The Gospel and Money: Treasuring Jesus

Mark 14:1-11

All right. Mark chapter 14 verse 1 to verse 11. I’m reading from the English Standard Version.

“It was now 2 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, a 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 300 dinari 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 12, 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.” (Mark 14:1-11)

And this is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God indeed.

What We Treasure

We are talking about money this morning. If you have had the privilege of having parents in your adulthood, then you will know the peculiar tension that rises when they ask you how much you paid for something. And I’m speaking particularly about African parents.

For the typical African parent in our culture, whatever amount you pay for something is always too much. Some people have resorted to lying to their parents about how much their rent is or how much their car cost.

One American comedian called it “parent price”. That’s a price you give to avoid the judgment, the scolding that comes for what parents always consider wasted money. One brother told his African mother how much money he was paying for rent and she looked at him as if he had just told her that he had cancer.

His father who was there and who also had it looked at him as if his son was in the process of setting money on fire. This son was betraying his African ancestors by spending that much money on rent. What’s up with that?

Well, it’s all a question of what we treasure. It’s all a question of what we value. That brother was willing to pay a higher rent because the apartment was close to his church and his kids’ school. He treasured the intangible value, the invisible value of the convenience of living in that area and he thought that it was therefore worth the price.

His parents on the other hand were valuing something else, namely paying the cheapest rent possible so as to keep back as much money as possible.

What this reveals is that our money will flow in the direction of what we treasure. And this is what we will find in our text this morning.

Mark structures this passage such that at the top and the bottom of this passage, we have enemies of Christ who are conspiring and cooperating to destroy Christ. At the top of our passage we have one group who are seeking a way to arrest and kill Jesus. At the bottom of the passage we have an individual namely Judas Iscariot who comes and offers them a solution to their problem.

These enemies of Jesus are set up in contrast with an unnamed woman who comes in the middle section and pours precious ointment on Jesus. There’s a contrast of values that is being set before us in this passage.

On the one hand, we have those who do not treasure Jesus and on the other hand, we have those who do. In both instances, money will flow in a manner that follows what is being treasured.

So here is the claim that I will be making from our text this morning: where Jesus is most treasured, money finds its best value. Where Jesus is most treasured, money finds its best value.

I’m going to break that claim into two parts from our passage. Part number one, money where Jesus is not treasured. Money where Jesus is not treasured. And part number two, money where Jesus is most treasured. Money where Jesus is most treasured.

Money Where Jesus Is Not Treasured

Let’s take that first point. Money where Jesus is not treasured.

The setting of the events of our text is given to us in verse one. We are told that it was now 2 days before the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. This imminent Passover was an annual celebration to commemorate God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. There would have been hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem from all over the nation, sometimes outside the nation to come and observe this memorial feast.

This therefore was a busy time, but it was also meant to be a time of nurturing devotion to God by recalling his great salvation to his people in the past.

Now, where would you have expected to find the most ardent devotion to God in Jerusalem at this time? I’ll tell you. It should be in the temple among the custodians of the religious system of worship of God’s people. However, this is not what we find. Instead, we find these custodians, these leaders of religious life in Israel completely preoccupied with a whole other devotion.

Look at verse one, part B. “The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him.” (Mark 14:1)

So in the middle of a festival celebrating salvation, these Israelite leaders are plotting destruction. They were seeking, plotting, desiring how to arrest him. Namely, Jesus. They want to do it by stealth and to kill him. Jesus had become bad for their business.

Earlier in chapter 11, he had condemned their sham religion. He had overturned tables in the temple. He had disrupted trading in the temple. And this trade was trade that had been authorized by these chief priests.

Jesus had also become extremely popular with the common people. He’d come into Jerusalem riding on a colt hailed as a king with a crowd of peasants in tow. If Jesus succeeded, all these religious leaders would be out of their positions of privilege, out of their positions of power.

Jesus had also demonstrated over and over again many of the Old Testament signs that he was the Messiah. The climax of the book of Mark is in chapter 8 where Peter finally sees it; that he is the Christ, the son of God.

Jesus had done miracles. He had preached about the kingdom. He had demonstrated the authority and the power of God.

However, instead of considering Christ, instead of repenting, these leaders opted for revenging. Instead of turning to him and treasuring him like so many other people were doing, they turn to one another and they scheme his destruction.

