Mark 14:1-11. So in this third section of Mark we see Jesus getting closer and closer to fulfilling his purpose, his ultimate purpose of being a sacrifice for our rebellious and offensive lifestyle (sins).  It’s interesting how Mark starts our today’s reading.  The religious leaders, the chief priests and scribes, were looking for a way to get rid of Jesus.  But notice that they were trying to do it in a sneaky way.  Why?  Because they wanted the people’s approval, they didn’t want to make the crowd mad, so they needed to find a way to kill him without doing that.

The next part of the story seems to play right into their hands, almost like God was setting Jesus up!  But of course he was.  Dying on the cross was Jesus’ purpose (Mark 10:45).  In the book of John we find several times that  the leaders wanted to get rid of Jesus but were unable because it wasn’t the right time (John 7:30; 8:20)  The idea of timing is important in the book of John (see also John 2:4).  Mark doesn’t emphasize that point as much but Jesus life is still filled with purpose and the fact that he was living according to God’s will and plan.  It’s amazing how God can take human actions and reactions and blend them together and have the result lead just where he wants it to go. I think God is like the ultimate chess player, no matter what moves we make he has a way of winning.  I don’t know much about chess but I understand that when you lose your king you lose.  Here God is about to let his king die but that will lead to him winning.  God is amazing.  Anyway Jesus is rest with his students (disciples) and a woman comes in and pours perfume over Jesus’ head.  This wasn’t some cheap drug story perfume it was worth 300 days wages for an average person.  That’s a whole years worth of pay.  Several people became mad, “Hey, think of all the poor people we could have fed!”  And they were scolding her, that word means to “snort with anger”.  We might say they were “hopping mad”.

Here is where the turning point comes, Jesus defends her, says that her actions were appropriate because she was preparing his body for the grave.  It’s interesting the contrast here between the leaders who were afraid of everyone and let that rule their actions and Jesus who wasn’t afraid to offend even his closest friends.  It’s also interesting that the leaders were driven by personal ambition and Jesus was driven by his desire to serve us by “giving his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  The leaders actions were clearly “political”; they wanted to keep as much power as they could but Jesus actions were pure and purposeful, benefiting others.  Notice too that the leaders were afraid of a riot.  That’s not just about a bunch of people flipping over cars and breaking window because their team lost, in Rome riots were responded to in the harshest way by the army, again a threat to the religious leaders “control” over things.

Not only did Jesus defend the woman but he told his followers that here actions would be remembered forever, that her respect for his would be talked about wherever he was talked about.  Wow!  That must have been like salt in a wound for those who wanted to spend the money on the poor.  One of the followers who was offended was Judas Iscariot.  This particular action by Jesus was more than he could accept and so he went to the leaders and offered to betray Jesus.  So they offered him money and planed how he could deliver him to them.

All Jesus had to do was acknowledge that the woman had spent too much on the perfume.  He could have appreciated it but played to his follower’s sense of wise use of money.  But that would have been wrong.  It would have been wrong to put the woman down for the sacrifice she had made toward him.  She was showing Jesus the highest respect, respect he deserved.  Just days before the people had given Jesus a royal welcome into the city, but now the king was preparing to give his life a ransom for many.  Such a sacrifice should be given the highest respect and the woman was doing just that.  Jesus could not and would not compromise to make his followers happy and so the stage was set for his betrayal by one of his closest followers.  Jesus was true to his purpose.

I wonder if we have anything like the kind of conviction that Jesus had.   I know I “cave in”, “go with the flow”, “follow the crowd”, sometimes, too many sometimes.  It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t tell his followers not to care for the poor, that would have contradicted his instructions earlier when he told the leader and the people listening to love their neighbor like they loved themselves.  But this woman was “loving God with all she had” too, which was the other of the two greatest commandments; in fact the first of the two.  We can’t neglect God for people and we can’t neglect people for God.  And we certainly can’t be like the religious leaders who neglected everyone for their own personal interests  (see Mark 7:1-13 where Jesus is talking to the leaders about their traditions).  Jesus had a purpose and live by it.  We all have a purpose too, each a little different but you can bet it always involves both honoring God and caring for others.

God thank you for living with purpose.  Thank you for being true.  Thank you for giving me purpose.  Help me be true to that purpose.  Help each of us find the purpose you have for us.  Help us always measure our actions by your word.  Help us not be afraid of the crowd.  Help us truly care for the crowd, even if our actions are unpopular and make us unpopular.  Let my life, my daily actions, bring honor to you.  Thank you for dying to give me a place with you forever.