"The Passion of Our Lord: Anointed for Burial" (Sermon for Ash Wednesday, on Mark 14:1-11)

This year Ash Wednesday happens to fall on Valentine’s Day. And I think that’s a happy coincidence. Because on Valentine’s Day, our thoughts are all about love. And there is no greater love than the love that God has for us in sending us our Savior Jesus Christ. As it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Or in 1 John chapter 4: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Or in Romans 5: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Can there be a more powerful love than this? I don’t think so.

And Christ himself shares in this powerful love that the Father has for us. Jesus’ love for us is so great, so strong, that he is willing to endure suffering and death to secure our salvation. Friends, today we begin a series of six straight Wednesdays in which we will work our way through Mark chapters 14 and 15. These two chapters comprise what we call “the Passion of Our Lord.” The word “Passion” in this context means the suffering that our Lord endures on our behalf. But we probably use the word “passion” more often to mean a strong feeling, as in “They had a passionate love affair” or “He has a real passion for his work.”

So there’s “Passion” in the sense of the suffering of Christ. Or there’s “passion” as an intensely strong feeling. In this case, I think it works both ways. Jesus has a passion, an intensely strong feeling, to go through with the suffering that lies ahead, in order to win our salvation. His passion is so strong that he is willing to enter into his own Passion--his suffering, death, and burial--knowing that that is what lies straight ahead for him. And so our theme today, “The Passion of Our Lord: Anointed for Burial.”

It's Holy Week. Everyone is in Jerusalem, in town for the Passover festival. Jesus and his disciples are there. Jesus’ enemies are there, too. And they are plotting how to get rid of this fellow who has been exposing their hypocrisy and threatening their leadership among the people.

And Jesus knows this. He knows what they are up to. He knows their evil intent. He even knows that they will be successful in their plans to kill him. And yet, Jesus is determined to go through with his mission to save humanity. Even though he knows it will mean his suffering, death, and burial, Christ our Savior will go through all that for our sake. That’s how strong his love is.

One evening Jesus is having dinner at someone’s house in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem. In comes a woman holding “an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard.” As our text says, this amount of pure nard, a rare and very fragrant ointment, would be “very costly.” Even the alabaster flask itself would be expensive. But the woman breaks the flask and pours the ointment over Jesus’ head.

Why? Why would someone do such a crazy thing? Now there are some bean counters in the room who see this and think that this is such a waste: “All that expense just to pour ointment over Jesus’ head? That money could have been put to much better use!”

But Jesus will have none of it. He rebukes the complainers: “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” Jesus is saying: This is not a waste. This is entirely appropriate. Do you know what she has done here? “She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.”

Now that is remarkable! “She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” “For burial!” Jesus knows that very soon his mission to save sinners will lead to his own death and burial. You don’t have a burial without a death occurring first. Jesus knows that. He knows what’s coming. But he is purposeful, he is determined, to go through with his passion out of his passionate love for you and me. And so really, this woman’s act of devotion is preparing him for that eventuality. Jesus knows he must die to finish the job.

For there is no other way for us to be saved. It will take the death of God’s own Son to redeem us from sin and death. For you and I are sinners who have broken God’s commandments. We deserve God’s punishment. The ashes on Ash Wednesday remind us of this: “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” That is the curse of death that has fallen on us because of our sin. But at the same time, those ashes are applied in the form of a cross. Meaning, Jesus took your sin and death upon himself, dying on the cross in your place, as your substitute, so that you will not die forever.

And so Jesus says of the woman with the nard, “She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” Well, it will have to be beforehand, because on Good Friday, when Jesus is taken down from the cross, there won’t be enough time before sundown to anoint his body. And when the women come to the tomb on Easter morning to apply the spices, Jesus will already have risen from the dead. So if Jesus is going to be anointed for burial, this will have to be it!

You know, the Bible calls Jesus “the Christ.” The Greek word “Christ” is the same as the Hebrew word “Messiah.” They both mean “the Anointed One.” The idea goes back to the Old Testament, where you see examples of a prophet, a priest, or a king being anointed with oil. For example, David had been anointed with oil, signifying that God’s choice, God’s favor and blessing, was resting on just this one to be the next king of Israel. And when David was king, there was a prophecy that one of his descendants would be the greatest king of all, reigning over an everlasting kingdom of glory and blessing. This promised, long-expected, heaven-sent deliverer came to be known as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. And Jesus is it. He is the Christ, the Anointed One. Only the great irony here is that in being the Messiah and in fulfilling his mission, Jesus will have to be anointed for burial. That doesn’t look too powerful and glorious, but it is absolutely necessary.

You and I need Jesus to be anointed for burial, because it is only by his death on the cross that we poor sinners are saved. His passionate love for us is what led him to endure this. So in every sense of the word, the Passion of Our Lord, both his intensely strong feeling and his sacrificial suffering and death--the Passion of Our Lord means eternal blessing and salvation for you.

Mark 14:1-11 (ESV)

It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

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