Knowing The Word: The Plot to Kill Jesus, Mark 14:1-11

All four gospels have a story of a woman anointing Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and John all place it in Bethany, although John has his story before Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Luke, however, differs so much in setting and content, that it may be an earlier incident. It could be an attempt to anoint Jesus that had to be aborted and was later carried out. The devotion of the faithful woman is immediately counterpointed by the cold, calculated betrayal of Judas. It seems most likely that he as disillusioned with Jesus’ Messianic leadership and wanted to get out before it was too late and save his own skin. The scene is set with two factions: those devoted to Jesus and those opposed. Who will prevail?

14:1 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, 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

3 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. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 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. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 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.”

10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.

O Holy Spirit, give me faith that will protect me from despair, from passions, and from vice; give me such love for God and men as will blot out all hatred and bitterness; give me the hope that will deliver me from fear and faint-heartedness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (prayed as he awaited trail for his part in a plot against Hitler)