The Divine Lamp

Mark’s eschatological (end time) discourse and the events leading up to it (11:1-13:37) immediately precede his passion narrative [1] and should be seen as closely connected to it. Some of the following connections are these:

1. Jesus cleanses the temple, an event that should be seen as a prophecy in action. The full significance of this event becomes clear when Jesus predicts the temples destruction (13:1-8). This connects with the passion narrative which describes the rending of the temple veil when Our Lord expires on the cross (15:38).

2. In his parable of the wicked tenants (12:1-12) Jesus clearly alludes to his death. This is, of course, a major theme of the final narrative.

3. In his eschatological discourse Our Lord speaks of the sun being darkened (13:24); an event that happens at his crucifixion (15:33). [2]

4. A number of times in the eschatological discourse our Lord exhorts his followers to “watch” (13:5, 9, 23, 33, 34, 35, 37; see also 29), indeed, the final word of that discourse is “watch;” as we will see, the theme of watchfulness looms large in the opening of the passion narrative and in the garden scene.

14:1-11: The opening scene is divided into three concentrically arraigned parts. This means one story (or theme) is interrupted by another and only then concluded. Mark interrupts the story of the conspiracy against Jesus with an account of one woman’s beautiful act of discipleship.

A1) Jewish leaders plot against Jesus (14:1-2)
B) A woman anoints Jesus for his impending burial (14:3-9)

A 2) Judas joins the plot against Jesus (14:10-11).

14:1-2

Vs 1 Now the passover and the feast of unleavened bread were two days away, and the chief priests and the scribes were constantly looking to take hold of him by guile, and kill him;

Vs 2 saying, “not during the feast, lest there be a tumult among by the people.” (My translation)
We are to understand that the events being narrated in 4:1-11 (Judas’ plot and the supper) took place immediately after the end time discourse. Two days away according to Jewish reckoning means that the events happened sometime between the sundowns of Tuesday and Wednesday . Since Jesus is at a meal in vss 3-9 it is likely that this event occurred sometime on Wednesday, two days before his death, which took place near sundown on Friday.

The Greek text states that the priests and scribes were constantly looking for a way to get at Jesus. Their plotting didn’t just begin on Wednesday of holy week (see 8:31; 10:32; 11:18, 27), but certainly his confrontation with them after his entry into Jerusalem had “put bees in their bonnets.” Because of this emphasis on the constant watching of the leaders, and because of Judas’ looking for a way to betray Jesus (vs 11), Wednesday of Holy Week is known in the Catholic liturgical tradition as “spy Wednesday.” As the opponents and one disciple of our Blessed Lord carefully seek his death, the remainder of those disciples seem blissfully unaware; including Peter, James and John who, along with Andrew, had heard the end time discourse and the repeated exhortations to watch.

14:3-9

Vs 3 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 flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

Vs 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was this ointment wasted like that?

Vs 5 “For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her.

Vs 6 But Jesus said. “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

Vs 7 “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.

Vs 8 “She has done what she could; she has anointed by body beforehand for burial.

Vs 9 “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.”

Vs 10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went up to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.

Vs 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Jesus first entered into controversy with the Jewish leaders in 2:1-3:6, which consists of five controversies regarding aspects of Jewish law and practice. These five controversies were prefaced by the account of Jesus healing a leper and telling him to fulfill the law of Moses, thus showing Jesus to be a devout Jew. Now, as the Jewish leaders plot to take hold of (arrest) him, he reclines at the table of a leper as a free man [3].

With the feasts of passover and unleavened bread looming, devout Jews would be preparing for the feasts by emptying their house of leaven (Exodus 12:14-15), a symbol of corruption (1 Cor 5:6-8) which our Lord once applied to the leaders (Mark 8:14). Now, as corrupt Jewish leaders unwittingly prepare for the true passover (1 Cor 5:7) sacrifice, a woman anoints Jesus in anticipation of it.

The ointment she uses could have been sold for three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor. One of the greatest and most important of Jewish devotions was the giving of alms to the poor. This took on special meaning during passover time, for the feast was a celebration of their liberty and enrichment (see Exodus 3:19-22 and 12:35-36). Jesus was a poor man (see Mark 10:21; Matt 8:20) who would die a criminals death and be buried in a borrowed tomb. Plotted against by greedy men who “ate up widow’s houses” (12:40) but who nonetheless were glad…to give him (Judas) money they stand in marked contrast to the woman and the beautiful thing she has done. Judas’ perfidy will be forever remembered; his name forever associated with treachery; and the words Jesus spoke of him “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for him if he had never been born” (14:21) will always send a chill down ones spine. But this nameless woman who did a beautiful thing for Jesus, “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

These words Jesus spoke concerning the woman immediately precede the story of Judas’ betrayal. That story opens up by identifying Judas as one of the twelve. There is intense irony here when one remembers the calling of Judas: “And he went up a mountain and he called to him those he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed twelve…(including) Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (3:13-19). Sadly, the thing done by the woman, which was to be preached in the whole world, would not be preached by Judas, one of the twelve.

For more on the Passion of Mark go:

HERE

HERE
For detailed outlines to various parts of Mark, go here.

NOTES

1. Strictly speaking the final narrative of the Gospel, 14:1-16:20, includes the resurrection.

2. In 13:24-27 Jesus is talking about his second coming when he will “gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” The darkening of the sun immediately precedes this event. The sun is darkened when Jesus dies and with his death the pagan (gentile) centurion confesses him to be the Son of God (15:33-39). I see this as the initial gathering of the elect to faith, which foreshadows the final salvation of the elect with the second coming.

3. In the ancient world reclining while eating was a sign of freedom.