Mark 14:1-11
What Is Jesus For?

I. Rational Cost-Benefit Analysis
1. If you’re a rational calculator of everything by cost-benefit analysis, then you reasoned this is for you.
2. Top athletes center their whole lives, to help them be a better basketball player, athlete.
3. A good business person is ruthless about asking whether anything really helps the business.
4. What do you think makes you happy? That’s what you’re for. What is Jesus for?
II. The Plot (14:1-2)
1. The people would be shocked if they knew their leaders were conspiring against the Messiah.
2. Many religious leaders are not for what Jesus is for. They’re for their pensions, themselves.
3. They are seeking to arrest Him “by stealth,” because He had a protective popularity.
4. Acts 4:28 says ultimately they did what God’s plan and hand had predestined to take place.
III. The Pouring Out (14:3)
1. Simon the leper was probably healed by Jesus and the dinner is to celebrate that gracious healing.
2. She has an alabaster flask, very ornate, like fine china. The only way to pour it out is by breaking it.
3. It is for something special, a once in a life-time pouring out. Now she knows what it’s for.
4. She broke it and then poured it all out over Jesus’ head, trickling down his body.
5. It was a “very costly”, “pure nard”, probably imported from India; worth a year’s wage, about $30,000.
6. Calculate, according to what’s valuable to you, is that a rational use of that capital?
IV. The Protest (14:4-5)
1. His friends and disciples there’s criticism of this. They were indignant. They thought it was wasted.
2. They scolded her because they thought it could have been used for the poor, not for Jesus.
3. Foremost, Jesus is for Himself, for God, and He is God, that’s why He isn’t selfish.
4. There’s no more worthwhile thing anyone could have done than pour it all out over Jesus.
5. There’s nothing more valuable that you could ever do with your life than pour it out for Jesus.
6. Many people think Jesus is for their family, their marriage, their wealth, making Israel great again.
V. The Purpose (14:6-8)
A. His Purpose Is to Make Disciples
1. His purpose is His purpose, not ours. So He challenges us that to be for him.
2. If we love our marriages more than obeying Jesus, we can’t be His disciple.
3. A wife can still have the “gentile and quiet spirit,” “respectful,” and say “no” to her husband’s sin.
4. If a husband is following his wife into sin, following her at all is sin.
5. When you’re for Jesus, you can be submissive and strong, not just a tactic to have a happy marriage.
6. A husband can be the leader in the family but not selfish because the leadership is for Jesus.
7. She suffered the disapproval of the protestors. It surprises us when Jesus’ friends scold us.
8. Whose disapproval is it that tempts you to pull back from pouring out all to Jesus?
9. John Bunyan wrote: “I’ll fear not what men say, I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.”
10. Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to Me” (14:6). Sometimes that’ll be the only comfort.
B. His Purpose Is to be the Propitiation for Our Sins
1. Jesus is for the poor. But what do the poor need the most? Not relief from poverty.
2. We need our poverty of righteousness, our bankruptcy before God, relieved.
3. Propitiation is the appeasing sacrifice, when God’s just anger at our sins was paid for by Son.
4. Propitiation was the purpose of His death. This woman prepared Him for His purpose.
VI. The Proclamation (14:9)
1. With every retelling of what Jesus did, we’re told that He is worth our pouring out everything for.
2. Jesus sees that there will be an interim when the gospel is proclaimed.
3. The gospel must be proclaimed in the “whole world” first. That’s what Jesus is for now.
4. That’s why we have Gym, Jr and Gym, to do what Jesus is for.
VII. The Plot, continued (14:10-11)
1. Judas was one of those grumbling at the “waste” of pouring out all that expensive ointment on Jesus.
2. It finally dawns on Judas that Jesus is for Himself and that He demands we pour out our lives for Him.
3. The chief priests promise money. Money is the one thing that always says it’s for us.
4. Countless people today choose the money (or the wife or husband or reputation) over Jesus.
VIII. Invitation: But if you want your life to be a beautiful thing, pour it out for Jesus, like John Bunyan, or William Carey. Jesus says about them, they’ve done a beautiful thing, being broken, pouring out their lives, for Him. After all, Jesus Himself was broken, pouring out His life so that we who were poor, could have the riches of His righteousness. He was for us so that we could be for Him. Is that Who you’re for?