Mark 14:1-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is written in the 14th chapter of the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. We consider these verses: After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. 2 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.” 3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. 4 But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? 5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. 7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. 9 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” Thus far our text.
This unknown woman in the Gospel broke an alabaster flask and poured perfumed ointment over the head of Jesus on the day before Maundy Thursday. This oil imported from India would have been hard to acquire and dreadfully expensive; the grumbling disciples complained that this could have been sold for three hundred denarii—nearly a year’s wages, and approximately five times what Judas received for betraying Jesus—and the profits given to those in need. What was she doing? What was she thinking?
This anointing not meant to show that Jesus was the Messiah, the King promised throughout the Old Testament; that anointing had another word in the Greek. As Jesus says in verse 8: “She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.” Unlike the disciples, this woman had heard and understood what Jesus was saying when He predicted His own death: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him.” She heard the Word and believed, and she acted accordingly. She understood that Jesus would die like a common criminal, not like the King He was—and common criminals were not anointed before their burial, according to the custom of the Jews. More than that, she understood that He would not be there to be anointed later on, after the Sabbath, because He would rise from the dead as He promised. And so Jesus praises her faith, proclaiming, “Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” And so it is tonight.
Today we enter upon the season of Lent. We have begun our journey with our Lord to His cross at Golgotha, the Place of a Skull. We have begun our focus on the Passion of our Lord, upon our sin and need for repentance, upon His suffering and death to pay the price for our sin. So what is it that enables us to experience His humility and ours—the ashes of Ash Wednesday and the sackcloth of Good Friday? After all, unlike the woman in the Gospel, we do not see our Lord in His flesh. We are not eyewitnesses to His crucifixion, nor do we behold with our eyes His resurrected body.
But like this woman, we hear the Word of the Lord. We hear the promise that He will suffer at the hands of sinners and then die, bearing the sins of the whole world upon that cross. We hear the eyewitness testimony of the disciples, proclaiming the suffering, death, and resurrection of Our Lord. We hear our Lord proclaiming us dead to sin and alive to eternal life in baptismal waters. We hear these words and promises…and like the woman, we believe.
We believe the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have all experienced the death of loved ones; as we looked upon them, we could see suffering and death. But we hear Jesus promise that sin in not the final word, that suffering is not the final word, that death is not the final word, that the grave is not the final word. He has promised that resurrection is the final word, and that word is sure and certain. We know that those who have gone before us, who cling by faith to the Word and promises of God, rest from their labors, awaiting that Day when that last word, resurrection, will become the eternal reality. And we know with all the certainty of faith that the resurrection will be our eternal reality, as well.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, this Word of Jesus can be trusted with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. We can trust this Word in the same way as this unknown woman with an alabaster jar of expensive ointment trusted it. This is the Word of the One who is the King of Israel, the promised Messiah, the Son of God and Son of Man, the One who has come to be the Salvation of us all. We have heard His Word and promises, and He has perfectly fulfilled them.
So come. Come forward with the expensive oil of faith which He himself has given you. Come forward and rejoice that you have been drowned and have died in the waters of Holy Baptism. Come forward to receive the body and blood of our Lord, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. These gifts will prepare you for your own death and burial. Come, for in these gifts, He has come to give you eternal life. In the name of the Father and of the (†) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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