God's Word this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. If the pagination of your pew Bible matches the pulpit Bible, it's page 985, but I don't know if that's so. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, and we'll be reading this morning from verses 1 through 11. God's holy word, inspired, inerrant, infallible, and unchangeable. Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. But not during the feast, they said, or the people may riot. While he was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor. And they rebuked her harshly. Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth. Wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this news, and they promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. As for the reading of God's word, may he bless this word and may he write it on our hearts. Congregation of the Lord Jesus. I've been preaching through the gospel of Mark for seems quite a while, I guess. And so this is where I it happened, I suppose, in the providence of God that I last I last preached. And it's a happy providence since this is a preparatory Sunday. This is a good text before coming to the Lord's table. It just happens that as I travel around and preach, I find that it's useful if I preach a series. And so wherever I go, I preach where I am in the series. And so I guess you'll have to catch up with me this morning. I'm sure you can. And this gospel, by tradition, was written in the early 40s A.D. You think of Jesus being crucified in the early 30s. This gospel was not written very long after all of this. And this gospel, by tradition, was sent to the Christian congregation in Rome. And it was sent as a sort of a follow-up to the visit of the Apostle Peter to summarize the teaching of the Apostle Peter to the Roman Christians. Now, we don't know this as certainty. What we can deduce from the text of Mark itself is that it was almost certainly written to an urban, that is a city, congregation. And we can deduce that it was written to probably a congregation whose native language was Latin. Obviously, this was written like all the rest of the New Testament in Greek because it would have been an international congregation, particularly if it were in Rome. Just as if you're in New York City or Los Angeles or San Diego or any major city, you're likely, particularly in this instance, to have an international congregation where everyone speaks a common language and then they have their own home language or their first language. Their first language is almost certainly Latin, and the reason we know that is because there are a number of Latin terms in the Gospel of Mark that are not explained. They're put into Greek letters, but they're not explained. Why weren't they explained? Because they didn't need to be explained, because these people already knew what they meant. Whereas other terms are explained, and there are explanations given for Jerusalem and Judea and Palestine and that part of the world with which these people, particularly if they're in Rome, would have had some vague familiarity, but not a detailed familiarity. Go to Sacramento, or better, go to Washington, D.C., and tell them, I'm from Escondido. What will they say? Where's that? Oh, it's in California. Oh, great. Well, what part of California? It's near San Diego. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, great. What a beautiful city San Diego is. We vacation there all the time. Well, if you went to Rome and you said, I'm from Jerusalem, people would have said, okay, where's that? It was a backwater place. It wasn't a place with which these people would have been intimately familiar. And those who knew would have known something about the government and something of the political powers, but they probably would not have known a great deal. The people to whom this epistle was most likely read were the same kinds of people you see, in a sense, on the political talking head shows. People who are interested in power, people who are interested in influence. So if you go to Sacramento, or if you go to Washington, D.C., what do people talk about? They talk about who's in and who's out. Who has power, who has influence, who doesn't have power, who doesn't have influence. And this letter is a follow-up to Peter's visit, to say to these people, listen, we want you to know about a king and his kingdom that in some ways is like kings and kingdoms with which you're familiar. They would have been familiar particularly with the emperor Claudius. Have you ever seen I, Claudius, on public television? This is the Caesar who was in power probably when this letter came to them. And so they would have been familiar with a kind of relatively benevolent dictating power, dictatorship. And as Caesars go, he was a fairly decent guy. They also would have been familiar with power and with influence. And what Mark wants to say to these people and the theme he's been pursuing all through the gospel is, you need to know about another kind of a king and another kind of a kingdom. And particularly as we're coming to the climax of the story that he's been telling all through the gospel, as Jesus goes way up north, if you follow Mark, and then he comes way back down south, all of that has been preparation for what begins in chapter 14. And