Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S52 || The Perfume That Silenced the Room || Mark 14:1-11 || Session 52 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
A woman enters the house of Simon the Leper where Jesus is dining. In her hands, she carries an alabaster jar containing perfume worth an entire year's wages. Without hesitation, she breaks the jar and pours every drop of the precious liquid over Jesus' head. As the fragrance fills the room, so does the indignation of the disciples. "Why this waste?" they mutter. "This could have been sold and given to the poor!"
But where the disciples see waste, Jesus sees worship. Where they calculate financial loss, he recognizes spiritual insight. This woman understood what the disciples couldn't yet grasp – that Jesus was preparing for burial, that his time was short. She broke her most valuable possession and poured it all out because she recognized Jesus' infinite worth.
"She has done what she could," Jesus declares, immortalizing her act of devotion. These six powerful words offer both comfort and challenge to all believers. The Lord doesn't demand we match others' resources or abilities – he simply asks if we've done what we could with what we've been given.
The stark contrast between this scene and what follows is jarring. While this woman empties her treasure upon Jesus, Judas leaves to fill his pockets by betraying him. Two individuals facing the same Savior with radically different hearts – one breaking open her most precious possession in worship, the other selling his Master for silver.
This powerful account invites each of us to examine our own alabaster jars – those precious resources, talents, and treasures we possess. Are we breaking them open completely in service to Christ, or carefully preserving portions for ourselves? The invitation stands: pour it all out, hold nothing back, for the One who is infinitely worthy. What will you break for Jesus today?
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Today's lesson in Mark, chapter 14, gives us a great example of how we can pour out our worship to Jesus. When we pour it out, we should pour all of it out. We should give everything to Him, because he is worthy, he is deserving. We're going to see that today with a woman that does a very special thing to Jesus. We are in Mark, chapter 14, and we're going to be with the woman who goes and anoints his feet. It's a very tender, loving account of how this woman realizes what's happening to Jesus and she's crying and weeping and pouring out all she had on the Lord Jesus. It'll be a great lesson. There's going to be some wonderful spiritual things as we go through this.
Speaker 2:Let's go ahead and dive in, steve, if you could start at Mark 14 and read the first 11 verses. Now, the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him by stealth and kill him, for they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of the people. While he was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, a pure nard, and she broke the vial and poured it over his head. But some were indignantly remarking to one another why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor. And they were scolding her.
Speaker 2:But Jesus said Let her alone. Why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to me, for you always have the poor with you and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. They were glad when they heard this and promised to give him money, and he began seeking how to betray him at an opportune time.
Speaker 1:Verse 1 in this section speaks of these two Jewish holidays, these two events. There's the Passover and then the unleavened bread. They happen together on the calendar. The Passover, of course, is one meal on one evening and then that starts a week-long festival of unleavened bread, and so together it's about an eight-day festival. They go together and it's saying here in verse 1, the Passover and unleavened bread were at hand two days away. The chief priests were planning and looking for a way that they could kill him. It says in verse 2, Steve, when did they plan to take Jesus? It says what they wanted to do and didn't want to do.
Speaker 2:Well, they did not for sure want to do it during the festival. The reason why is because the Passover was one of the three major festivals. The people were to return to Jerusalem and celebrate, so the city swelled at this time. There were so many people that came. They had temporary dwelling places outside of the city to accommodate the people that had come in, outside of the city, to accommodate the people that had come in.
Speaker 2:The leadership did not want to have any type of a commotion at the time of this, when all the people were there, because Jesus had a large following. We've mentioned it before. He fed 5,000 at one time. He fed 4,000 at another time. He had followers all the way up into the Galilean area. Just a few days before, all of his followers who were coming with him into Jerusalem were celebrating him as the Messiah, as the King of David, with palm branches and stuff. The leadership were aware of the following that Jesus had and they certainly did not want to do it during the time of the festival. They wanted to do it at a secret time where it would be sequestered away, where the people wouldn't know what was going on before it was too late.
