Post--But she had wings

Times are strange. Beyond strange. Heavy. Fear-filled. Uncertain times. We are isolated. We crave a physical touch but are forced to keep a distance. We have worked hard for a certain level of security and insecurity is what we keep waking up to. Our paradigms are forced to shift. There is no normal. But somewhere out there we know there will be a new normal, and that can be terrifying.

But God…..

As always, the treasures, the nuggets of pure gold, that can be mined from Scripture helps me navigate what Oswald Chambers calls “Gracious Uncertainty”. Uncertainty that when it is filtered through faith, hope, love, and truth, is pregnant with Grace. Recently I’ve been encouraged by an unnamed woman in Mark 14. I hope this encourages you that though times seem perilous, we have purpose.

Mark 14, like all of Mark moves fast…. but is so full of heavy, weighty, heart wrenching moments.

This entire chapter easily makes me weepy. I am moved to tears when I think about moments in the narrative.

· Jesus sharing this last Passover meal with his closest friends knowing the treachery that was coming.

· Last meals. Last time together as “the twelve”.

· A kiss of betrayal.

· An easy denial.

· The anguish in the garden… not only over what He was about to endure at the Cross, but those broken moments of finding none of his brothers awake long enough to pray with him.

· The realization of the complete “aloneness” that was coming.

· I weep for Peter. Feeling his confidence and assurance and sincerity and zeal…. But also the ease of his denial. The understanding that his commitment was fragile. And of course the devastating shame that follows.

· I weep for Judas. So easy to loath and judge. But his greed, his twisted way of thinking, his complete embracing of flesh…is too familiar to my own heart.

BUT I also am moved to tears at the extravagant worship of an unnamed woman whose extraordinary actions carried significance she couldn’t have known. She was pouring our praise but her praise was also a preparation and carried purpose.

Mark Chapter 14 is in many ways about Preparation. For death…For Passover…for Calvary!

It is also a story of LIBERATION. It takes place during Passover. Passover is a liberation story of a nation.

It is the story of the moments before the Cross. Calvary is the ultimate liberation story, the liberation story for humanity.

But I also see liberation story in the actions of one woman. In complete freedom she pours all she has out for the Lord. Free from custom…. free from expectation… free from being bound to the monetary value of the perfume…likely her dowry, her future, her identity.

Lets look at this story.

This story in Mark 14 is also told in Mathew 26 and John 12. John 12 identifies her as Mary. But I kind of prefer Matthew and Mark in that she is unnamed. She is me. She is you. She is every woman whom Christ has touched. I have always loved this story.

Jesus is sharing a meal with friends. She comes in and breaks open a vessel full of costly imported perfume. Worth at least a year’s wages. She pours it over his head. It saturates his garments, she pours it on his feet. This alabaster box of perfume was the most costly precious thing she had. She poured is out lavishly on Christ. And the men there criticized her, ridiculed her, became angry with her audacity.

Now the scene prior to this is a revelation of an evil scheme. Chiefs priests and religious leaders and lawyers conspiring to capture and kill Jesus. But they feared riots and decided to wait until after Passover.

So while some were plotting against Jesus somewhere in the distance and others were criticizing her to her face, SHE POURED THE MOST VALUABLE THING SHE HAD ON HIS HEAD AND FEET.

Leave her alone, Jesus says.

She did not realize it. The others did not realize it. But Jesus explains, her extreme act of sacrifice and extravagant love was preparing his physical body for death…death on the Cross…the ultimate act of sacrifice and extravagant love.

Don’t be surprised if your Obedience and Worship born out of Gratitude and Love ushers you to a place of the Prophetic.

N.T. Wright puts it this way, “She has in fact gone right to the heart of things, cutting through male objections on the one hand and contrasting male plots on the other…”

In your worship, in your obedience to the Voice of the Father… there will be plots…there will be critics…..JUST KEEP YOUR EYES ON JESUS

The text in Mark says she poured the perfumed oil on His head. The significance of this act can be seen in referencing 1 Samuel 10:1 and 2 Kings 9:3.6….recalling the anointing of Old Testament Kings by the Priests to signify their kingship. This unnamed woman in Mark 14 anointed Jesus Christ the King of Kings. What a powerful and beautiful example of Christ positioning women for significant leadership and ministry.

She didn’t realize what was hanging in the balance. I think she was just so grateful. So full of love for him. So overwhelmed by the grace and love and mercy she has seen and experienced from Him. She just knew she wanted Him to have everything she had to offer.

Oh Lord! Hear my prayer and search my heart. What do I have to offer? Show me. All I have is Yours. All I am and ever hope to be, I owe it all to Thee

Her worship is certainly extravagant. Its uncomfortable. Its embarrassing.

Have you ever felt uncomfortable at someone’s worship? Their dance? Their song? Their story told so transparently. The way the just pour their “valuables” out. It feels inappropriate.

There was a song a few year ago that Babbie Mason recorded called Alabaster Box. If you have never heard it or haven’t heard it in a while, it is worth the time to listen. It’s beautiful. And it says, “You don’t know the cost of the oil in my alabaster box”. And we don’t. We don’t know the cost and what someone has been through to embrace the love of the Father. But we know the cost of our own….so perhaps it is time we stepped into an uncomfortable extravagant place of obedience and worship.

Mark 14:1-9

It was now two days before the Passover and [the festival of] Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were searching for a deceitful way to arrest Jesus and kill Him; 2 but they were saying, “Not during the festival, for the people might riot.”

3 While He was in Bethany [as a guest] at the home of [a]Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, a [b]woman came with an alabaster vial of very costly and precious perfume of pure [c]nard; and she broke the vial and poured the perfume over His head. 4 But there were [d]some who were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? 5 For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii [a laborer’s wages for almost a year], and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why are you bothering her and causing trouble? She has done a good and beautiful thing to Me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do something good to them; but you will not always have Me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. 9 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, wherever the good news [regarding salvation] is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”