that is the beginning of the end, and the beginning, in many ways, of the kingdom. And these people need to be prepared for this story because it is, as the philosophers say, counterintuitive. If you go to Sacramento, you go to Washington, D.C. and you say, I want to talk to you about a great leader, an influential leader, about a kingdom and about a power, people will think about this worldly power and this worldly kingdoms. Mark wants them to know about another kind and a power that far transcends this worldly kingdom and this worldly power. And he needs to prepare them because this kingdom is going to come about in a way that none of them would have predicted and certainly none of the disciples would have predicted. And Mark gives us three points here, the plot, the price, and the preparation. The plot, the price, and the preparation. I'm going to treat this passage a little bit out of order just to make clear what it is Mark is doing. Jesus has just finished a great and very difficult speech about the destruction of Jerusalem that's coming in AD 70, and then eventually, someday, his glorious return and the destruction of the world. And now having given that great Olivet Discourse, and now we begin to read about the beginning of all of those things. The beginning of all of those things. It's two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And so this is the great religious high point in the calendar of the Jewish world, Jewish community. People are coming into Jerusalem from all over the world. The regular population in Jerusalem is probably something like 50,000 people. Think of Escondido. What are we officially? A hundred and some thousand, but at least if you go downtown on Tuesdays, it seems like 200,000 or more. People are jammed everywhere and there's no place to park. Well, that's the way it was in Jerusalem when it came time for Passover. People came into Jerusalem from all over because it was the greatest of all the feasts for which people were meant to come to Jerusalem. And so the population could swell from 50,000 to as high as 250,000. Imagine having to deal with all of those people and the problems that creates. Where are you going to put them all? Where are they going to sleep? Where are they going to eat? So you have a problem of crowds. And in fact, if you read the Gospel of Mark carefully, one of the great problems with which Jesus deals and to which the Gospel of Mark calls our attention repeatedly is the problem of crowds. And again, this reinforces the fact that the gospel was written to an urban congregation, probably the Roman congregation, where when you live in a congested urban area, what are you always dealing with? Crowds. Hard to get from A to B because of crowds. And so Jesus had a problem with crowds. And now the civic authorities and the religious authorities have a problem with crowds. Of course, they wouldn't have a problem with crowds, Except for the fact that they are bent on murdering Jesus. And you notice it never seems to occur to them that, listen, we can make this whole crowd problem go away simply by not murdering Jesus. What do you say? We'll just let that one go. It never occurs to them. They are so bent on doing away with Jesus that it doesn't occur to them to say, listen, there are a lot of people here. Maybe we should let this one go. It's not worth it, really. We'd like to get rid of him, but he's really just a minor irritation. No, they are so bent, so determined, so committed to murdering this rabbi as they see him, this troublesome rabbi, that they have to figure out a way to do it when all of these 100, 150, 200, 250,000 people are in this relatively small geographic area. If you go look sometime, if you go to Jerusalem and visit the old city, you'll see like most old cities, ancient cities, it's a very small place geographically. Things tend to go where, you know, we live in Southern California, most of us I assume, and what do we do when we build? We go flat and we go out. In those old cities, even today, what do people do? They go up, they go vertical, and that's the way it was then. So rather than just letting it go, they've got to figure out a way to deal with Jesus. And so they are plotting against him, and they have to find a way to do it while all these people are here without creating a riot. Why? Because Jesus was by now famous. Famous for his teaching, famous for his miracles, famous for his healing, famous for his wisdom, and expectations were growing around Jesus that, indeed, he had come to bring a kind of kingdom which they expected in Jerusalem, which the disciples expected, which Judas expected, which the Pharisees expected, which the scribes expected, which the priests expected, Perhaps of them only the Sadducees didn't really expect it, exactly. So everyone thinks that Jesus is here to set up the kind of kingdom they've been expecting all along. A kingdom of power, a kingdom of influence, a kingdom of force, a kingdom of swords and horses and soldiers. They've reduced the kingdom of God to us versus them. Our side versus their side. And now the Romans, they think, are about to get it in the neck. And the Pharisees and the scribes, that is the lawyers, the lawyers of the Torah and the Jewish traditions, and the Pharisees, you know about them, if only from Paul's