So if Jesus is not what they treasure, then what is it that they do treasure? The answer is to be found in the reason why they hadn’t gone through with the plan to kill him. We see that in verse two. Look there.

“For they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”” (Mark 14:2)

They are being careful to get rid of Jesus without losing face. Their honor in the eyes of the people is at stake. If they arrest Jesus during the feast, they would run the risk of turning the people against them. There would be an uproar because Jesus was a popular teacher. An uproar might invite Rome to bring soldiers and destroy Jerusalem.

So these leaders are not concerned about the spiritual welfare of the people. They’re not concerned about any noble thing like that. Unlike Paul, they do not want to wed the people’s affections to Jesus. No, what they want to do is to retain their respectability, to retain their hold on their established system.

What they are doing, in other words, is treasuring themselves, treasuring their power, treasuring their comforts. This is why verse one ended by saying that they were looking for a way to do it by stealth.

Let us not forget that these men are not godless pagans. They are religious leaders of God’s covenant people. They know the scriptures better than most. The scribes are experts and teachers in the law. And yet, they completely miss the one that the law and the prophets was pointing towards. So much so, that their leadership meetings do not smell of a devotion to God, a love for God, an expectation for God’s Messiah. Their meetings now smell of conspiracy to commit murder.

Brother pastors, what do your leadership meetings smell like? Saints, what do your church gatherings smell like? Whatever that smell is, it is an indicator of what is truly treasured there. And there is where your budget will go.

So the leaders have a real problem on their hands. They can’t arrest and kill Jesus openly during the feast. However, they don’t know if Jesus will leave Jerusalem after the feast and deny them their opportunity to kill him. It’s a catch 22 situation.

But lo and behold, into this unholy dilemma walks in Judas is scariot. The narrative actually continues in verse 10. There they are plotting and scheming and wondering how do we do it by stealth. And then if we jump to verse 10, Judas comes in.

In verse 10, we are reminded that Judas is one of the 12. That means that he’s an insider in Jesus’s band of followers. What is Judas doing among them? Verse 10 reveals that he is here in order to betray him to them. Judas is not coming to convince them of Jesus’s preciousness. He’s not coming to win them over to Jesus. He is coming to hand Jesus over to them. This is exactly what they were looking for.

Hence their reaction in verse 11. “And when they heard it, they were glad and they promised to give him money.”(Mark 14:11)

At last, an answer to their problem had fallen onto their lap: a way to arrest Jesus quietly had come. And so they are glad. They were delighted. They become cheerful. They pop open champagne. Frowns turned into smiles. And their checkbooks were opened. “We’ll pay for this!” They promised to give him money. Judas was selling Jesus out. And the chief priests were more than happy to spend on that.

Their money flowed in the direction of what they treasured.

In verse one, we are told that they were seeking how to arrest him by stealth. In verse 11, the passage ends by telling us that Judas sought an opportunity to betray him. This is a textual cue that Judas has become one with the chief priest and the scribes. What they were seeking and what he is seeking have now become intertwined. They all treasure themselves more than they treasure Jesus. And money is to be given and received in service of this scheme.

Let’s pause here and meditate on Mark’s staggering point here. Where Jesus is not treasured, money flows in the direction of betrayal of Jesus. In this case, money flows in the direction of maintaining an image. It flows in the direction of paying for the maintenance of a sinful status quo. It flows in the direction of servicing the sinful desires of men who find Jesus to be an inconvenience.

And isn’t this a battle that is often in our hearts? Maybe it’s raging within you right now. There are moments in which we are tempted to treasure ourselves, to treasure our own desires, to treasure our own comforts, to treasure our public image and not to treasure Jesus.

In fact, Jesus becomes an inconvenience. He becomes a threat to the life that we are trying to set up and maintain. And so, we start to fear sermons because we don’t want to be convicted. We start ignoring messages from fellow saints because we don’t want them to admonish us.

Mark is saying that sooner or later those who will not treasure Jesus will pay and be paid to betray him. Where Jesus is not treasured, money finds its worst value.

Think about it. If you’ll not treasure Jesus in your marriage, you will pay for an adulterous affair and then you will pay to keep it hidden. If you will not treasure Jesus in your business dealings, you will pay for bribes for corrupt dealings and then pay some more to keep it hidden. Maybe pay even some more to assuage your conscience. If you will not treasure Jesus in our theology, we will pay false teachers to tickle our ears with false gospels.

