About this sermon
Two days before the Passover, the chief priests plot to seize Jesus, and Judas offers to betray him. At Bethany a woman breaks an alabaster vial and pours costly perfume over his head, and Jesus defends her gift as an anointing for his burial. God overrules the wicked plot so that Christ dies at Passover as the true Lamb. Her extravagant devotion stands against the treachery of a disciple who took his privileges for granted.
Sermon transcript
Amen. Dear friends, let’s remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue on in our consideration of the Gospel of Mark. We today begin the final section of Mark’s Gospel, the last three chapters of Mark’s gospel having to do with our Lord’s passion. In other words, the events leading up to and including our Savior’s sufferings and death on the cross, as well as his resurrection from the dead. And today we’re going to consider Mark chapter 14, verses one through 11. Mark 14, verses one through 11. Let’s hear with reverence and awe the word of our God. Now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him by stealth and kill him. For they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of the people.
While he was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard, and she broke the vial and poured it over his head. But some were indignantly remarking to one another, why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii and the money given to the poor. And they were scolding her. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. They were glad when they heard this and promised to give him money, and he began seeking how to betray him at an opportune time.” Dear ones, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we pray that as your spirit inspired and breathed out these words of scripture, that your spirit would illuminate our minds and our hearts so that we would receive these words and understand them and how they impact and relate to our lives and to the church. Be with us now, Lord God, open our minds and hearts to behold wondrous things from your word, feed our souls, build us up in our faith that we might worship and serve you. with our whole being.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. You’ll notice on your sermon outline there’s quite a number of key words that you can be listening for this morning. I just would point out a couple central ones. Gospel, Passover, anoint, love, and betrayal. Well, dear friends, if you read the gospel accounts in the New Testament carefully, one of the things that you may have noticed is that the gospel writers focus a lot of space and a lot of detail on the events leading up to our Lord’s crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead. Now, why is that the case? Why is it that so much ink is spilled and so much space in all four of the Gospel accounts, including Mark, is taken up recounting these historical events leading up to the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Mark’s Gospel, for example, as I mentioned, devotes at least three chapters to covering events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now, why is this the case? Why do the Gospel writers do this? Well, the answer has to do with the Gospel itself. After all, think about it, friends. What is the Gospel? For example, is the Gospel accept Jesus into your heart and you’ll be saved? Is that the gospel? Is that the good news? Well, you may be surprised to hear me say the answer to that question is no. No, that’s not the good news itself, although, don’t misunderstand, understood correctly, accepting Jesus is part of our proper response to the gospel message. Well then, is the gospel make a decision for Christ and you’ll go to heaven when you die? Again, friends, the answer to that question is no, that’s not the gospel.
Although, part of our proper response to the gospel message involves the human will, or I should say the renewed human will. After all, the Bible teaches that our wills are in bondage to sin and until the Holy Spirit regenerates you, you will not will to come to Christ. Friends, when we scour the contents of the New Testament, we discover that the Gospel is not really about us, nor is it about our response to the Gospel, as important as that response of faith and repentance are. Instead, we discover that the gospel is about Jesus Christ. It is about the person and work of Jesus Christ, especially his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection from the dead. The Gospel is the joyful announcement of what God has done to save us sinners through the death and resurrection of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So since the Gospel message is centered on the death and resurrection of Christ, it makes sense that the Gospel writers would devote so much space and write so many words to recording these historical events. Dr. Walter Wessel states it well in his commentary on Mark. He says, the importance of the passion and resurrection of our Lord for the early church is evidenced by the relatively large amount of space the narrative takes in each of the gospels, and especially in Mark. Out of Mark’s 661 verses, and I want to pause there for a second. Children, I want your parents to ask you this afternoon after church, how many verses are there in Mark’s gospel? Remember the answer to this question. There are 661 verses in Mark’s gospel, okay? So remember that, and parents, be sure to ask your children that.
So out of Mark’s 661 verses, 128 are devoted to the passion and resurrection story, and a total of 242 are devoted to the last week from the triumphal entry to the resurrection of our Lord’s life. These events, Dr. Wessel says, these events formed the basis of the church’s witness and worship, the lifeblood of early Christianity. The Witnessing Church proclaimed a crucified and living Savior, and the Worshiping Church reflected on the meaning of these events for its inner life. And so, beloved, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, we begin our exploration of this section of Mark’s Gospel that includes his divinely inspired accounts of the events leading up to and including our Lord’s atoning death on the cross for the sins of his people and our Lord’s glorious bodily resurrection from the dead, which again, these events are covered in chapters 14 through 16, this final section of Mark’s brief gospel.
