No doubt, this woman had been brought into the death of Christ. Burial, of course, is between death and resurrection. She poured out her best upon the Lord as her all-inclusive replacement, and she did this for His burial. This means that she took His death in order to have the full enjoyment of Him.
If we had only the Gospel of Mark, we would not be able to have an adequate understanding of what it means to be brought into the death and resurrection of Christ. In Acts and in Paul’s Epistles we see the development of this matter. When we are in Christ’s death and resurrection, we can enjoy Him to the uttermost. We can be like the woman in Mark 14, who entered into the Lord’s death and resurrection and thereby enjoyed Him as her full replacement. Within her there was no ground for anything or anyone other than the Lord. Within her there was no room for Moses or Elijah or the temple, and there was no ground for herself. She had been replaced by this lovable One.
This woman had been fully prepared to take the Lord as her replacement. She had passed through all the steps of the process with the Lord. Whereas we may say that Peter was somewhat coarse, she was thorough and fine. For this reason, she was certainly brought into the Lord’s death. She realized that the Lord would be put to death. But this thought concerning the Lord’s death did not get into Peter. Because she took in the Lord’s word regarding His death, she also seized the opportunity to anoint Him for burial. By this one step she took the Lord’s death and was working for His burial. This was the good work she did upon Him. Then a few days later she was among those who entered into the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, she was a forerunner, one of the first to enjoy the resurrected Christ. By means of the Lord’s preparation, she entered into His death and resurrection.
We have seen that in chapter thirteen the Lord was preparing His disciples for His death. He continued this preparation in chapter fourteen. The Lord’s preparation began with His unveiling to the disciples how God’s economy will produce a new man. The birth of this new man requires the suffering of birth pangs.
In Mark 14 the Lord continued to prepare the disciples by enjoying their love. Entering into a home composed of cleansed lepers, He enjoyed the feast and also the anointing. The feast was a matter of inner satisfaction, and the anointing was a matter of pouring out upon the Lord something with a sweet savor. Therefore, in Simon’s house in Bethany the Lord was both satisfied and anointed. He was anointed not by God, but by one of those who loved Him.
In Simon’s home in Bethany, the Lord was the replacement for everything. Those who loved Him did not have anything or anyone apart from Him within them or around them. They had only this wonderful Person, who was everything to them.
We have pointed out that in 14:1-11 we have a miniature of the church life. In particular, we have a miniature of the experience of taking Christ as the all-inclusive replacement. Therefore, in the church life as depicted by this miniature, we have Christ as our replacement. We in the church life are lepers who have been cleansed by Him, and in our hearts there is room only for Him. Within us, around us, and with us there is nothing but the Lord. We take Him as everything through His death and resurrection.
At the beginning of this message we pointed out that in 14:1-11 we have the merging of the conspiracy of the opposers, the love of the Lord’s followers, and the plot of Judas to betray Him. Concerning Judas’ plot, 14:10 and 11 say, “And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests that he might deliver Him up to them. And hearing this, they rejoiced and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might opportunely deliver Him up.” The money promised to Judas was thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15), the value of a slave (Exo. 21:32). While one of the Slave-Savior’s followers expressed her love to Him to the uttermost, another was about to betray Him. One treasured Him, and at the same time another was preparing to deliver Him up.