And it’s not just what we pay for. It’s also the money that we will take. We will take money to betray Jesus as well. We will be on the receiving end of the adulterous affair. We will receive bribes. Pastors will take money from ignorant people and feed them what they want to hear.

My non-Christian friend, the fact that you’re not a Christian this morning really means that you find yourself more valuable than Jesus. You find your sin and a life apart from God to be more precious and valuable. And how you spend money is one evidence of this. And this passage invites us. It invites us all to consider something better. It invites us all to something better.

Money Where Jesus Is Most Treasured

And so we come to our second point: Money where Jesus is most treasured. Money where Jesus is most treasured. So with the darkness of betrayal and death looming in the background of our passage, comes this warm glow of devotion to Jesus. This is the middle section of our passage. Verse 3 to 9.

The location, according to verse three, is at Bethany. It’s in the house of Simon the leper. This man Simon the leper is likely someone that Jesus had healed of his leprosy. But he maintained the nickname because of how long he was called Simon the leper. Simon hosts Jesus for a meal at his house. He treasures Jesus with a gift of hospitality. He bears the cost of receiving him and his crew of 12 men for dinner.

Before we get to the woman’s ointment, let us not miss Simon’s table. How much did it cost him, one wonders? Is hospitality for the sake of Jesus in your budget? How might your decisions about where you live be changed if devotion to Jesus infiltrated your attitudes towards hospitality? How in turn might that affect how you spend your money? Treasuring Jesus in just this one area will have an impact on your budget that others may not understand.

But now we come to the main character. Into the dinner comes forth a woman. It is as surprising that she is here as it is surprising that Judas was in the chambers of the chief priests. Mark tells us nothing about her identity. In his narrative, she goes unnamed. And I think he does that to highlight what she does more than who she is. It’s as if Mark is saying to his readers that this could be any of you.

The narrative slows down to highlight the particulars of what she does. The scene is painted in verse 3b. First, we are told that she has an alabaster flask. This is a valuable container. It is carved using a precious translucent stone that has qualities like marble. This flask, we are told, contains ointment or perfume.

It’s a perfume that is made from the roots of a plant called nard. It’s mentioned there in the passage and this is a plant that is found in India. The process of extraction, the process of refining, the process of shipping is what made this perfume expensive. And this is what we find explained in the next detail there. Mark says that it was very costly. Very costly.

How much exactly did it cost? Well, those who protest in verse 5 tell us. They pull out their calculators and they do a calculation. They say that it was worth more than 300 dinarii. Now a dinarii was one day’s wage, in that time. So more than 300 dinar was equivalent to one year’s salary without spending it on anything else.

Mark offers these details to make us feel the weight, the precious value that this woman places on Jesus. She would have bought small portions of this ointment and had been pouring them into this flask, perhaps saving it up for some future special occasion.

Given its value, one would have wanted to make this fragrant liquid last as long as possible, which makes what she does next quite remarkable. Verse three continues that she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

Breaking the flask is an indication that she did not intend to use it ever again. She was giving up the flask as well as its contents to Jesus. She broke it to ensure none of its precious content remained – all of it expended on Jesus. And then she proceeded to pour a whole year’s salary over the head of Jesus.

Kikuyu is in the house. She proceeded to pour. Let me contextualize this. She proceeded to pour several bags of cement.

All right, let’s move on. Over the head of Jesus. In a few moments, it was all expended. Jesus’s hair and face and garments soaked in the sweet smell of her service.

The contrast in the passage is clear, is it not? If not treasuring Jesus leads to a betrayal of Jesus, treasuring Jesus leads to a willingness to lavish worship on him. Where Jesus was not treasured, money flowed towards betrayal. Where Jesus is most treasured. Money flows in the direction of sweet smelling worship.

If not treasuring Jesus means that he becomes an inconvenience that we gladly pay to rid ourselves of. Treasuring Jesus most will lead us to gladly inconvenience ourselves financially for his sake.

The scandal of it all really hits us when we hear the howls of her critics. Look at verse four and five. 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 300 dinari and given to the poor.” And they scolded her.” (Mark 14:4-5)

Her action was so lavish and so complete they called it a waste. They calculate the value of the ointment. They can see much better value for it, much better use for it. If you consider the markets, we could have extended this money and use it. This is a waste. These critics observe this strange act of devotion. They can’t fathom. They can’t understand it. And so they come down hard on the woman. The end of verse 5 tells us that they scolded her. They issued verbal judgment, verbal rebuke.

