LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Tasters from the King's Table
Contrast
After the Lord was rejected in Jerusalem, and the hospitality of those three friends in Bethany in his final week, Mark's Gospel registers a double and deeply significant final scene.
The first part is the Lord being anointed by Mary, which shows us a surprising detail: "...and she brake the cruse, and poured it over his head." (14:3). Because of the symbolism of this scene, it is extremely relevant. The mere pouring out of the perfume was not enough: the cruse had to be broken. Why?
The cruse is the soul, whilst the perfume is man's spirit that can only be freed if the soul is broken. Only a broken soul can anoint the Lord and fill the house with the aroma of life. What a wonderful lesson which that very act transcended, and which was so incomprehensible for the disciples!
But soon after, the story makes a cold contrast, because we go from love to betrayal: Judas agrees to deliver the Teacher over to the chief priests (14:10). He had not even waited for the tears on Mary's cheeks to dry, nor his Teacher's words to be silenced. His twisted heart was full of urgency to fulfill that fatal plan. Having been so close to heaven, he barged his way down to hell.
But the contrast doesn't end there: she was a woman -so undervalued in the virile world of the Jews-and a common woman -from a common family and a common village-who loved Him so delicately; whilst he was a man, and not just any man, he who sold Jesus- he was one of the blessed twelve to whom Jesus' heart was always so open.
This is man: a continuous fluctuation between two extremes, love and hate. And the Lord was exposed to them both, suffering our betrayal, and bearing with our fickleness, taking upon Himself the wooden beam of the cross so that we might write a different story!