Holy Week: Mary Anoints Jesus

The Gospels focus closely on the final week of Jesus’ life, recording His anointing, His entry into Jerusalem, and the events leading to His death and resurrection. A woman anoints Jesus with costly perfume, preparing Him for burial. At the same time, the religious leaders plot against Him. These passages show the contrast between true devotion and rejection, and they lead to the fulfillment of God’s plan through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Transcript

Mission And Release Schedule

SPEAKER_02 0:00

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Why Gospel Timelines Differ

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Well, hello, everyone. We want to welcome you back to our podcast, Teach Me the Bible podcast. I'm my name is Tim Webb here with David Klingler. And David, today we have a great opportunity. We want to set up the week of the Passion of Christ. And uh today I want to remind our listeners we have a study guide to go with this time each day. And I know that in approaching this, we've had conversations about different uh difficulties with the days, the timing of all of these situations in the gospels. And so I wanted you to take an opportunity just to explain to people, you know, we don't need to get hung up in specifics of timing or chronologically. Can you kind of touch in on that what we're dealing with here in the gospels?

How Much Space The Gospels Give

Dr. David Klingler 1:11

Um so we have church tradition. And church tradition, uh we you know, we we call it uh Palm Sunday, for example. And uh there's debate about uh whether Palm Sunday actually happened on Palm Sunday. It was, you know, um uh the the church has kind of tried to figure out what day each event happened, and and so there's debate about what day Christ was crucified. Was it some hold on a Wednesday, that's a rare view, but some hold on a Wednesday, some on a Thursday, and and most hold on a Friday, and there's verses that cause uh problems, you know. Uh uh Matthew 12, 40 would be one where three days and three nights uh causes a problem for for some of the views. And uh we know that uh that resurrection uh from church church tradition um took place on the first day of the week. And so so we're pretty confident about that one. We've got that one nailed down, right? As far as uh day, years, there's been all kinds of scholarly discussions and debate. Here's the thing I would say about the scholarly debate. If any of these four authors wanted you to know exactly what happened blow by blow, day by day, leading up in that week, they would have told you, right? They would have told the reader, they would have told us. They didn't do that, right? And so uh we can uh you know kind of try to figure out uh some of these things, but uh for the most part, there's a bunch of events. I was looking at uh a list of uh of events that take place on the in the last week, and it is it eats up almost a third of all of the gospel narratives. You know, by comparison, we've got uh we've got the birth of Christ. Uh Matthew uh uses two chapters on the birth of Christ. Mark doesn't even mention it.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 2:47

Um the Gospel of Luke, three chapters. Uh, but that's really a a bit to um uh disingenuous because in those three chapters, you also have the birth announcement of John the Baptist and the birth of John the Baptist included in those three chapters. And so it's the birth announcement of John the Baptist and the birth announcement of Jesus and the birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus. So all of that takes up three chapters. And then in John, we've got half a verse, right? Yeah, the word became flesh. Yeah, boom, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

And we're off and running.

unknown 3:17

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 3:18

What in the world, Johnny? All of them include uh the uh the baptism of uh of Christ, which is the beginning of his ministry, right? And so actually, all four gospels include the baptism, only uh two in one verse will John include the birth, right? And so it's really interesting what we choose to highlight. We're not saying that the birth of Christ is isn't important, but the whole ministry of Christ is. When we get to the uh to this last week, uh there's 29 chapters that occupy at least 29. I mean, this is uh conservative estimate. Uh chapters 21 through 28 of Matthew, uh chapters eleven through sixteen of Mark, nineteen through twenty-four of Luke, and then twelve through twenty of John. Almost half of John's John is immensely tied to that. Yeah, his whole gospel is tied to the last week, uh starting in chapter twelve and going all the way through chapter chapter twenty. And so this is uh of utmost importance. Uh, you know, so Easter, this whole last week, Passion Week of Christ, you could it couldn't get any bigger.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Like what you said earlier. We were talking about you know the time that people pick to come to worship, and out of all the days, Easter.