Now, in our passage for today, we read of a plot, of an anointing, and of a betrayal. And why are we considering this passage all together? Why not just consider, for example, the first two verses separately from the anointing, separately from Judas’ betrayal? Why do we consider these, this passage together Well, to quote from another scholar, Dr. C. E. Graham Swift, he says, we treat this paragraph as a whole because verses 10 and 11 are directly connected with verses one and two. And the intervening story of the anointing has evidently been introduced here by Mark with the twofold purpose of throwing into relief the treachery and avarice of Judas on the one hand, and showing that the incident was at least one factor in his turning traitor. For here he heard Jesus speak quite plainly of his burial, and perhaps at last Judas realized that his cherished hopes of material power and advancement were doomed.
More about that later. But with all of this in mind, let’s dive into our passage for today, and let’s focus first of all on the opening verses of chapter What we find here, first of all, brothers and sisters, is an evil plot by the enemies of Christ. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first main point. An evil plot by the enemies of Christ. Let me read these verses once again. It says, Now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him by stealth and kill him. For they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of the people.” Now Mark opens this section of his gospel dealing with the passion and later the resurrection of Christ by situating it in its chronologically speaking, situating it in the time in which it occurred.
The Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away we’re told. And then we read of the characters in this plot. These characters included the chief priests and the scribes. The scribes were the theologians, the Bible scholars, and the chief priests were the ruling priests that presided over the liturgical and ceremonial life of Israel in the temple. And what were they seeking to do? They were seeking how to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him, but An important note is made in verse two. They were saying not during the festival. otherwise there might be a riot of the people. Now by some estimates the population of Jerusalem and its surrounding area more than doubled during this high holy season of the Passover. So there were a lot of pilgrims who would come to Jerusalem and come to the temple and so these chief priests and scribes are concerned that well, you know, if we’re too public about this, if we publicly arrest and and seek to seize and kill Jesus, when we have all of these pilgrims in town, that may create a riot.
And if that creates a riot, how is the Roman government gonna respond? The Roman government’s gonna come and squelch this riot and possibly even remove us from our positions of leadership and influence and authority. So those are the priorities that they had in mind. So they’re planning after the festival’s over, later on to seize Jesus, not during the festival, but as we’re going to see, that plan changes. Now, friends, it’s important to situate this within its overall redemptive historical context. You see, in these verses, what we are witnessing, as we witness throughout redemptive history, we are seeing the forces of the serpent plotting to crush the seed of the woman. Remember that proto-evangel, that initial proclamation of the gospel that our Lord declared to Adam and Eve after they had fallen in the words spoken to the serpent.
If you go back to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, And don’t worry, I’m not gonna take us through the entire Bible, but this is, we need to read this account that we’re considering today in light of this antithesis, in light of this ongoing spiritual warfare between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. as the Lord addresses to the serpent after the fall of Adam and Eve. What does the Lord say to the serpent? I will put enmity. Notice God is the one who’s going to put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Now remember, who was it? Who are the seed of the serpent? The seed of the serpent represents unbelievers, those who are under the serpent’s sway.
The serpent represents Satan. Those, apart from Jesus Christ, are, spiritually speaking, children of Satan. They are the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the serpent are at war with the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman, ultimately, is Jesus Christ, but it is also in union with Christ, the elect, those whom Christ represents. as the second Adam. And so we see this conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Here in our passage for today, the chief priests and the scribes represent the seed of the serpent seeking to crush the seed of the woman, singular seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ. So it’s important for us to keep that in mind. It’s also important for us to briefly review the meaning of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread and their importance for God’s people.
For it is during this Passover season, this season of the Passover celebration and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that this plot is being hatched here. Now what was the Passover? What was the significance of the Passover? Well the Passover festival which had been commanded by God of His Old Covenant people, the Passover festival commemorated the occasion when the angel of the Lord in the final plague against the Egyptians, the angel of the Lord passed over the homes of the Hebrews on the evening when he killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. Remember, the Lord had threatened in the final plague to kill the firstborn of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Why? Because Pharaoh and his servants refused to let God’s firstborn son, namely Israel, go free. So the consequence was that their firstborn sons were going to be killed.