Speaker 1:They didn't want to do it during the festival. We hadn't read this yet in the book. We'll get there, but when did they actually end up?
Speaker 2:taking him. They actually ended up taking him on the night of the Passover dinner.
Speaker 1:After that, whenever he went over into the garden of Gethsemane to pray, the chief priests, the ones who had all the title in front of their name and all those things. They said not during the festival. And they actually did take him during the festival. Who's really in charge?
Speaker 2:here. That is the key thing is that Jesus, over and over again, has forced the people to take action whenever they didn't want to. And I say people, it's the leadership he has foiled them at every point, and he is the one that is actually orchestrating what's going on. They think they are, but they're really not.
Speaker 1:This is really true with everybody in the story, all the people around Jesus. It comes up with Pilate as well. Pilate he was the one with all the political power, had soldiers at his command. He ends up squirming because Jesus is really the one in charge here. So we have these chief priests thinking they're in charge and they're making free will decisions, doing what they want to do, but Jesus is orchestrating the whole thing. We have here in this passage that we just read, these first two verses talk about the chief priest and then down in 10 and 11, it talks about Judas going back to the priest again. That is what we call a sandwich. Mark has these sandwiches that we have go through, where we have two verses, or a couple of verses, or two halves of verses, with another passage in between them. So the in-between part is the story of this woman with this vial of perfume. Let's go ahead and talk about that In verse 3,. Whose home are they in.
Speaker 2:They're in the home of Simon the leper. I find this interesting that a person who was a leper was one that people wanted to stay away from. If you were known as a leper, you were sequestered away from your family and from others. And earlier in Mark, in the first or second chapter, there is a depiction of a leper being healed by Jesus. It's thought that possibly this is the same leper, Simon, but it's almost like he has taken this on as a badge of honor. I'm Simon the leper. I'm no longer a leper. Jesus Christ has healed me and I'm not a true leper, but I was the one who was a leper.
Speaker 1:Of course in those days people didn't have last names like we have today, so they were known as son of such and so or from this town. He was known as Simon the leper. He had a leprosy for long enough to where he obtained that title. He really probably should have been called Simon the former leper, because Jesus, I'm sure, healed this man. But he was still known in the community as Simon the leper. I can imagine Steve kind of read between the lines here how does a community treat a leper in those days?
Speaker 2:Well, as I mentioned before, they actually were to be in a different area, away from all the other people they were to. As they walked through, they were to announce. If they came across somebody else, they were to announce I have leprosy, I'm a leper, so that the others would avoid them. That's the way that they were treated. They were completely shunned from the community because at that time the people didn't know what caused leprosy and they didn't want to catch it themselves.
Speaker 1:We have this man here who had leprosy, probably now healed. The community when he was sick was supposed to stay away and afterwards the way many communities are, even after oh, I'm healed, well, yeah, that's good, Just stay over your house and I'll stay over on mine I can imagine the community probably still stayed away. He was probably still an outcast, that many people would still be a little suspicious, a little worried that they might catch this incurable disease. Jesus didn't seem to care that this man was an outcast. If Jesus went in and ate with outcasts, what does that tell us today? How should we treat people that the rest of society is treating as an outcast?
Speaker 2:This was a major rub earlier on, whenever the Pharisees came and they complained to the disciples why is it that your master is eating with sinners and prostitutes? That was something that they looked down on Jesus to do. But over and over again, jesus showed that he didn't shy away from that. You mentioned a couple of sessions ago the woman at the well that he met, the Samaritan woman, the Jewish people at the time. They would walk around the whole area of Samaria. They'd cross the Jordan and go up on the east side of the Jordan and then come back around when they were going to Galilee. But Jesus went right through Samaria. He never shied from sick people that were coming to him and he went and ate with them. At one point he said I've come to heal the sick. That's the reason why I'm here. Jesus had compassion on the people that actually needed him. He didn't hang around the royalty or the upper crust, so to speak, the leadership. He was there with the people, ministering to them on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:In verse 3, it talks about this man, simon the leper, but it says while he was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper. So this town they were in the community was Bethany. Who else in the Gospels do we know that lived in Bethany?