What you do with your money because you treasure Jesus will sometimes be viewed as a waste. It will seem like a bad financial decision to those who value something else. So you’re paying more rent so you can have a bigger house so that you can host more people for Jesus’s sake? Seems like a waste. You’re doing that in Africa?

So you’re going to buy a used car and forgo a better one so that you can give money away to missions in a country you will never visit for people you will never see, in Africa? Seems like a waste.

So your church is going to give away several of its best members who are also its best givers to go and plant another church in northern Nairobi? This is just a – it’s a random example!

You’re going to do that in Ruto’s economy? That’s a waste! That’s not wise! There’s other things you could do with those members. If you hold them and keep them, you could build something bigger.

Gospel missionaries will be criticized for wasting their youth, their young years, their money-making years, giving their lives away in some unknown part of the world, you know, Africa. And sometimes in our own darker moments, we will scold ourselves. We will scold ourselves for wasting money in service to Jesus. We will secretly regret the financial decisions we made for Jesus’s sake. We will lose our sense of the value of Christ.

We will envy our non-believing neighbors or our more unspiritual Christian friends who seem to be living their best lives now. And we are sacrificing and we will feel ourselves (that) we wasted. We will scold ourselves.

This passage is telling us that Jesus is worth it even if others see it as wastage. He is worth it even if others judge us. Even if others scold us.

How could we not treasure the one whose body like this alabaster box was broken for us? How can we not treasure the one whose life like this ointment was poured out completely on the cross so that we might be saved? Can you think of anything more valuable than the one who came from heaven and who died to confer a worth on us that we could not have gained any other way?

He who was rich, he who was dwelling in eternal glory. He who was equal with God did not consider that equality with God something to be grasped. But he became nothing so that he could come and take upon himself our nothingness.

He became poor so that we could be made rich. The Son of God became a Son of man so that sons of men could be made sons of God. In view of such a savior, how could we not treasure him most? Is there anyone more precious than Jesus?

This is what the gospel announces. This is what the gospel accomplishes in our hearts. It helps us to see the value and the preciousness of Jesus. Like this woman who had less revelation, less understanding of the preciousness of Jesus because the cross is in the future for her. It’s in a couple of days.

But for us, the cross is in the past. It’s already happened. He’s already died. Forgiveness has been granted. We have been united to Jesus. We are seated with him in heavenly realms. We know more than she did. Will we treasure him less than she did?

Like this woman, we can lavish unfettered love on Jesus with our money. Because Jesus has lavished a far greater love on us. If you’re not a Christian, this passage calls you to re-evaluate what you value and put Jesus at the top. The only way to truly love your soul is to treasure Jesus more than you treasure yourself. Turn from yourself, deny yourself, Jesus said, and take up your cross and follow him. Put your hope in him alone. Cherish him alone.

Things reach a climax when criticism of the woman breaks out. But over and against the critics, Jesus swoops in and he defends her. And it is in this defense that we learn the true value of the use of her money.

Look at verse six. “Jesus says, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” (Mark 14:6)

They called what she did a waste. Jesus calls it beautiful. This I think is a kind of a forest of what the last judgment will be like. There are ways in which you are living, ways in which you are giving, ways in which you are spending your life and spending your money that others consider a waste and on that last day Jesus will call it beautiful.

That last day will reveal what is what.

Therefore, you can endure the criticism now because in the end, Jesus will reveal the true beauty, the true significance of money spent from a true and considered devotion to him. Here we see a massive distinction between mere human beings and Jesus.

Jesus thinks he is worthy of this beautiful wastage. He accepts this expensive worship. He receives it. He defends it. Why? Because of the point of the book of Mark. Because he is not just a man. He is the son of God.

This passage is not teaching us to lavish, outlandish, and exorbitant devotion to so-called men of God. There’s no justification in this passage for the glorified treatment of pastors as if they are gods. No human being is to be worshiped. Only Jesus is to be worshiped. Only Jesus is to be worshiped like this because he is not just a man. He is God.

What about helping the poor? Well, Jesus settles that in verse 7. He says, “You always have them with you.” Keep an eye on that word “you.” It shows up so many times in this verse. “You always have them with you – talking to the critics – and you can do good to them whenever you like but you will not always have me.” (Mark 14:7)

Jesus is saying doing good to the poor is fine. It’s noble. It can happen at any point. The problem is that these critics want to be generous with her money and it is always easy to be generous with other people’s money. Jesus invites them to be generous with their own money and to do it at any point you want. Do good whenever you like.