account of his training as a Pharisee in the book of Philippians and in Galatians. They are all looking for some kind of a king. The Pharisees and the scribes, the lawyers, they don't want Jesus to be that guy. They want someone to be that guy. They don't want Jesus to be that guy. They want power for themselves. And Jesus is a threat to their power. The disciples think that Jesus is the one, and so do the crowds. They also think, he's the one. This is it. It's all coming. Jesus is here. The crowds are here. It's the Passover. It's unleavened bread. This is it. It's all coming together, baby. Just hang on and watch. they have a plan. The scribes and the Pharisees have a plot. But Judas and the disciples have a plan. And Jesus doesn't fit either the plot or the plan. You know what the amazing thing about the way things are in the contemporary Christian and evangelical churches today is that things haven't really changed. There are still lots of people with plots and lots of people with plans. And Jesus is still disappointing them. Because he isn't doing things the way they want. He isn't taking back this or that country the way they would like. There are folks sitting around today who are plotting or planning better For the day when Jesus returns and he sets up his earthly kingdom in Jerusalem and he rules on a throne for a thousand years watching people slaughter animals, watching priests slaughter animals. They've got the money saved up. They've got the priestly uniforms sewn. Do you know they've even bred a red heifer and they are ready to go. They have a plan. And sometimes they even set dates. And so far, Jesus has disappointed them repeatedly. So much for the plot. Now for the price. Jump for just a minute down to verses 10 and 11 at the end of the passage. You've seen the plot, but there's a price involved here in this obtaining of power and influence. You see it in verses 10 and 11. then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve. It's quite possible, though it's not certain, but it's quite possible here that the original text actually means to suggest more than simply one of the twelve, because the way that it's written suggests perhaps that it actually means to say the one of the twelve. Certainly he is one of the twelve, but it may also be a little more than that, that he is the one of the twelve, however that turns out. who was one of the twelve, or the one of the twelve, went to the chief priests, and so now we have another group here, we've got chief priests, we have Pharisees, we have scribes, and we don't have all the groups mentioned, but Mark has mentioned them earlier. In order, now watch this language, in order, with a purpose to, With the result that to betray him, who is him, that him is Jesus, to whom? To these people who've been plotting against Jesus. So one of his inner circle, one of those with whom he had reclined at table, one of those with whom he had prayed, one of those with whom he had sweat, One of those whom he had taught. One of those whom he had in some way loved. One of those whom in some way even he had trusted. This one went to the high priests with the purpose of betraying Jesus. And when the authorities, when the chief priests heard that they now had a man on the inside, they had a spy, they had a traitor, they were glad. They were encouraged, they were excited, because now we finally get to do what we want. We're going to get our hands on that troublesome Rabbi Yeshua. We're going to get him. We're going to take care of him. We're going to put him away, and we'll be done with him. And things can go back to normal when we are the ones in whom the people are interested, when we're the ones calling the shot, when the Roman authorities aren't so nervous about all of the upheaval among the masses. And so they cut a deal. They promised to give Judas money. And what did he promise in turn? I will tell you when and where. What do we call that when someone says, I will give you money if you will do this, and the other party says, I will do that? We call that a contract. This is a hit. Think of, think of, my Godfather, I'm going to take care of this. But you know, it's on my mind because I recently watched 1 and 2. All the time I'm watching this, I'm thinking, you know, these aren't just contracts, these are covenants. These are covenants. The language that's used is covenantal language. You know, God entered into a covenant with Adam and he said, in effect, I'll be your God and you'll be my representative man. And here's the test. Obey me, love me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and Eve, your neighbor, as yourself. Pass this test and you will enter into glory, which is exactly what we confess in the Belgian Confession and in the Heidelberg Catechism. The Belgian Confession speaks of a commandment of life. Heidelberg says that he might rightly know God his creator, heartily love him and live with him in eternal blessedness. When? When he had passed the test. But the evil one came and offered another covenant. The evil one said, I will be your overlord and you will be my servant. And if you serve me, I will give you power and knowledge and wisdom. You shall know as God knows. And just as he did to Jesus, he as much as took him to a high place and showed him all, as it were, the