Speaker 2:Bethany was where Mary, martha and Lazarus lived the Lazarus that Jesus came and raised from the dead and over. In one of the other Gospels, john, I think it is he mentions that actually this was Mary that was doing this, so we see that Jesus loved these people. In fact, whenever he went and heard that Lazarus was dead, he wept. This was a close relationship that he had with this family, mary, martha and Lazarus brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Yes, he knew them, were good friends with them and remember the accounts of when he went and visited them to when he raised Lazarus. They were well-known to each other. So we have here this account of this woman who anoints his feet with perfume, here in Mark 14, it does not give her name, but we have other occasions when a woman has poured perfume on his feet. There's here, which is just before the cross, is the timing, and it's repeated in Matthew 26 and in John, chapter 12. That's one is again repeated in three gospels. Then there's an earlier time in Luke, chapter 7, verse 38. In the Luke 7 passage is earlier in the chronology of Jesus's ministry. It hints that this woman is a sinner. So we can fill in the blank with our minds assume to be a prostitute or some sort of a lowly woman. She's some sort of a sinner that's outcast from society, someone that a good spiritual person wouldn't hang around with. So we have a question here of who is this? Mary is who we assume this is, but Mary from Bethany, because he's in Bethany and not the prostitute. There's been a kind of a misconception over this and there are many people that put these stories together and confused them just a little bit and come to the conclusion that this was Mary Magdalene, who had been a prostitute who was anointing his feet. That's not true, because that's not what the text says it's. The Luke 7 passage just hints that she was a prostitute but doesn't give a name, and here, when it's in Bethany, it's assumed to be Mary from Bethany. That's how we put the Mary together. Mary Magdalene was probably Mary from the town of Magdala, not Bethany.
Speaker 1:Notice verse 3, it says it happens while he was in Bethany and not necessarily two days prior to Bethany, as in verse 1,. The anointing could have been at any time during the week prior to the Passover. If you look at John 12.1, when it talks about this anointing, it mentions six days prior to the Passover. He had been in Bethany four days prior to that, going back and forth, this particular anointing could have happened any time during that week. Therefore, let's talk about this woman, obviously. What does she do in verse 3? She?
Speaker 2:takes this vial that has these precious aromatics and oils in them. One of the other Gospels puts the cost at it as being 300 denarii, whenever the disciples complain and say that it couldn't be given to the poor. Well, at that time, a denarii was a daily wage. This perfume that she is taking, usually used for the wedding of a person and also used for burials from time to time, was almost a year's wages. It shows that it is something that she has been collecting and saving up and probably other people may be giving to her different ones during her lifetime. So it's very precious. It's not something that is very cheap, it is something that is expensive. She wants to take it and use it to anoint Jesus, who she believes is the Messiah the King. Anoint Jesus, who she believes is the Messiah the King. You get a sense, glenn, that she's kind of aware of what's going on, of what's going to happen in the next few days, while he's there in this last week in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:Yes, the interesting part to me here is that she recognizes what's going on. When the disciples talk, he says here she's doing this for my burial. The woman here is more perceptive. She realizes what's happening. The text doesn't tell us why she realizes it. It could be she was in the temple every day and saw what he was doing with the leaders. It's also possible she was just listening to the several times he'd already said this and the disciples were thinking about themselves, which is entirely possible. But nevertheless, the disciples, the men, they miss it. When this woman, she was much more perceptive. She gets it. She comes to him with the most valuable thing. She has 300 denarii, 300 days days wages, with Sabbath days off and holidays off. This is about a year's pay For a common person. This must have been the most expensive thing that she has. She pours it all out over Jesus. It even says what does it say? She broke the bottle. What's the significance, steve, of breaking the bottle?