But the Hebrews were spared from that. And do you remember why the Hebrews were spared from the angel of death that came? to slaughter the firstborn of the Egyptians? Well because the Hebrews in obedience to God’s command had smeared the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts and lintel of their houses where they ate the Passover meal together. If you want to brush up on your Passover knowledge then I’d encourage you on your free time to go back and read Exodus chapter 12. But the point is, the Hebrews found refuge. They were shielded from the death angel. They were shielded under the blood of the Passover lamb. And so the Passover festival was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for a week. And friends, it’s interesting that in the Old Testament, leaven was often, not always, but it was often a symbol for what?
For sin. And so for the Passover celebration and the feast of unleavened bread the Israelites were to remove all leaven from their homes and they were to eat unleavened bread for an entire week. The unleavened bread eaten at the Passover time was a reminder to the Israelites of how they had to flee Egypt in haste. Turn with me, if you would, very briefly to Deuteronomy chapter 16. Let me read verses one through four of Deuteronomy 16, which reminds us of God’s command. Here, Moses addressing the children of Israel as they’re preparing to go in and take the promised land. We read these words, it says, observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God. For in the month of Abib, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd in the place where the Lord chooses to establish his name. You shall not eat leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. In other words, The Lord delivered you so quickly, you were in such a hurry, you didn’t even have time to put leaven in your bread. So that you may remember all the days of your life, the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. For seven days, no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.
Now keep all of this information about the Passover and unleavened bread in mind as we consider what the chief priests and the scribes are doing. It says again in verse 1, the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him by stealth and kill him. The New International Version puts it this way. It says they were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. Now again, Friends, we need to let this passage of Scripture reach out and slap us in the face. This is shocking information. It might not be shocking to us because we’ve heard this story many, many times. But put yourself in the shoes or the sandals of the original readers of this gospel account, the original audience who heard this message. Who is it that is plotting to murder the Messiah? the chief priests and the scribes.
Oh, consider how vile, devious, and hypocritical their evil plot was. Here they are, the religious leaders of Israel, these men who were supposed to be holy men, these men who were looked up to as moral examples among the people of God and who were looked to as the leaders of Israel’s religious life. And what do we find these religious leaders of God’s people doing here on this occasion? Are they gathered together for a prayer meeting? No. Are they gathered together for a Bible study? I mean, part of the ones who were here are the scribes. These were the Bible experts, the scholars of those days. Are they gathered for a Bible study? No. Are they having a theological discussion of deep and profound theological truth? No. What are they doing? They’re plotting murder. They’re plotting to murder the Son of God, the Messiah.
And they are doing so during the most sacred season of the Old Covenant calendar, the season of the Passover. The horror of their sin ought to be shocking to us. You see, of all people, they are the ones that should have been the very first to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. They had seen His miracles, miracles which were signs of the Kingdom of God. They had witnessed the Lord Jesus do things like heal the sick and give sight to the blind, and they knew about Jesus raising the dead. They had heard about the raising of Lazarus, for example. They knew about Jesus multiplying the loaves and the fishes. They knew about how Jesus cast out demons. He had power and authority over the demons. They could not deny our Lord’s miraculous powers. And these miraculous powers were signs of the kingdom of God, which pointed to Jesus as the king who was bringing in the kingdom.
The kingdom of God drew near and was present in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they should have recognized it. They knew the scriptures, or they should have known the scriptures. But instead of being the first to recognize and receive him, they are the first and foremost to reject him and to seek his destruction. Of all of our Lord’s enemies, they are the most hostile of his enemies. But notice also, friends, that in God’s ironic providence, their evil plot, which will result in the murder of Jesus, will actually end up fulfilling the spiritual meaning and significance of the Passover festival. For on the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ, the ultimate Passover lamb, would be sacrificed for us, purging out the old leaven of sin and bringing in the unleavened purity of this new messianic age.
Even in their evil plot to murder the Messiah, and unknown to them, they have no clue that God is using them to carry out His plan and purposes. Even in the midst of their evil plotting and scheming, God is sovereignly overruling their evil actions to accomplish His redemptive purposes in Christ. Now notice next again, I already read this but let me again have us focus on verse 2. It says, they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of the people. Now that’s sort of a cliffhanger there because, see, they’re planning to wait until after the feast to arrest the Lord Jesus. But that would have been problematic. You see, in God’s sovereign plan in Providence, it was vitally important for Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God, to be crucified for the sins of his people during the Passover celebration.
