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Hi, I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Mark chapter 14, we're
going to be studying together this week, an amazing chapter of Scripture. We're
continuing to study together, Jesus' final week. We've talked about what
happened on Sunday, and then Monday, and then Tuesday, the last couple of weeks,
the teaching day of Jesus, Wednesday is a day of rest, and then towards the end
of that day, or for the Jewish people, the beginning of the next day, remember
their day would begin at 6 p.

m. , our time, towards the end of that day for us, there comes these final
moments in the life of Jesus as he prepares to go for the cross, as he prepares
to give himself for us, and as we walk through this chapter, Mark chapter 14,
we're going to see Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem once again, but this time
it's not as a king, it's not as a priest, it's not as a prophet, he's entering
as the Lamb of God. Actually there are two side-by-side pictures of Jesus on
this day, he is the Lamb of God, but he also shows himself very clearly to be
the shepherd of men.

It's interesting that this picture of Jesus as the Lamb is a picture that comes
during the Passover celebration for the Jewish people. On this day, Passover is
only two days away, and the leaders we see are actively looking for a way to
kill Jesus because of their jealousy, but they're concerned that because this
great Passover celebration, which is like our Christmas celebration, where so
many people would gather because there's so many crowds at that time in
Jerusalem, they're concerned about what might happen. So here is Jesus in
Jerusalem, here's the Passover about to happen, here are the spiritual leaders
wanting to kill Jesus, and here they are all at a party together.

Mark chapter 14, verses 1 to 11, a man by the name of Simon throws a party, and
they're all there, and look at what happens. Mark 14, let me read for you verses
1 to 11, "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, a 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 that 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
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 and promised to give him money.
So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Here is this incredible moment in scripture at this party where this woman
breaks this expensive jar filled with more expensive perfume and just pours it
over the head of Jesus. Here's the question that is behind these verses. The
personal question in my life and in your life.

What would you do if you abandoned your reservations about appearance and
allowed yourself an unreserved expression of love for God? What would you do?
What this woman did is she broke the jar and she poured out the perfume.

Why did she do this? We somehow sometimes miss this unreserved expression of
love and go straight to the why. Why break the jar?

Why pour the perfume? Why did she do this? She may not have fully known what she
was doing, but Jesus certainly did.

She may have only been following an intuition, a spiritual intuition, but Jesus
knew exactly what she was doing. When a body was prepared for burial in this
day, perfumes were poured over the body and the container was broken and placed
beside that body. Jesus says to the crowd that was there, "This woman has
prepared my body for burial.

" Everyone else was arguing about what Jesus' place in history was going to be.
The disciples didn't understand about the cross and his death, and I'm not sure
that this woman even fully understood, but somehow she was motivated to do this
by God's Spirit. In doing this, she recognized that Jesus was about to die and
she prepared his body.

What were the results of this? What were the results of this lavish love that
this woman expressed on this day? There were three results.

First of all, Jesus says it's a beautiful thing. There was the result of this
expression from Jesus that it's a beautiful thing what she has done. In fact,
this would be her only opportunity to prepare Jesus' body for burial like this.

Miss this moment and she would miss it. In another day, he would be on the cross
and then he would be dead. Miss this moment and she would miss it entirely.

This is why sometimes we misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. This is where
he says, "The poor you will always have with you. " Some people misunderstand
that to mean it's okay to have the poor with you.

You can't do anything about this problem, so don't try to do anything about this
problem. That's not what Jesus is saying at all. He's saying do what you can for
them, but he's also saying, "What she has done for me in this moment, there was
only this moment to do it.

" I've found personally that there's always a good reason not to do the right
thing. There's always a good reason not to show extravagant love, but this woman
did the right motivated by God's Spirit. Regardless of what other people thought
of her in that moment, she knew it was the right thing to do.

She expressed this love to Jesus and Jesus says, "This is a beautiful thing.
There's beauty in what she is doing. I want that in my life.

" That kind of beauty, the beauty of expressing love for God in unreserved ways.
It was a beautiful thing. A second result that came out of this was the result
of a good example.

In fact, a good news example. Jesus says, "Wherever the gospel is preached, what
this woman has done is going to be told. " We're telling it right now.

Right now we're studying through the gospel of Mark and we're talking about this
woman and what she did 2,000 years ago. Jesus knew somehow that this story would
be included in the gospels. He knew, as we do, that God's Word is eternal.

Her example is an example that will last forever. What she did was done in a
moment. But her example is going to last forever.

Her example has shown many, many people the way to the good news of Jesus
Christ. That regardless of what others' opinions might be of you, what others'
arguments might be about Jesus, regardless of the judgmental attitude of others,
you and I can love him. That relationship with him can be a relationship that
begins now and goes all the way into eternity.

So Jesus says, "This is a good example. " But there's a third result to what the
woman did that day. It was a beautiful thing.

It was a good example, but it was also a final motivation. It was a final
motivation for Judas to betray Jesus. Judas sees what is done that day and then
the next verse says he goes out and he says, "I'm going to betray Jesus to the
chief priests.

" One of the other gospels fills this in a little bit for us and tells us that
Judas' motivation here is anything but pure. Judas was the treasurer for the
disciples and they eventually discovered that he stole money from that treasury.
He was a greedy man.

And he is the one here who talked about, one of the ones who talked about money
being given to the poor, but he didn't care about the poor. He really wanted it
for himself. Why couldn't I get that money?

And so Judas, because of what was done by this woman, and it was so different
than his values, it was the final straw, it was the final motivation, he goes
out to betray Jesus. And it's very fitting that they offer him money in that
betrayal. Now we'll talk later this week about what all the twisted motivations
of Judas might have been, but one of them was certainly money.

It may not have been just the money, but one of them was money. He was a greedy
man and that greed eventually ate up his heart, ate up his life. Now there's a
very challenging question in this story and it's how am I thinking?

How am I thinking in this moment in my life? Am I thinking more like this woman
or more like Judas? Am I thinking more expression of extravagant love or more,
let's be careful.

Let's be so careful that maybe we tie down any kind of expression like that. But
really what's behind it is my selfish desire to hold on to things in my own
life. You see, Judas was resistant to God's plan and that colored everything.

Whether his resistance came from his selfishness with the money or came from
confusion or not being able to understand what Jesus was doing, he lived with
this tortured, self-centered thought of doubt because he couldn't believe. And
this woman trusted God's plan. She didn't see all of it.

She didn't understand all of it. There was still probably some confusion for
her, but the focus for her was not on her confusion. The focus was on Jesus.

And so she intuitively did the right thing. Lloyd John Ogilvie says about this
story, "Like most of you, there is a part of me which says boldly, 'Yes,' and a
part of me that says, 'Be careful, count the cost. ' We are all a mixture of the
impulse to let go and follow Christ as the Lord of our life and love others with
extravagance and a repulsion at the price of costly involvement.

There are opposing forces tugging at your soul right now. " That's true for me.
That's true for you.

What do I do about those opposing forces? I recognize that Jesus Christ is with
me right here, right now. And because he loves me, he can motivate this new kind
of love in my life.

So let's ask him to do that. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, I pray that you would
help me to see the people and the circumstances in my life through your eyes.
Judas saw through eyes of greed.

The others there that day saw through eyes of indignation. But you saw this
woman's heart. I can't see hearts like you can see hearts, but I can follow you
as the one who sees hearts.

You see my heart. You see the heart of every person I'm going to meet today. I
can trust you.

Help me to choose to do that moment by moment today. I ask this, Jesus, in your
name, amen. Join us tomorrow as we continue through Mark 14.

We're going to talk about what happened in the Upper Room.