Dr. David Klingler 4:30

Yeah, Easter is the one. Yeah, Easter is the one. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, maybe we should have a uh uh Jesus gets baptized uh celebration, you know, but uh uh you know the gospel writers certainly uh all of them uh take note of uh of that. Yeah, so uh so this is a huge week. It is an important week. Uh we tend to think of the Jesus stories, uh, but a third of the Jesus stories recorded in the gospels take place in seven days. In eight days, right? And so we're gonna spend the next uh eight days going through some of those. Uh we can't cover you know 30 chapters in eight days, uh, but we can cover some of the events that happened. So we'll use the gospel of John to do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah, would there would there be any tie to the Old Testament with the uh Passover lamb and the inspection of the lamb, the um had to be a perfect lamb? Would there be any connotation, any parallel there from Moses to hear Christ is in this week? And the the gospel's focus so much on identifying him as the Christ. Is there any tie there?

Dr. David Klingler 5:32

As the Christ. And and John is going to present him as the Passover lamb. Uh and that Passover lamb had to be evaluated, whether it was blameless or not. And and we're gonna find that uh in Jesus' uh trial. Uh uh, that uh that the the repeated phrase is gonna be I find no guilt in him. And so, yeah, he's gonna be the perfect Passover Lamb.

Mary Anoints Jesus In Bethany

SPEAKER_00 5:53

That's great, that's great. And uh I'm just so thankful for the gospels. Uh, as you've said over and over again with your your professors and the men who poured into you, it just gets better and better and better.

Worship Before Activism

Dr. David Klingler 6:05

It does, it does. One of the my favorite stories, and I guess this kind of kicks off our study um here on a Sunday, um, is this uh story of of Mary's anointing. Mary anoints Christ. And uh and uh so we're gonna do actually do Palm Sunday tomorrow, which would be Monday. How this works out. This is how it works out, but uh Palms are sticking on Sunday, but hang in there with the thing. Stick with us here, yeah, because uh because we're also gonna cover resurrection for several days uh as well. But uh but picking it up in John chapter 12, therefore Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was. Remember in the previous chapter, Lazarus has just been raised from the dead, and this uh this Lazarus uh whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Uh and there was uh they made supper there, uh, and uh Mary took a uh pound of very costly perfume of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Now, uh there's debate about on which day this took place. Most guests say this was on a Saturday, it was on the Sabbath. And Judas Iscariot, uh, verse 4, one of the disciples who was attending, uh intending to betray him, said, Uh, why was this uh perfume or perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? And he said this because he was uh not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. And he had the money box and he used to pill for what was put into it. And Jesus therefore said, Let her alone, in order that she may keep it for the day of my burial. Jesus has been warning these disciples, this whole ministry. He's heading towards the cross. You know, this was the even in got in the Gospel of John, all the way back in chapter one, Jesus, when uh John the Baptist sees Jesus, uh, it's these words, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, chapter one, verse twenty-nine. All of Jesus' ministry from his birth was heading towards the death, the burial, and the resurrection. And and Jesus is very aware of this, uh, explaining this in chapter twelve, verse seven. Let her alone, in order that she may keep it for uh the day of my burial, for the poor you will always have with you, uh, but you will not always have me. And the great multitude, therefore, of the Jews learned that he was there, and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but they might that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And I love this response. The chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. Now I mean a couple things here, right? Just by way of uh of application, uh a couple things here. First of all, there's nothing more important than Christ. Um uh, you know, this this uh you will always have the poor among you. This goes back to chapter 15 of Deuteronomy, right? That in in Deuteronomy, uh Israel was instructed to care for the poor, for the orphan, orphan, the widow, and the alien. But in chapter uh fifteen of Deuteronomy, particularly, uh, there shall be no poor among you. 15 4, since the Lord your God will surely bless you. Well, the reason, if you skip down to verse uh 15, chapter 15, verse 11 of Deuteronomy, they the reason there was to be no poor among them was because they were to care for them, right? Uh but all through this uh this Old Testament, all through this covenant of Moses, you're looking for the great covenant blesser who will come. And when he comes, and when he established his kingdom, there will be no poor.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Right.