kingdoms of the world, he said, this could all be yours, and all you have to do is serve me. And Judas here, in our text, he says, I'll take that deal. I'll take that deal. And they are glad. Now, at this point, we're reading this text, and we're saying, if you're a typical Christian, and I suppose I have no reason to think that you aren't, you're saying to yourself, wow, that's just disgusting. That's just disgusting. How on earth could anyone cut a deal like that? Even if you don't hold the historic Christian faith, the biblical faith that says that Jesus is God the Son in the flesh, Even if you're an old-fashioned classical liberal or a new-fashioned classical liberal and you think Jesus is really just a social gospel preacher telling us to be good and love one another and help one another, even if you think of him that way, you look at this account and you think, Jesus has only done good. He's only been a preacher of righteousness. How could anyone enter into a deal like this? That's just disgusting. And if you're a Christian this morning, that is, if you know that Jesus is God the Son in the flesh, born of the Virgin, came to live and to announce, live for us, for all of his people, and to announce the gospel of the kingdom of God, and to do far more than that. If you know that, you read this account, you think, this is just disgusting. But you're also tempted this morning, I know, because I am also likewise tempted. You're tempted to think, I would never have done that. If I'd been there, I would have said, no, Judas, what are you doing? That's crazy. Don't you know what you're doing? Don't you know who Jesus is? And if you think that, you don't know yourself very well. If you think that, at the moment you think that, you've lied to yourself. The point of this text is to say, we are, by our natural inclination, we are that man. We are that covenant maker and covenant breaker. And how do I know that we are that man? How do I know that we are those high priests? How do I know that we are Judas by inclination? Because we already did it, as I just told you. We already did it. We already cut the deal. We ate the fruit. We rejected the covenant of God. We rejected glory with God. Fellowship, unending fellowship with God. Do you understand what God offered to Adam? Unending bliss and fellowship and joy with God. He cashed it all in for this world. What Judas did was what we have always done. He just happened to be Judas who did it. Peter did it. Say, aren't you with that Galilean? Oh, me? No. Never knew him. This is just warming my hands. Nah, I don't know him. Heard about him. Interesting guy. When they lifted him up, where were all those devout followers who would never, ever cut this kind of a deal? Nowhere. Nowhere. Judas took his price and he got the kingdom for which he bargained. Didn't he? He got the kingdom for which he bargained. And when did Judas enter into his kingdom? when that rope went taut and snapped his neck. Judas entered into the kingdom for which he bargained. But there's another king and another kingdom that's glorious and transcendent, but the only way to get there is through death, humiliation, suffering, and burial. And we'll finish there, verses 3 through 9. There's also preparation. We'll respect Mark's gospel by not speculating. He doesn't tell us really who these people are because, frankly, as far as Mark's concerned, for the purposes of his narrative, it isn't really very important. We know a little bit about some of these people from other narratives, but we'll just pay attention to Mark here. And while he, that's Jesus, was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, probably a healed leper, most likely not actively suffering with leprosy, or these people wouldn't be in this house. And Jesus was reclining at table, And as he's doing so, he's relaxing, and perhaps they're eating. This is the way they ate in that time and place. She came with an alabaster flask. This is a piece of pottery carved, made out of a stone, very expensive. And it was full of perfumed nard, which is an ointment, Which came from India, which was very, very expensive. Worth, as it says here, over 300 denarii. 300 denarii is roughly a year's wages. Roughly a year's wages. Do you have anything in your house that's worth a year's wages? Maybe a car? Maybe somebody's college education? Think of something along those lines. What does she do with this thing that's worth a year's wages? Well, she did really what some people consider to be the unthinkable. She broke the flask. Some people have made a lot out of breaking the flask as if this means something. Well, actually, it's the only way really to get into this. But she breaks the flask, and what does she do with it? She pours it over his head. Now, you may say, if it's our culture, we'd think, well, what are you doing to me? You know, it's going to cost me money to get my clothes dry clean. Well, that's because we shower and we perfume. But in first century Palestine, people didn't do that. People basically stank, to put it bluntly. Children, what happens when you're out playing all day? You're out playing in the dirt all day long and then you come in and you've been sweating and you've got sweat running down your face and dirt is sort of attracted to it. What's the first thing