Speaker 2:The significance is that she's not going to use any more of it, that she's going to use all of it to anoint Jesus. There's nothing going to be saved back from it.
Speaker 1:This is a very tender, very loving moment. She loves her Lord. She realizes he's headed towards death very soon. She realizes it may very possibly be the last time she sees him and she is mourning his death already. And she takes the most valuable thing she has and she gives it all. I'm reminded of the woman with the two mites where Jesus said she gave all she had. Here Mary gives all she had. She breaks the bottle. She's not saving anything back for herself Very expensive imported perfume she was saving for a special occasion. She gives it all to Jesus. What does that tell us about how we should act towards our Lord? How should we view giving to our Lord?
Speaker 2:We should give all of our worship to Him, all of our time and effort that we have available to us, because of the great thing that he has done. He has provided for us the ability for our sins to be forgiven and for us to have eternal life through His act of death, burial and resurrection. That means the life. We no longer have a fear of physical death because we know that our spirit is going to be able to live in eternity, and we also know from his resurrection that we're going to have a resurrected body. What greater thing is there than that resurrected body? What greater thing is there than that? So we should give all of our worship and all of the time that we can to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to others.
Speaker 1:How deserving is Christ? She poured out all she had and broke the bottle. Gave it all because he was worthy. How worthy is our Christ? Is he worthy of all we have? He?
Speaker 2:is worthy of everything that we have. We have a scene depicted in Revelation of worthy is the lamb that was slain, so that is going to be able to come and redeem the world and redeem the people. There's going to be a great worship going on in heaven at that time of the Lamb who is worthy.
Speaker 1:Too many times I know I've been weak and sinful and held some back for me. But Mary didn't. She poured it all out and broke the bottle. She gave it all. She gave the most valuable thing she had. That's all she had is she gave to him. She broke the bottle. Too many times we hold something back for ourselves, too many times. Well, we'll give God some. He's worthy, but I'm going to give him some, but I might need some. So I'm going to hold something back for me. No, no, she gave it all. She was the one with faith. She gave it all because he was worthy.
Speaker 2:Glenn. This speaks to me of the veracity of scripture, the truth behind it, of eyewitness accounts. This is the second time now that a woman has been commended by Jesus for giving their all. A few sessions ago, it was the widow's mite who gave everything that she had, which was greater than all the other rich people that were giving to the treasury. Now we have this woman who is giving this precious perfume that she has been saving up. A year's worth is the cost of it. If somebody were making up a story centuries later, the heroes of the story most likely wouldn't be women. But here, once again, we see a woman being really praised by Jesus for really understanding what's going on and giving their all to him.
Speaker 1:The men here are sort of made out to be selfish and a little bit dense. They're not really seeing. The woman is the one that's perceptive. She's weeping, she's giving her all. Each of us should ask ourselves have I given it all to Jesus or have I held back some for me? And again, I'll admit too many times I'm weak and I don't give it all I should. I shouldn't follow the example of this woman. We should each of us ask ourselves have I broken my alabaster box upon Jesus or am I trying to be selfish and keep some for me? We should break our box, pour it all out to him, and we will get rewards in heaven. We will get tremendous rewards here on earth through the Christian life. But we should pour it all out upon him and not try to be selfish and keep back some for us.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about valuable things in Christians. In verse 5, it says the disciples were saying, oh, they should give that to the poor. Well, steve, I've heard that many times over the years, especially from critics and non-Christians. They look at some Christians, some Christians have a lot of valuable possessions. Is it okay for a Christian to have really nice things, or should they sell it all and take a vow of poverty.
Speaker 2:They should do what the Lord leads them to do. That's my answer. If you have a conviction from the Holy Spirit to give things to the poor or give to charities that help the poor, then do it. If you have a conviction to give your time for other things or your money to other type of ministries, then go ahead and do it. But the reason behind why you are giving that is what God cares about and that's what Jesus cares about. Again, the example of the widow. It was the reason that she was giving it, it wasn't the amount. Just giving stuff to the poor is not going to be sufficient to get a good standing with God if the reason why you're doing it is to try and only garner praise from him and you're not doing it with a pure heart.