Lazarus And Fearless Resurrection Hope

Dr. David Klingler 9:38

Right. Uh and so while the king is there, you honor the king. And uh Jesus' point is you're gonna have plenty of time to care for the poor. But while I'm here, uh she's doing the right thing and and anointing me for my for my burial. Uh and so should we care for the poor? Absolutely. Right. Uh but uh the reason why we do what we do in regards to the poor is because of who Christ was, right? And Mary's recognizing this, right? And we need to recognize that as well, that our priorities are sometimes we can get cut off with cut uh caught up in you know ministry and this type of thing and for lose sight. Whenever I teach the gos uh the book of James, I always tell these students the last thing I want you to do, the last thing is to go start an orphans and widows ministry. I want you to to sit there and and and take in this character of God, the personified in Christ, who cares for orphans and widows and aliens in the poor, and recognize that that was you, that you were poor. And then uh after you just can't stand it anymore, now go start your orphans and widows ministry. Right. Right. Uh and so the person of Christ comes first, then the response. Right. So that's one thing. Uh the the second thing, and this is uh, you know, that's first uh that that first point's kind of a somber one. The second one's kind of a funny one, and I think it's a great encouragement to us. Um I I I love this because uh their response to killing it to the resurrected Lazarus is to kill him again. Are you kidding me? That's the best you got, right? I was waiting for that comment. That's just classic. I I loved it. There's nothing funnier. Uh you know, of all the funny things that happen in the Bible, there's a this is the funniest thing, right? Uh Christ goes and raises him from the dead and they go, Well, we'll just kill him again. Uh do you not see the error in the logic? I'll raise him again.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is like the Saturday Night Live.

Dr. David Klingler 11:30

This is after you're talking about it. Yeah, it reminds me of uh uh of another uh you know, in Luke chapter 12, you know, Jesus tells uh informs his disciples, don't fear the one uh who kills the body, and afterwards there's nothing he can do, right? You don't fear the Pharisees. Uh you fear the one who uh after he kills the body can condemn the soul to hell. I tell you, fear him. And so this is the the theology that the church uh grasps onto, uh resurrection. And because Christ was raised, uh this is central to the theology of everything we believe. Because Christ was raised, what can they do to us? Right. What can they do to you? Uh what can they do to Paul? They're gonna beat him, he says, Great, I get to suffer for Jesus. Uh we'll kill you. Great. Then I get to be with the Lord, and he's gonna resurrect me on the last day. Uh okay, then we won't kill you. Great, then I'm gonna serve the Lord. Keep on serve the Lord. And so there's they there's no bullets in the proverbial gun. There's nothing they can do to you. And so this is great encouragement for us.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I wish we would get a hold of this today, the church. Absolutely. I mean, uh can you imagine what that could unleash in our world? Oh, gosh, if we had that attitude. Absolutely.

Dr. David Klingler 12:37

It it would uh it changed the world. It did once. It did. It could do it again. It could. So this is resurrection week, and and so that's what we're gonna be talking about all week.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

And that's gonna be so exciting. And I think, you know, I'm trying not to get ramped up right here on the first day. I mean, I'm like, this thing is gonna keep building and building and building. So I'm like, I I just pray our listeners and those that are are joining in with us, I I pray that it's contagious. I mean, I I just can't help myself on Sunday mornings. I think we have the best, we have the best position, opportunity to serve the King of Kings. I mean, I I think a good friend of yours, uh Vodie Bachum, said once once you've signed up to serve the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, uh everything else is fails and comparison. That's right.

Dr. David Klingler 13:21

Yeah, that's exactly right. And if resurrection is true, uh then what else is there to live for?

unknown 13:28

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 13:28

And if it's not true, why are we even here? Right. What are we doing? Right? Uh why are we making podcasts about this and all that?

Study Guide And How To Partner

SPEAKER_00 13:36

So uh so this is a life changer, and we need to live like it is. That's right. Well, thank you, David. And listeners, please join in with us each day. Uh, again, just a reminder, we're gonna have a study guide to go with this, and our our desire is that people just connect with Christ through the Word. Uh, we want to join in with the apostles and just spreading that message and reaching people and letting the gospel uh have its effect. Thank you, David.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

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