your mom says? Go take a bath or a shower. Well, in these days, people didn't have showers and baths were relatively infrequent. In fact, they remained relatively infrequent well into the modern period. Some people only bathed once a year, well into the modern period. My grandfather only bathed once a week, and then after everybody else had had their bath, because he was a farmer and he was going to get dirty the next day, it really didn't matter anyway. So they were dirty. And it was a custom to do a couple of things. One, to wash the feet of guests when they came in, and the other was to anoint their head and to say, welcome to my house, here's a gift, something that's pleasant, something that is chazelic, makes for a nice fellowship in the house and around the table. But people were conscious when they saw it and when they smelled it that this was not just any ordinary perfume that we're pouring out on visitors' heads. There were some in verse 4 who said to themselves, and they were indignant, Again, they're disgusted with this woman, this anonymous woman, and with, implicitly, by the way, with Jesus, because he isn't meeting their expectations. They have a plan. What's the plan? Well, the plan is to bring in a kingdom. The plan is to set up a social welfare system. You could do a lot of social good. They have a social gospel. We're going to transform this city and we're going to bring in the kingdom of God on the earth. Things are going to be done as they're supposed to be done. It's going to be glorious and we can do a lot of good. How many of you remember the radicals in the 60s who wanted to take all of their parents' money and give it to somebody else? Starting with themselves. And they went off and lived in communes until they figured out that communal living isn't so pleasant or easy as they thought it was. And ten years later, they're all Wall Street bankers. So much for communism and communalism. These people are a little bit like those radicals. They have a plan. They're going to change things. And Jesus is not doing things the right way. But in verse 6, Jesus says, Leave her alone. Leave her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She's done a beautiful thing to me. Listen, you people are so interested, he says, if you people are so concerned about the poor, you're so interested in the poor, you can always take care of them. Of course, I notice I haven't been doing much for them since, or before I came. I see lots of poor people implicitly here. I see lots of poor people on the street. If you're so concerned about the poor, I see you're not starving there. You'll have the poor always. He's not saying, listen, you know, don't do anything. But he's saying, listen, I know what you're saying. This is a dodge. But he says in verse 7, you will not always have me. Jesus knew who he was, that he was God the Son in the flesh, and that he had come to do his Father's will, And that even while the Pharisees and all the authorities are plotting and planning, and while the disciples are planning and plotting, Jesus has his own plan that he made with the Father from all eternity, and he's come into history, as he says repeatedly in the Gospel of John, to do my Father's will. That's the beauty of Psalm 2. People can plot and plan vain things, but God has a plan. And Jesus came into history to execute that plan, to fulfill that plan. And loved ones, he came to do it for you. He didn't do it for himself. Little children. Jesus didn't come just so we could tell nice stories. He came because he loved you. And he came to do exactly what his father told him to do and exactly what he agreed to do from all eternity. This woman has done, verse 8, what she could. What could she do? She anointed my body. Now she meant it as a gift of receiving. she meant it as a gift of reception. But Jesus says it's a gift for departure. Jesus says it's a gift for departure. She's done what she could. She thinks that she has anointed me to welcome me into her house, and surely she has. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. Jesus was a young man. What do you mean burial? It means that he knew he came to die. And this was preparation. The authorities plot. Judas has his price. but jesus has his preparation his preparation for entering into his kingdom and this morning we are doing exactly what our lord said we would do that whenever we would gather we would remember what this woman did she prepared his body for burial and why was it buried because he would die And why did he die? To satisfy the wrath of God. The same reason that he lived. To satisfy the wrath of God and to inaugurate his kingdom. Just, loved ones, and I want you to listen to me. Just as Judas entered into his kingdom, at the end of a rope, Jesus entered into his kingdom on top of a cross. that's the kingdom of God loved ones it begins on a cross with a dying savior who said from whom God turned his face and poured out his wrath perfectly and once for all and the good news this morning the good news is it's all for you. It's for you. And it's free. And all you must do this morning and say, Jesus, I want that. I want that for me. I want you to be my Savior. And God hears that prayer of faith and he says to you, My child, it is for you. You are righteous. In the name of Jesus, amen.