After all, friends, Christ is the fulfillment of the symbolism of the Passover. He himself being the Passover Lamb who taketh away our sins. So how is it that God is going to orchestrate events to guarantee that our Lord Jesus will go to the cross during the Passover, not after the Passover? Well, enter Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot is sometimes looked upon as a tragic figure and at one level he was a tragic figure. He was a disciple of Jesus but it is clear from the biblical accounts that he was not a true believer in Christ. He was a wicked, evil man. So while at one level Judas’ betrayal of our Lord was tragic and it was indeed a horrible sin on his part, a sin which he freely consented to. He wanted to betray Jesus. He got fed up.
He realized that this was not the kind of Messiah I was looking for. But nevertheless, in God’s sovereign providence, Judas the betrayer would come to serve as a vital function in God’s plan of redemption. You see, Judas’s betrayal of Jesus was the providential opportunity that made it possible for these religious leaders to go forward with their plans to arrest Jesus, even during the Passover festivities. They were initially saying, well, let’s wait till afterwards, but then here comes along Judas. And so they end up fulfilling God’s plan that His Son, Jesus Christ, would be crucified during the Passover. Now there’s many takeaways and applications that we could glean from what we’ve considered so far. But first of all, let me point out a couple things. Friends, God in his amazing and ironic providence is able to overrule evil for the greater good.
And he does so in this passage. Here he overrules the plotting and scheming and evil of these wicked men. to work towards his own holy, good, redemptive purposes. As Psalm 2 reminds us, and what these chief priests and scribes are doing is precisely what is spoken of in Psalm 2. As Psalm 2 reminds us, what is God in heaven doing when the rulers of this earth plot and scheme against the Lord and against his Messiah? Well, in Psalm 2, God in heaven is depicted as laughing at, even scoffing at the vain plotting of ungodly rulers who take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed Messiah. Again, if I may read the first six verses of Psalm 2, we read these words. It says, Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens does what? Is he wringing his hands and saying, oh no, what am I gonna do? I didn’t bargain on this, I didn’t expect this, no. he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury, saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. And since Yahweh the Lord has installed his king on Zion, the king being Jesus, no one can overthrow His kingship. Since our Lord is sovereign and overrules evil for His ultimately good purposes, let us, beloved, not fret because of the plotting and scheming of evildoers.
Instead, let us trust in God’s overruling and often ironic providence. But another lesson that we can glean from this passage as we reflect upon the meaning and significance of the Passover and of Christ, our Passover Lamb. Christ is the Passover Lamb of His people. Brothers and sisters, Christ is our Passover Lamb and we, by faith, take refuge under the shield of the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear listener, is He your Passover Lamb? Are you trusting in Him and His death on the cross to take away your sins, to shield you from the wrath of the Lord, and have you taken up the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the sense of rejoicing that in Christ all of your sins are purged away because of His life and death and resurrection.
Turn to Christ today. Trust in Him as your Passover Lamb. And so we see here an evil plot, but we next notice in verses three through nine an extravagant expression of love for Christ. We have here next an extravagant expression of love for Christ. Says in verse 3, while he, while Jesus was in Bethany, which is right outside of Jerusalem at the home of Simon the leper and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard and she broke the vial and poured it over his head.” So Jesus is here in Bethany and he is at the home of a man named Simon the leper. Now this is probably a man who Jesus, whom Jesus had healed of leprosy but he continues to be called Simon the leper.
And Jesus is pictured as reclining at the table. That’s how they would eat in those days. You wouldn’t sit on a chair around the table. You would recline on a couch around the table, low to the ground. And so that’s how Jesus is depicted. He’s reclining at the table and they’re having a meal together. And there came an unidentified woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of Purinard. Many scholars believe that this pure nard, or spike nard as it sometimes is called, was produced in India and it was such a costly thing, we’re told that later on in verse 5, that it could have been sold for over 300 denarii. That’s almost a year’s worth of wages for a day laborer. So this was very expensive. This was a very expensive perfume. And what does this woman do?
It says that she broke the vial. That’s how you would access this expensive, this expensive nard or perfume. And she poured it over his head. She anointed his head with it. And that was a common thing in that culture, the way to show honor to an honored guest and so forth. But then she gets criticized. It says, but some were indignantly remarking to one another, why has this perfume been wasted? for this perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her. They were scolding her for this act of love that she performs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in terms of the details of this event, even though some of the details are somewhat different It is possible that Mark here records the same anointing event that is recorded by the Apostle John in John chapter 12 verses 1 through 8.
