That River in Egypt: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 14:1-9)

Denial!  It is the tool of choice for avoiding unpleasantness for so many of us.  We simply act as if what is most unpleasant does not exist.  We go about our day with the nagging reality of what is wrong but choose to ignore it.  Strangely, such denial keeps us from appreciating what is positive and right.  We’re spending our energy repressing and have none left for entering into truth the way God wants us to.  Denial!

Almost all of Jesus’ disciples are infected with it.  Repeatedly he has told them he is going to die.  It is now Wednesday, and Passover, Friday, is two days away.  But because they aren’t going to deal with his impending death, they can’t enter into who he is and what he means to them.

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, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.” 

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. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 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. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 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.” (Mark 14:1-9, ESV)

Death is fast approaching for Jesus, even though the chief priests and scribes are hesitant about when to kill him because of his popularity.  His disciples have been told he is going to die, but they don’t seem to have let that sink in.  One of his disciples has let it sink in, however, and she chooses to acknowledge that by spending nearly a year’s wages on anointing oil and pours it all out on Jesus’ head.

Jesus silences the criticisms from some of the disciples, that this could have been spent on the poor, by framing her action as anointing his body for burial.  And though it is a lavish thing to do, it seems Jesus is receptive to lavish worship and love.  He sees the heart of this woman as beautiful and lovely and worthy of remembrance as an example to others.

She has quit denial and fully entered into the reality that Jesus is going to die.  So then, she can fully enter into how much she loves him and how mournful his death will be.  Departing from denial requires us to have implicit trust in God.  That something unpleasant and evil that we are tempted to deny is something included in God’s plan for us and He can lead us through it with grace.  And it will transform us into His Son’s likeness if we let it, if we quit pretending it isn’t there.