Mark 14:1-11
What
would you do if you knew you only had few days until you were tortured and
killed? This is a hard question. There are so many options available. I mean,
it’s not like you have to worry about paying for what you do. The debt dies with
you! Go to Vegas? Disney? Skydiving? You are going to die anyway, so why not
jump out of a perfectly good airplane! What
would you do? Take a moment to think about it. Did you take a moment?
Jesus
spends His last few days on earth before His crucifixion eating with friends.
Our text today has Jesus eating with several undesirables. We have a man who
has the nickname “The Leper”. In his day, this was almost a death sentence. Very
much like Ebola in our news, once you had the disease, you carried the stigma
with you for the rest of your life. And Jesus chooses to spend time eating with
him. Shouldn’t Jesus be eating with kings?
And
there is a woman there who also has a reputation. She remains nameless down
through history, but her act of sacrifice and kindness is remembered. How would
you like to spend history and the nameless woman?
This
is a rub for many people. We want to be remembered by name. We want people to
remember US, not just what we did. We name things after us. We write books. We
edit our entry in Wikipedia. We monitor our web presence. We write memoirs. We
think about our legacy. We don’t want to drop into history forgotten.
This
nameless woman remains nameless, but what she did survives. She got it right.
She didn’t matter. What she did mattered. She could be at Jesus’ feet
performing a small act of kindness and she had it right.
Notice
that she is preparing Him for burial. The disciples are in denial about His
upcoming death, but this woman gets it. She is there acknowledging the truth:
Jesus is going to die. The others in the room don’t seem to be paying attention
to what is important. They are dragged off into a side conversation about the
value of the perfume and how many poor people could have been helped with the
money. I can see the cell phones coming out and the calculators going. The menu
experts were telling the accountants how much each meal would cost.
Jesus
hears the scuffle. They are getting her involved. They are blaming her for the
waste. They have their fingers out, and they know how to point. Jesus tells
them to put their fingers back in their holsters. They are in the wrong about
this whole event. She has it right. They might be forgotten, but what she did will
be remembered.
This
is too much for Judas. He goes out and takes the final step. He does what he
has been planning for a while. He makes the final arrangements. He accepts the
terms of sale. He signs on the dotted line.
Where
are you going to put your signature? With the woman, or with Judas?