THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Mark: Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God

Part III: The Perfect Sacrifice Of Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God, Mark 11:1-15:47

M. Accepting The Great Contrast In Man's Responses To The Ministry Of God's Truth

(Mark 14:1-11)

I. Introduction

A. Mark's Gospel was written by John Mark who was rebounding from having abandoned Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:13) due to Mark's lapse in following Christ over some difficulty.

B. That difficulty may have been in part his shock over the potent spiritual opposition Elymas the sorcerer had given in opposing Paul's witness to the leader of Cyprus in Acts 13:8.

C. However, Mark needed to learn that serving the Lord necessarily includes sharply contrasting responses to one's ministry, a lesson presented for our insight and edification in Mark 14:1-11 (as follows):

II. Accepting The Great Contrast In Man's Responses To The Ministry Of God's Truth, Mark 14:1-11.

A. Israel's religious rulers in great unrighteousness were very hostile toward Jesus and His Ministry, Mark 14:1-2:

1. Near Jesus' last Passover in His earthly ministry, the Jewish religious leaders, members of the Sanhedrin, "had already decided that Jesus must be put to death (cf. John 11:47-53)," Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 174.

2. However, they feared a popular uprising from the Jewish crowds who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, so they kept seeking (ezetoun, imperf.) "'how to seize Him by deceit,'" Ibid.; Mark 14:1-2.

B. However, in great contrast to them, a righteous woman expressed deep faith and devotion to Jesus, Mark 14:3:

1. She came with a costly container of perfume, and breaking it, she poured the oil on Jesus' head, Mark 14:3.

2. John 12:3 claims she was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, that she anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair, so she anointed both His head and feet as He customarily reclined to dine, Ibid., p. 175.

3. In great contrast to the ungodly, hostile religious leaders, Mary expressed faith and devotion to Christ.

C. Then, in varying degrees of unrighteousness, the disciples reacted to her deed of devotion with Jesus' resulting comments, resulting in varying degrees of either submission to Christ or hostility toward Him, Mark 14:4-11:

1. Some of Jesus' disciples initially angrily criticized this woman's use of her money, claiming the perfume could have been sold for more than three hundred "denarii" worth "300 days' wages for a rural worker," with the proceeds going to the poor, Mark 14:4-5; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Mark 14:5. In fact, they were sternly scolding her (enebrimonto, imperfect of embrimaomai, "scold, censure, warn sternly," Mark 14:5b; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 182; The Analy. Grk. Lex. (Zon.), 1972, p. 138; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 254.

2. Jesus told the disciples to stop troubling her, for she had wrought a good work on Him, Mark 14:6. He explained that they always had the poor so that they could always minister to their needs, but Him they did not always have, Mark 14:7. What she could do she had done, coming beforehand to anoint His body before His burial, Mark 14:8, revealing His full anticipation of His imminent death! Indeed, Jesus claimed that wherever this Gospel [of His death, burial and resurrection] would be proclaimed throughout the world, this anointing deed she had performed would be spoken in positive memorial of her, Mark 14:9.

3. Though the other disciples who had wrongly criticized the woman repented and accepted Jesus' correction, Judas Iscariot rejected His correction, going to the chief priests instead to make plans with them to betray Jesus to them in bitter hatred of Christ, Mark 14:10.

4. The chief priests were glad to hear of Judas' intent to betray Jesus, and promised to give Judas money in reward for handing Him over to them, Mark 14:11a. Accordingly, Judas in hostile unrighteousness began seeking how he might deliver Jesus over to them, Mark 14:11b.

Lesson: Near the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, there was a wide contrast of responses to Him: Israel's ungodly religious rulers bitterly and deceptively planned to kill Him, Mary conversely deeply trusted in Jesus and was devoted to Him, the disciples were initially unrighteousness and scolded Mary only to repent when Jesus corrected them and Judas rebelled in hatred against Jesus' correction, and so he planned to betray Him to Israel's leaders.

Application: (1) If we do God's work, we should expect a wide range of degrees of positive and negative responses from others due to the variations of their responses to the truth. (2) Since the very positive response to Jesus in Mark 14:1-11 was in the vast minority, coming from a single devout woman, with varying degrees of good or bad responses being in the majority, we should expect the same kinds of responses to our ministries, cf. Mark 4:14-20.