Mark 14.1-15.47
1It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; 2for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’
3While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a beautiful thing for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’
1It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; 2for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’
3While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a beautiful thing for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’
This story of the woman with the Alabaster jar is a beautiful account deep with meaning and teaching and verse 9 is powerful indeed!
"Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her"
Why does Jesus say this? Perhaps he wanted to stress that the woman's action embodies the important truth that devotion is more important than doctrine. Not that doctrine is not important at all but that her and therefore our devotion is the vital oil that lubricates our relationship with our Lord.
Consider the words of Jesus to the Pharisees, the doctrinally sound and biblically orthodox of his day? 'These people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me'. At the house of Simon they were arguing about what was the doctrinally correct thing to do - what was the correct thing to do with this costly ointment - but our Lord and Saviour said that Mary had done a most beautiful thing to him and I am sure that Jesus remembered her when he was dying in agony on the cross. This Mary, as far as we know, did not cast out demons or perform miracles. All she did was to love Jesus with a lavish, extravagant love.
I suppose the love did not really flow from that alabaster jar but it flowed from her heart and Jesus says that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her (note: not of Jesus!) And as our Lord went through the humiliation of his fake trial and torture I believe the smell of that perfume was with him, buried within his garment, mixing with the sweat and the blood. And that perfume of loving devotion was with him as he carried his heavy cross. and the perfume has lingered on through the centuries, and is still with us today! The scent of her loving devotion pervades our lives still.
What a wonderful image and what a wonderful reminder as we come to the end of Lent.
"Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her"
Why does Jesus say this? Perhaps he wanted to stress that the woman's action embodies the important truth that devotion is more important than doctrine. Not that doctrine is not important at all but that her and therefore our devotion is the vital oil that lubricates our relationship with our Lord.
Consider the words of Jesus to the Pharisees, the doctrinally sound and biblically orthodox of his day? 'These people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me'. At the house of Simon they were arguing about what was the doctrinally correct thing to do - what was the correct thing to do with this costly ointment - but our Lord and Saviour said that Mary had done a most beautiful thing to him and I am sure that Jesus remembered her when he was dying in agony on the cross. This Mary, as far as we know, did not cast out demons or perform miracles. All she did was to love Jesus with a lavish, extravagant love.
I suppose the love did not really flow from that alabaster jar but it flowed from her heart and Jesus says that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her (note: not of Jesus!) And as our Lord went through the humiliation of his fake trial and torture I believe the smell of that perfume was with him, buried within his garment, mixing with the sweat and the blood. And that perfume of loving devotion was with him as he carried his heavy cross. and the perfume has lingered on through the centuries, and is still with us today! The scent of her loving devotion pervades our lives still.
What a wonderful image and what a wonderful reminder as we come to the end of Lent.
12On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, 14say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
17When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ 19They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ 20He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. 21For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’
22While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’
26When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
17When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ 19They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ 20He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. 21For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’
22While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’
26When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
When I was first beginning of my journey of faith I saw the eucharist as a meal and the communion table was at the centre where God’s people gathered to remember what Jesus did on the cross. But I suspect that in the mind of Jesus, sacrifice was in the forefront when he reclined at the Last Supper. Not only that, sacrifice always goes with covenant. Every covenant is sealed with a sacrifice. In the days of Noah, God promised that he would never again flood the earth and Noah performed a sacrifice. In the days of Abraham, God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants and Abraham performs a sacrifice by cutting several animals in half to seal the agreement. Moses did the same when he splashed blood on the altar and on the people and read the book of the covenant. This strikes us as grotesque these days but the image is that of pledging our life blood to God. It is as though God and Israel become blood-brothers. Then the covenant with David followed by the long years of temple sacrifice with round-the- clock sacrifices.
But there is a problem. Although God is faithful to his end of the covenant Israel is not. Israel does not live up to her end of the covenant. And so there begins a longing that one day the covenant would be fully realised. One day the fidelity of God would meet the answering fidelity of his people. We can hear the cadences of this in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31.
"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.
33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Against that very rich background we see Jesus at the last supper. He says “This is the blood of the covenant..” The blood of God pledges fidelity to Israel and we see how the dream of Jeremiah becomes reality and the whole history of sacrifice comes to it’s climax. Divinity and humanity meet.
What is the eucharist? A memorial meal? Yes. But it is also, I think, an unbloody re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary. Even now, as we participate in it, are brought back to Calvary and Calvary is brought back to the present moment and we, here and now, participate in the dynamics of Christ’s sacrifice which saves the world and reconciles divinity and humanity. Christ’s blood poured out is made present to us in the sacrifice of the eucharist.
That is not to say that we are sacrificing Christ over and over again. No! His sacrifice was indeed a once, for all, action. But because we are doing what Jesus asked us to do in remembrance of him, the barriers of space and time are lifted (as they are, I believe, whenever we pray).
But the eucharist is also a meal and the altar is also a table. And what do we do with this body and blood of Christ? We eat and drink together. How powerful this is! Moses sprinkles the blood on the people but we do much more than that. We ingest the body and blood of Christ that we might be conformed to that sacrifice in the most visceral, bodily way possible. We have a fellowship with the sacrifice of Christ and therefore we have a connection with each other in love and that, I think, is how it works. What the eucharst is not is a celebration of ourselves. No! It is a celebration of the culmination of Israelite history. The culmination of this sacrificial tradition and now we have the privilege of eating and drinking and incorporating into ourselves the body and blood of Christ. How wonderful and how beautiful!
Mark
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