One who anoints and one who betrays

Here is an easy assignment. Take time to compare and contrast the following two people. How are they similar? In what ways are they different? The two people are Mother Theresa and Osama Bin Laden. Ready, set, go! Pretty striking contrast isn’t it?

In the first 11 verses of Mark 14 we see two individuals to compare and contrast. The first is a woman named Mary (see John 12:3). She is the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus earlier had resurrected from the dead. While Jesus was eating at the home of Simon the leper in Bethany, Mary came in to where Jesus was reclining at the table. She held an alabaster jar which contained a very costly perfume. This was pure nard which was a very expensive aromatic oil from a rare plant root native to India. The perfume’s worth was estimated at the equivalent of a full year’s wages for a common worker.

Mary walked up to Jesus, broke the jar, and poured the perfume over His head. According to John’s account, she also anointed his feet and wiped them dry with her hair. It is amazing, because Mary is seen 3 times in the Gospels and all 3 times she can be found at the feet of Jesus (Lk 10:38-42; Jn 11:31-32; Jn 12:1-8). The Bible teaches us that the result was that the whole house was filled with this strong fragrance. Jesus called what Mary did, “good.” She was spiritually perceptive. What she was doing was to symbolically anoint the Lord’s body before His death in preparation for His burial. Jesus promised Mary that her deed of love toward Him would be told to the world and it has.

When Mary did this act of extravagant love, the disciples protested. They felt the money could have been better used to help the poor. They were insensitive to the need to lavish love on Jesus. Judas Iscariot was the one who spear-headed this disapproval. To Judas, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He knew that the religious leaders had already decided that Jesus should die. He knew that they were seeking a way to arrest Him. Due to the fact that it was time for the feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, they were going to wait. They feared that arresting Jesus during the feast would create an uprising from the crowd.

In contrast to Mary, who used a perfume worth a year’s wages to lavish extravagant love on Jesus, Judas approached the Chief Priests with a plan to betray Jesus if the price was right. He would help them find a time and a place to arrest Jesus when no crowds were present. The religious leaders welcomed this unexpected offer and agreed to pay Judas 30 lousy pieces of silver, the price of a common slave.

Take time to contrast these two individuals. How easy it is for us to betray our Lord. We do it every time we sin. We do it every time we fail to spend time with Him. We do it every time we fail to speak about Him to others He brings us in contact with. Yet, when was the last time you or I lavished extravagant love on Jesus. When was the last time we did something that cost us something significant (time, money, popularity, etc.) because we were so overwhelmed at who He was and the great love that He has shown to us?