Mark 14:1-9
The Plot to Kill Jesus
14 After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death.
2 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
The Anointing at Bethany
3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.
4 But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.
6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.
7 For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.
8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.
9 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
Context
- Why did they want to kill Him-but not during the feast? (Mark 14:1, 2, John 11:50-57)
Reflection
- What was the significant of the ‘anointing of Jesus in Bethany’? (Matthew 26:6-13, John 12:1-8)
- How come she was so sharply criticized? (Deuteronomy 15:11, Matthew 25:37-40, Mark 14:4, 5, John 12:6)
- Why was her act praised by Jesus, and how was it an anointing for His burial? (Mark 11:41-44, 14:8, 9, Luke 7:44-50)
Testimony Time
- What’s the greatest sacrifice we can give Him? (Romans 12:1, 2, 2 Corinthians 5:15)
- How much has He given us?
- How was He broken poured out for us? (John 3:16-18, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 9:7, Ephesians 5:2, 1 John 2:1, 2, 4:10)