Lesson 2479

(Lesson 2479)(10-01-18) Mark 14:1-9
    “After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”

    The first part of today’s quote relates how the chief priests of the Jews conspired to find a way to kill Jesus. They determined to wait until after the passover because they were afraid that the people might rebel against them.
    The body of the quote deals with the story of “the alabaster box’. It is very interesting that Jesus demanded that story to be told every time His gospel was preached, throughout all time. It seems that, in reality, His command has been largely forgotten by most of today’s preachers. Consider, how long it has been since you heard any preacher refer to How Mary so loved Jesus that she anointed His feet with that very expensive oil.
    One of the most outstanding failures of Christianity today is that we ignore the most basic elements of the teachings of Jesus and dwell, instead, on those things that are the most contraversial and meaningless.~