However, this was a point in history. This was a moment in history that could not be repeated. Jesus was about to be handed over and killed and then rise. He’s been repeating that several times in the book from chapter 8. The needs of this redemptive moment took precedence even over helping the poor.

What Jesus is saying is that this woman had unwittingly stepped into redemptive history. She had done more than she realized. What had she done that was so beautiful? According to Jesus, verse 8, he says she has done what she could. I love that. She has done what she could.

Spending a whole year salary on Jesus is her doing what she could. Sometimes we think of what we do for Jesus as being heroic, when Jesus says, “In view of my preciousness, in view of my worth, you lavishing a whole year’s salary on me is you doing what you could. You you’ve played your part. She’s done what she could. “She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” (Mark 14:8)

This was very likely not her intention. This is not what she was thinking. She was doing very likely. But in God’s providence, it ended up being a consequence, a significance, the meaning of her act of devotion.

Bodies of the dead were typically wrapped in sweet smelling spices before they were buried as a token of honor, a token of prolonging their freshness, in that sense. This woman without knowing had perfumed the body of Jesus beforehand for burial. Jesus will be killed within a week.

When Jesus died and was buried, the smell of her perfume would still be on him.

And for this, Jesus crowns her by cementing her memory throughout the history of the church. Verse 9, he says, “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.”

Judas will be remembered as a betrayer. Children will not be named Judas. He will be remembered as a betrayer who took money to sell Jesus out. This woman will be remembered as a devoted worshipper who gave money to honor Jesus. What she has done will be told in memory of her. Jesus made it mean more than she intended.

It’s like when your child gives you a crude little painting that they did with your fingers. A painting of you and your wife and the siblings that they did with their fingers. You can… it’s stick paintings done on paper. It’s messy and they come and they give it to you as a token of love for you. And then you frame it with a golden frame and place it in the best wall of the house.

This is what Jesus does to “what you could.” Jesus is a good king who can make your financial generosity for his sake mean more than you intend. He can give it a significance far beyond what we even think or imagine.

Her money found its best value when it flowed out of her treasuring of Jesus.

How To Use Money To Treasure Jesus

I must bring this to a close now. I want to dismount with four quick words of application. Number one, give where Jesus is treasured. Give where Jesus is treasured. If your local church does not treasure Jesus as reflected in its preaching, as reflected in its singing, in its praying, in its reading, in its discipling, in its discipline, you need to take that up with your elders because where Jesus is not treasured, money will go into that which has no true value in his eyes.

Number two, not only give where Jesus is treasured, give so that Jesus may be treasured. Consider partnering with those who are doing the kind of careful gospel work that will advance the cause of Jesus as opposed to those who are merely building personal brands, misleading people, abusing missions, planting unhealthy churches. Give so that Jesus may be treasured.

Number three, say no to money that will undermine the treasuring of Christ in your life or in your church. Not all money is good money. Say no to it. Say no to money that inclines you to betray Jesus. Money that has strings attached, that undermine sound theology, that undermine the health of churches. Trust Jesus to provide what you need some other way.

Number four, above all, personally prioritize treasuring Jesus above all else. Personally prioritize treasuring Jesus above all else. This is what will adjust how you think about money and cause you to see value from his perspective. As your knowledge of him grows, as your grasp of his preciousness increases, as his mind becomes your mind, as his heartbeat becomes yours, you will find yourself wanting to do different things with your money.

You will find yourself wanting to give to causes you did not care for before or wanting to withdraw your support from other causes that you cared for before. As the value of Jesus grows in your heart, the value of everything else will be changed and your budget will reflect it.

Treasuring Jesus will give money a new value as it flows in new directions. You will see beauty where others see wastage. And you will find that in the eyes of Jesus, this value will be the best value for your money. Because where Jesus is most treasured, money finds its best value. Amen. Let us pray.

Our Lord God, we ask that you would help us, help us to treasure Christ. Help us to prioritize the good news about him and what he has done for us. Help us to keep our eyes singularly focused on him and help us to evaluate the value of everything else in accordance to him.

Oh God, forgive us where we have failed in this. Forgive us where we have been careless, where we have been reckless. Forgive us where we have betrayed Christ in how we have spent our money. Oh God, help us, encourage us, strengthen us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen.