Broken and Poured Out; a Great Example of Loving Jesus

It’s getting close to that time of the year in the Christian calendar known as the Passion Week of Christ. Probably when you first think of ‘passion’ you think of feeling well in a good sense about something or someone, extra joy and excitement and fulfillment. Passion can also refer to suffering and this is how it is used in Acts 1:3. The Greek word ‘paskho’ is translated as ‘passion’ in the KJV and ‘suffering’ in the ESV.

This Passion Week of Christ is one of the most important moments in all of human history. Jesus Christ triumphantly entered Jerusalem but later in the week was arrested, put on trials, beat and brutally punished, crucified, died for our sin, and then rose in victory over sin and death as the glorified Son of God.

During that week, before Jesus was arrested, a brief event occurred that demonstrated one person’s amazing love toward Jesus. God’s word teaches that God is love, that God demonstrates His great love toward us (especially through the Gospel of Christ), and we are called by God to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength as well as love our neighbor as our self.

In Mark 14, we read a great example of loving God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and it’s on this passage I want to park in this blog because it’s important for Christ-followers to keep cultivating and growing our love for Jesus. 

Mark 14:1-11 ESV
¹ It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, ² for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.” ³ And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. ⁴ There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? ⁵ For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. ⁶ But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. ⁹ And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” ¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. ¹¹ And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

What are we meant to remember and learn from a woman who broke an alabaster jar and poured out expensive perfume/cologne on Jesus? She teaches us how Jesus Christ and His message and ministry compels His true followers to love Him with an amazing love.

Here are four aspects of this woman’s amazing love toward Jesus?

1. She loved Jesus devotedly, vss3-9.

This woman’s amazing devotion of love toward Jesus stands in bookend contrast to the plotting of Jesus’ enemies to kill Him and the betrayal by one of His disciples.

Throughout the region, people were taking sides about what to do with Jesus. Even among His closest disciple followers, one was deciding to let his true colors of greed and disloyalty toward Jesus show and to side with the enemies who would bring about Jesus’ death. In the midst of growing tension and the impending actions of the religious leaders, one woman expressed her loyal love to Christ in a bold and unmistakable way. Her love for Jesus was not a passing emotion; it was marked by strong devotion.

I love the hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” One lines goes like this: “Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back.” This is how true Christ-followers love Jesus. They unashamedly express their loving devotion to Him above every other loyalty. They leave their comfort zones to express their love to and for Jesus. They show the world their love for Jesus. This woman loved Jesus devotedly.

2. She loved Jesus extravagantly, vss3-5.

John implied in his Gospel account that this woman is Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. John also wrote that the ointment was poured on the feet of Jesus which she wiped with her hair. This Mary popped up three times in the Gospels and each time she was at the feet of Jesus. Elsewhere she was eager to learn from Jesus and in another moment she was grateful Jesus raised her brother from the dead.

The nard plant was used to make perfume and it was probably imported like from India. The pure nard was very expensive.  This was probably Mary’s most precious possession. It was close to a year’s wages for the average worker. The average individual income in Lynchburg, VA is around $20,000 per year. Imagine a perfume worth $20,000 today being poured out on someone.

This was a stunning example of love, devotion, and worship. By custom, she would show hospitality and honor to a distinguished dinner guest by sprinkling His head with a drop or two of this stuff, but in this instance she poured it all onto His head and feet.

And then came the wet blanket followers of Christ who thought the value of this expensive perfume was wasted, that it could have been used in a more practical way. They scolded her, criticized her. John’s passage mentions that Judas Iscariot was the leader of this criticism and that he was a thief so his motives were questionable.

I don’t have a lot of assets and money in our culture. Do you think it would be wasteful if I poured out something worth $20,000 onto Billy Graham or Mother Theresa in some sort of anointing ministry moment? How about onto my wife? And what if Jesus Himself was literally physically here this morning? Would it be a waste if I wanted to sacrifice so much to show my love to Him?

