about 4 spiritual dangers that we will face as time draws to a close. They are Dependence on religious or political power for security. Deception by false messiahs, Distraction by world turmoil and being Discouraged by the severity of persecution. In addition to that He gave them the best promise of all He would return someday to establish His eternal kingdom on the earth and to right every wrong.

Today we’re going to look at Mark 14:1-11. Mark 14 is the turning point in the Passion Week story. We know that Jesus will be crucified by the end of this week and this chapter marks the final turn toward that moment in history.

Let’s read Mark 14:1-11

When I was reading over this passage there were two words that jumped out at me. The first word is costly. That’s the word in vs. 3 that is used to describe the oil that the woman, most likely Mary Magdalene, poured out on Jesus’ head.

The second word was conveniently found in vs. 11. That’s the word that is used to describe the actions Judas would take to betray Jesus.

This passage starts out in vs. 1-2 with a little back story about what was happening behind the scenes out of public view. The religious leaders had stopped trying to test and trap Jesus and now they were going full out to plot a way to kill Jesus without inciting a riot among the people. For them it wasn’t a matter of if, but when. Their minds were made up; Jesus was too much of a threat. They couldn’t ignore Him. They couldn’t defeat Him and they couldn’t discredit Him. It was clear to them that Jesus had to go when there was a convenient time.

In vs. 10 and 11 we see that they had an unexpected friend in Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples. It appears that Jesus’ response to what Judas considered a waste of money by the woman who poured the costly oil on Jesus was the straw that broke the camel’s back and sent Judas off the edge.

He went to the chief priests and made a deal to turn Jesus over to them for some money. It might be just me, but doesn’t it seem that those who love money also love convenience? It’s almost as if one feeds the other. A desire for things that will make life more convenient and comfortable leads to a desire to have more money to get those things and what ends up happening is we get on a treadmill that we can’t seem to stop.

Both the chief priests and Judas were looking for a convenient way to get rid of Jesus. They wanted some way that would keep their actions and motives from being discovered. They didn’t care about the legality of what they were doing. They weren’t even concerned about the spiritual implications of their actions. All they cared about was making sure that they got rid of Jesus and that they looked like they were doing something good and righteous. They didn’t want to have to deal with a big mess.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths we will go to try and cover up our sin. Why is that we work so hard to look good to people when what they think of us really doesn’t matter when it comes to things eternal.

We need to keep that in mind. What they didn’t realize and we need to remember is that…

Convenience in Spiritual things usually looks good on the surface but in the end it costs more than you bargained for.

Let’s be honest don’t we fall into this trap? When we know what the Bible says we should do but we do something else aren’t we taking what seems to be the convenient, easy way out? We all do it. We make excuses and rationalize our sin when we should repent of them. That’s the convenient thing to do, but we fail to consider the true cost. If I read my Bible correctly that convenience will only lead to pain and alienation from God and others. That’s not a good trade if you ask me.

Now let’s turn our attention to vs. 3-9. Jesus is sharing a meal with His disciples and the family of Simon the leper when a woman comes in with a very costly flask of oil. It was a fragrant perfume that probably cost her a year’s wages. How she got that much money isn’t known but there were very limited options for a woman in those days which has led some to suggest she was a woman who sold herself to others.

Jesus is sitting at the table of a man who is possibly an unclean leper, and having His hair soaked in perfume by a woman who was possibly a sinner. Now there’s a picture for you. The convenient thing for Jesus to do was to stay somewhere else and tell the woman to leave. The costly thing was to do what He was doing and risk the hits to His reputation. But this was only one aspect of this costly situation.

If we didn’t know what was coming later in this passage we might be inclined to agree with the disciples about this whole scene. On the surface it looks wasteful and strange and Jesus allowing it and even defending it would have seemed awkward. I mean how would you feel if some woman came in off the street while I was preaching and started washing my hair with perfume? I can assure you that I’d feel weird and not a little freaked out.

Jesus took it in stride because He knew that there was a deeper meaning to all of this and it was so important He made sure that what she did would be remembered forever.

What did it all mean? The woman’s actions were remembered for two reasons: In vs. 8. Jesus said that she had done what she could.

She gave a costly gift to Jesus simply because she could not because she had to. Her devotion to Jesus compelled her to offer what she could.

Remember the widow who put the two small coins in the treasury in ch.12? Jesus said she gave more than anyone else because she gave everything she had. Her ‘costly’ gift was only 2 small coins but she gave it because that’s what she could give. Giving one would have been more convenient and giving three was impossible. She gave what was costly. Jesus admires both of these women because they gave what they could.

Why did this woman’s gift impact Jesus like it did? The second part of vs. 8 says that she came to anoint His body for burial.

Her costly gift was a symbol of Jesus’ costly sacrifice. She broke the alabaster container symbolizing how the body of Jesus would be broken by the cruelty and beatings He would endure. She poured out the perfume symbolizing His blood that would be poured out for our sins as He would be nailed to a cross and pierced with a Roman spear.

It’s interesting to note that those who thought it was a waste were the same ones who thought His crucifixion was a waste. There was no way that any of them could have known the powerful witness her actions would provide or even how they would have a ripple effect on the heart of Judas to betray Jesus.

The woman (and the widow) offered what was costly to them because they could and they weren’t concerned about what they would have left over.

The priests and Judas wanted to get rid of Jesus conveniently because they were worried about what they would have left. The priests their reputation and position and Judas the money he would have when he was done with Jesus.

When we’re more concerned with what we’ll have left we miss out on what could have been. We trade our opportunities for convenience when we could offer what is costly to Jesus. While they may not have much value in the eyes of the world….

When we offer our costly things to Jesus (our time, our talents and our treasures) we bless His heart and they become tools in His hands to touch people beyond ourselves.