And if that’s the case, if Mark is referring to the same event, then the woman who anointed Jesus on this occasion was Mary, the sister of Martha, and of Lazarus. You remember Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Now, it’s not certain that this is the same event. There are some chronological challenges in harmonizing those two gospel accounts. There are explanations for those chronological difficulties, and there’s also some differences in detail. But whether or not this was Mary In any case, this godly woman, whoever she was, her expression of love and devotion to Christ is set in sharp contrast to the murderous hatred of the religious leaders that we just read of in the first two verses, as well as the disloyal, faithless heart of our Lord’s betrayer, Judas Iscariot. Now, how does Jesus respond to the scolding of those who took offense at what this woman did?
And the wording here in the Greek is very strong. It says in verse 4, some were indignantly remarking, they were really ticked off at her. Why would you do this? Why would you waste this precious perfume? You could have sold it and given to the poor. Don’t you care about the poor, right? What does Jesus say? Look at verse six. Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you bother her? Jesus jumps to her defense. And then he explains, she has done a good deed to me. Verse seven, for you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish, you can do good to them, but you do not always have me. Now, is Jesus here in verse seven? Do Jesus’s words here indicate that a lack of care and concern for the poor? No, no.
There are many other passages in the Gospel accounts where Jesus has a heart for the poor, especially in the Gospel of Luke, especially emphasizes our Lord’s concern for the poor and the downtrodden. So Jesus is not saying that generosity to the poor is unimportant, but Jesus is a higher priority than even generosity to the poor, because Jesus is Lord. He is the Messiah. He’s the Son of God. And she’s seeking to honor Him by this act of love and devotion. And so Jesus says, you always have the poor with you. You can do good to them anytime you want. And I think the implication is here is that are you really concerned? Are you doing good to the poor? or are you just using this as an excuse to complain? If this is the same event recorded as recorded in John’s gospel, in John’s gospel it’s Judas Iscariot who complains because Judas being a thief like the dip his hand into the money box.
So maybe there was a financial motive here for this complaint and indignancy against this devout woman. Whatever the case may be, Jesus then goes on in verse 8 and says, she has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. Jesus speaks of his burial. You see, Common criminals who were executed did not get anointed for their burial. They were buried in a common grave. It was typical in Jewish burial practice to anoint the body for burial. But if you were a common criminal, you would typically be thrown into into a common grave. Obviously, Jesus wasn’t. He was put in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, but the point is, Jesus is saying, in these words, Jesus is anticipating that he would be killed as a common criminal. And so he says, she’s anointed my body beforehand for the burial.
And then he says truly, or amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” That prophecy is being fulfilled even at this moment, even today, as I’m preaching from this passage of God’s Word. And so, friends, we see here the contrast between this woman’s love for Jesus and the hatred of the religious leaders and the faithless heart of Judas Iscariot. A couple points of application. Beloved, it is never a waste to give extravagantly of our time, of our talents, and of our gifts to honor and serve Christ and His cause, especially since He’s done so much for us. Jesus, think about it, Jesus laid down His life for you. He poured out His lifeblood to redeem you.
What could ever repay him for that amazing grace? J.C. Ryle says it well. He writes, a cold heart makes a slow hand. If a man once understands the sinfulness of sin and the mercy of Christ in dying for Him, he will never think anything too good or too costly to give to Christ. He will rather feel, as he quotes from Psalm 116, verse 12, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits? Indeed, brothers and sisters, what shall we render to the Lord for all of his gracious benefits and blessings to us, especially the blessing and gift, the free gift of eternal life that he has bestowed upon us? Notice also how highly our Lord esteems this devout woman and her heartfelt gift, and therefore how highly He esteems heartfelt expressions of love, service, and devotion to Him.
Again, as Ryle so eloquently states, the praise of Christ at the last day will more than compensate for all we suffer in this world from unkind tongues. This woman was suffering from unkind tongues who were scolding her, but Jesus comes to her defense. There are many unkind tongues out there that would scold us for seeking to be faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but let us not be concerned for them, for Jesus will vindicate us in the end. But finally, beloved, as we wrap up our consideration of this portion of God’s holy word, consider finally a tragic betrayal by a disciple of Christ. A tragic betrayal by a disciple of Christ. Then Judas Iscariot, verse 10, then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12, went off to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.
The thing about Judas, he was able to arrange for Jesus to be betrayed to them privately, sort of without the crowds knowing too much about it. And so what is their response? They were originally planning, let’s put this off till after the feast of the Passover and unleavened bread. says in verse 11, they were glad when they heard this. Now we can go forward with our plan. And they promised to give him money. And by the way, the 30 pieces of silver that he would receive is really a pittance for what he lost in betraying his professed Lord. He got 30 pieces of silver and what did he get really in reality for that? Eternal damnation. Not worth it, is it? But they were glad when they heard this and they promised to give him money.