Speaker 1:There's nothing sinful inherently about owning nice things or having expensive possessions. There's also nothing righteous about being poor, I think many times some of the Christian groups take vows of poverty just to try to keep from getting tangled up in worldly things. The more possessions you have, the more time you spend maintaining them and taking care of them and preventing somebody else from stealing them. If you give all that away, then you really don't have to worry about things distracting you. But again, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a lot of money or having expensive things. It's certainly not sinful to be wealthy. What's sinful is like in James when it says oh, you have something and you see your brother in need and you're not giving. That's when it becomes sinful. That's when we should be like the people in James or this woman. We should pour it all out on Jesus and give where there is a need.
Speaker 1:The New Testament church over in Acts they gave. They gave generously when there was a need. We can draw these conclusions from this passage, steve, that he says in verse 7, you have the poor with you always. What conclusions can we draw from this? The poor are always going to be here. Therefore, what Should I say? Oh well, they're always going to be poor, so I'm not going to do any good to give to them. Or should we say there's always an opportunity to go help somebody? That really should be it right.
Speaker 2:That should be it, and we should also look for ways to help the poor get to a place where they're not poor anymore. Help the poor get to a place where they're not poor anymore, and just simply giving to them over and over again without giving them a way to get out of their poverty is really not serving them. You've mentioned it many times that our society has gotten to a place where just take care of the poor don't really help them to get out of their poverty. What happens is then you have generational poorness, so to speak, living off of the government and also living off of other people. So, yes, giving to the poor they're always going to be here but put into place ways that you can help them get out of their poverty so that they are not just perpetually poor 1 and 2 Timothy gives very clear directions on how churches should treat poor people.
Speaker 1:We'll deal with that when we get to 1 and 2 Timothy. But it says to be wise about it, to be discerning, to give where there really is a need and not where people can make a living on themselves, lest you teach them to be idle. The inspired apostle says but this woman here, she's giving to the Lord because she knows he's about to die. And the disciples don't get it. They say, oh, we should have sold that and given to the poor. Well, we found out later, part of that was from Judas, who was stealing from the money bag. This woman is such a great, great example and the apostles are often too much like me and, I suspect, too much like some of you, in the sense that they just don't get it and they don't see what this woman sees.
Speaker 1:Those that look at the world through spiritual eyes often see things differently. In verse 8, it says she has done what she could. Steve, I think that's what the Lord asked of us. What can we do? You know, there's things out there with more talent than I, there's better speakers than I. There's people that can give more money than I. There's people that are better at all kinds of ministry than I, but all the Lord asked me is to do what I can.
Speaker 2:That is something that we should take away from this. Do what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. If you've been called to serve somewhere and you don't know exactly what it is, go to your church. Go to your administrator or your pastor there at your church and say I feel that I've been led to serve this church body somewhere. Where is it that you want me to serve Now? Be prepared for whatever it is, because it might be a simple task. It might be a task that you don't necessarily want to do. What I mean by that? It might be a janitorial type of a thing or it might be something else, but if the Holy Spirit is leading for you to serve, then go and serve.
Speaker 2:We've mentioned it before. If the Holy Spirit is leading you to teach, then put yourself available to teach. Just make sure that you're prepared to do that and you have the ability to do that. Serve. You're serving the body of Christ and we all have different areas that we have strengths in hospitality, mercy, hospital visits, going and visiting the old people in the nursing homes all different types of things that we can do to serve the body of Christ. As the example you've pointed out here, she did what she could. It's a great example for us to do whatever it is we can to serve the body of Christ.