We see this sort of extravagant love toward Christ so rarely that, when in happens, it is almost scandalous. She loved Jesus devotedly and extravagantly.

3. She loved Jesus beautifully, vss6-7.

Jesus rebuked the rebukers. He stood up for Mary and noticed what nobody else in the room noticed or mentioned? He saw the beauty of her devoted and extravagant act of love. I love this phrase, “she has done a beautiful thing to me”. This is the God of the universe in the flesh acknowledging and commending Mary for this beautiful act of love toward Him.

Jesus was impressed by the sheer beauty of what she had done to him. He was about to experience a brutal, ugly, humiliating death and along the way He received some beautiful love. In the midst of angry conspiracy, harsh rebukes and personal betrayals, here was an act of love so obviously beautiful that it was like a rose growing in a garbage dump of sin. The ugliness of so many people’s sins make the beauty of her sacrificial love toward Christ even more meaningful. What do you say other than, “That was beautiful love given to our beautiful Savior”?

There will always be opportunities to minister to the poor in this world but how often do you have opportunity to minister to God in the flesh? Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, was in the house – and only one person seized the moment and gave Him the kind of honor and worship He deserved. And she did it for no other reason than loving Him. She broke and poured out the best, most precious possession she owned. Beautiful! This was a physical expression of what was true in her heart toward Christ. She loved Jesus devotedly, extravagantly, and beautifully. And lastly,

4. She loved Jesus gratefully, vss8-9.

Jesus connected the woman’s act of love to His coming death on the cross. Did Mary intend this all along? Some think she did and others think she didn’t. If she did, this was tremendous spiritual insight. What matters is what Jesus thinks about our acts of love toward Him.

This was the only anointing His body received before His death. In spite of the many times Christ had warned of His suffering and death, perhaps Mary was one of the few to take Him seriously. She was the sister of Lazarus who had heard His powerful life-transforming teaching and witnessed Jesus bring her dead brother back from the tomb, miraculously alive. She had personally experienced the grace and saving power of Jesus. Her loving act was fueled with gratitude for His unmerited favor.

Doesn’t it make sense that those who experience gospel grace be filled with loving gratitude toward Christ? We have spiritual hindsight now that Christ has already gone to the cross for our sins. In the eyes of Christ, her loving act was looking forward to the Savior’s atoning work, to the centerpiece of God’s redemption plan for humanity. Praise God! Thank God for Jesus Christ and His Gospel ministry.

Jesus commended her by saying, “She had done what she could.” That is all that God has ever asked any person to do.

In response to her love, Jesus etched her amazing display of love toward Him into a lasting tribute that will extend through and around the world wherever and whenever this gospel is proclaimed. Twenty centuries later, as these words are being shared right now, here, her memorial shines once again. It still fills hearts with its sweet aroma, even in our day, that this Christ-follower loved Jesus devotedly, extravagantly, beautifully, and gratefully.

I’m wondering how well we are doing at loving Jesus in such ways. What precious thing in our lives have we broken and poured out lately before the Lord as a sacrificial love offering to Him? How are we doing at loving Jesus devotedly, extravagantly, beautifully, and gratefully?

What does such love toward Jesus look like in our lives today? That depends on how the Spirit is leading you and me. Maybe, it means you and/or me are to sell a lot of our possessions or give them away to people in need for the kingdom of Christ, for God’s glory. Maybe God wants you and/or me are to downsize our spending for the sake of being more generous. Maybe, God wants you and/or me are to serve Him differently with our time, giftedness, and resources. Maybe, God wants you and/or me to go to a place that is unreached with the Gospel. Maybe, God is calling you and/or me to stop following the American Dream of materialism and instead live ‘all in’ for Jesus Christ to advance His kingdom purposes. Maybe God is calling you and/or me to be more outwardly passionate and public about our love for Christ and His kingdom purposes through us.

What do you think about this woman’s example of loving Jesus in Mark 14 and what I’ve written about it here and what are your ideas on how Christ-followers can show such amazing love to Jesus these days?

Mike