And he began seeking how to betray him at an opportune time. Now again, Mark does not tell us exactly why Judas decided at that point to betray Christ. It was probably something that he had been contemplating for quite some time. But as I mentioned before, John 12, verse six tells us that Judas was a thief, for he had charge of the money box and he used to pilfer from it. And that, I would think, might indicate that Judas was motivated to follow Jesus for less than spiritual reasons. One of the things we’ve been learning in our study of the Gospel of Mark is that there was this misconception out there in the Jewish world about what kind of Messiah to expect. They were expecting, the people as a whole were expecting a military conquering Messiah who would bring back earthly prosperity and peace and power and influence over the nations. that Jesus came to be a suffering Messiah who would die for sinners.
Judas had a theology of glory. It would appear that Judas was looking to follow a Messiah who was going to install him in a position of power, wealth, prosperity, and influence in his kingdom. And when Judas hears Jesus talking about his own burial, maybe he’s like, okay, I’m out of here. I’m out of here. This is not what I signed up for. Given the context of Mark’s placement of this account here immediately after our Lord’s defense of this devout woman, where Jesus, as I said, explicitly mentions his burial in verse 8. This event may have been the last straw for Judas, since it may have become clear to him that he was never going to achieve earthly wealth or glory by following Jesus. You know, it’s kind of speculative to say this, but I’m guessing that if Judas were manifested today, if he were around today, that he would probably be a prosperity preacher.
He would probably be like, yeah, God wants you healthy and wealthy and prosperous. None of this persecution or struggle or discipleship stuff, no. But when Judas realized, no, this is not gonna get me any kind of wealth, he betrayed his professed Lord. Couple final applications. Consider, beloved, how many gospel privileges one may enjoy and yet still be lost. Judas was among the 12. He was one of the Lord’s chosen apostles. He sat for years, he sat at the feet of Jesus. He heard our Lord’s teachings. He heard the preaching and teaching of the kingdom of God from the very lips of the Son of God incarnate. He witnessed the Lord Jesus perform miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, walking on the waters, multiplying the loaves and fishes. Judas saw it all.
And what spiritual good did it do him? Nothing, because he didn’t see it with the eyes of faith. He was hardened and unbelieving. Though he had been exposed to many gospel privileges, yet he was lost. And this is a warning to us, brothers and sisters. Don’t be a Judas. Make sure that you’re not a Judas. One who is exposed to gospel privileges but who never truly believes the gospel for yourself. Repent and believe in Christ. Trust in Him from your heart as Lord and Savior. And look to Him to forgive you of your sin and renew you by His grace. Do not take your privileges for granted. Also, we notice in verse 11, take to heart how the wicked rejoice over gospel betrayers. It says they were glad when they heard this. Oh, they rejoiced that this, one of Jesus’ own disciples was coming to them to betray his master.
And oh, how the world loves it when they hear stories of deconversion. of those abandoning the Christian faith. It’s especially sad to hear of former Christians, of those who were even former preachers, abandoning Christ, abandoning the faith. Now we need to be careful. Some of these deconversion stories, some of these deconstructive stories of those losing faith, sometimes the faith that these folks are losing was never really a sound Christian faith. If you ever meet someone who claims to be an ex-Christian, engage them in conversation. Ask them, well, tell me about your church, the church that you left. Tell me about the Christianity that you left. And sometimes these folks have been wounded or damaged or abused by toxic or legalistic churches, and we need to have compassion on them and say, well, that’s not what real Christianity is all about.
But oh, folks like Judas. with his hardened unbelief and selfishness and greed. How horrible it will be on judgment day for those like him. Let us not give the wicked something to rejoice over by betraying our Savior and abandoning the truth. Let us hold fast our confession to the end, but may God in his sovereign grace grant us the grace to do so, amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, We thank you and praise you and bless you for your amazing grace to us in Jesus. And we thank you, God, for how you sovereignly orchestrated these events. and yet in such a way that neither the responsibility of these sinners is undermined in any way, but you sovereignly orchestrated these events so that Jesus, our Passover lamb, would be sacrificed for us in your timing.
Lord, we ask that you would help us to take these truths to heart and by your spirit enable us to look to Jesus and Jesus alone as our Passover lamb. in His name we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen. Let’s rise as we respond to what we’ve heard from the preaching of God’s Word. Let’s rise and we’ll sing number 496, My Jesus I Love Thee, 496.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.