Speaker 1:All the Lord asks us is to do what we can. When we look back on our lives and we look back on the ministry we've done for the Lord, can we truly say each of us should ask ourselves have I done what I could? Don't compare myself to other people, but have I done what I could? And then the Lord takes my little meager amount. Remember the loaves and fishes? That was the boy's lunch. All he had was a lunch, but he had a lunch and he could give it for the cause. And the Lord took that little bit and multiplied it and made it work. So that's the same with us. We can't compare ourselves with other people that are more talented, but we can ask ourselves have I done what I could?
Speaker 1:Then, in verse 9, it says truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached to the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. And of course that's happened. It's recorded right here and we're talking about it today. So the lesson here is that God remembers. God has written down in his book what we do and he knows the things we do, both good and bad. The sins and the good works for him are recorded and he knows when we come to Christ. He washes away the sins, but the good deeds are recorded. Steve, I take comfort in that, knowing that God remembers and he doesn't forget, and the things that are done in love he'll remember.
Speaker 2:We're going to be receiving rewards for those good things. I think that's an area that's not talked about very much from the pulpit. Now we shouldn't do things in order just to receive those rewards, but I think many people are going to be a little bit surprised at their judgment. The judgment that we have as believers is not for salvation. It says that all of our deeds, both good and bad, are going to be reviewed and we're going to be receiving rewards for those good deeds that we have done, those good works that we have done. Well, many people don't realize that. I think there's going to be many surprised people whenever they go through that review with Jesus at what's called the Bema Seat Judgment. Again, not for our salvation that's already been decided here if we're true believers but our good deeds will be rewarded.
Speaker 1:At some point we're going to be called into the top floor corner office and we're going to be asked what have we done with the resources that we had? Did you do what you could? Then, in verses 10 and 11, it says Judas Iscariot goes out to the chief priest and he sets up and makes an arrangement to betray Jesus. He is the betrayer and it says they were going to give him money. Now contrast that with what just happened. This woman poured out this perfume that was very expensive a year's wages and Judas immediately goes out to earn more money by betraying people.
Speaker 1:People speculate why Judas did this. We don't really know. The text doesn't say, but the contrast here is glaring. Judas was one of the ones that was pilfering from the money bag. It says in the other gospel, and here he's focused on oh, this was a loss of money, and he goes out and betrays Jesus. One of the reasons was for money. So here we have, steve, a great lesson, because money has been the downfall of many a Christian church worker. Money has been the downfall of many people. It's been a sin that has crept in and people focus on money and they're tempted by money, and money has been one of the things that has caused whole ministries to collapse, churches to collapse. Steve, how can we not be sucked in with the sin of greed around money?
Speaker 2:Money can be a great lure for people to get distracted from what is the main goal. What I mean by that is that there is a natural desire within all of us, within humankind, in order to do great things, to do grand things, and, of course, grand things take money. So I think there are some ministries that they substitute the grand thing as being a good thing. Really, the question is whether or not the money is being spent well.
Speaker 2:I've seen videos of churches that have put small roller coasters on their stages and the pastor comes out on the roller coaster or great sets. They roll out cars onto their stage. They do things that are sensational in order to grab the people's attention, but that attention span is only for a little bit. Then the expectation comes from the people that want a little bit more. Well, a little bit more costs a little bit more money. So the question is what are we spending the money on? It's a lure that can lead us down a path a wrong path, in my opinion of trying to supposedly do grand things for God, but really that's wasteful things that I don't think God necessarily takes pleasure in.
Speaker 1:The contrast is glaring. This woman had something very, very valuable and she poured it all out and broke the bottle over Jesus because he was worthy. She had no regard for the cost, because it was all given to Jesus. He had the need. She was anointing his body for burial. Judas, on the other hand, got jealous of the money and goes out, betrayed his Lord for money. That's the great, great lesson here, and one that we should all take to heart. We're still going to have more here, steve. We'll have to stop for today because of time, but there's going to be such great lessons next time as we continue to reason through the Bible.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
