Mark 14:6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me
Do you want to be successful? That is kind of a dumb question. Everyone wants to be successful. The question is, “Successful at what?” The greatest failure in the world is mis-defining success. Here is a man making great time and hitting all his goals, but he is headed for the wrong island. It doesn’t matter how sound the ship, how straight the course, or how he is hitting all his goals if he doesn’t have the right island in view, and it doesn’t really matter when he makes it there. So many people have some mystifying success in their minds, then when they get to be about fifty, they think, “Oh wait, wrong island, wrong success.” There is a better way.
How do you define success? I think of three kinds of success for which people strive. They are internal, external, and eternal. Internal success is the kind that we do for no one else other than ourselves. When touring in the United States, George Mallory, who eventually summited Mt. Everest, was asked, “Mallory, why are you trying to summit Mt. Everest?” His reply famously was, “Because it is there.” In other words, he wasn’t looking for the affirmation of other people. It wasn’t some transcendent goal. He was just driven. It was an internally-defined success.
Most people perhaps are heading for a success that is externally defined, affirmation. Look at me! Look at what I have done! Give me an award, title, or money! This success is political and we can argue that sometimes it is a little slimy, but I think all of us are naturally prone to this kind of success.
Then there is the success illustrated by a nameless woman in Mark 14, eternally-defined success. Mark 14:3 says, “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he [Jesus] 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.” John’s account tells us that she also anointed Jesus’ feet. She took very expensive ointment and anointed Jesus. Even today, if you get some fancy perfume it is very expensive. In Jesus’ day this ointment could have been equal to nearly a year’s wages for a rural worker. That was consumed in a moment upon the Lord Jesus.
This woman’s success was not internal or external. It was eternal. We know this because of what follows. There were some in verse 4 who had indignation and said, “Why was this waste of the ointment made?” We know from companion passages that this was vocalized by Judas. Judas was a traitor, but this lady didn’t know that. He was one of twelve disciples, among the most elite, exclusive people surrounding Christ. Judas moreover was the treasurer. He was not an insignificant person. He was a trusted disciple. What he said would have been keenly felt.
What you learn from this woman and what Jesus says about her later is that only one form of success will last. In verse 6 Jesus says, “Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.” Only one form of success will last. To be clear, it is not internal. It is not financial. This woman consumed a year’s worth of wages in a moment. It is obvious this was not some kind of internally-driven success.
First Timothy tells us that God has given us richly all things to enjoy and in the same string of passages it says that the love of money is the root of all evil. So, God has given us money, meat, and marriage to be richly enjoyed, but there is more to life than the food and clothing that often motivate us. There is nothing wrong with money, but the love of money is totally destructive. So, this woman was not governed by internal success.
She was not governed by external success. She was not socially successful. Judas led the most prestigious men in her world and he said that what she had done was a waste. Time is precious. Jesus says in verse 7, “For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.” He said this because Judas said the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. A companion passage tells us that Judas said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and also their treasurer.
So, the woman was not socially a success. Of all people this woman could have been discouraged because good, spiritual people did not see the value of what she did. There are going to be times in your life when you have got to do what you are doing because the goal is eternity, not a social or financial goal or the understanding of good people.
So, what motivated this woman? Faith motivated her, the eternal. Verse 8 says, “She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.” Jesus, over and again in Mark’s accounts, tried to tell the disciples about the one defining moment of all history, His sacrifice, His death, burial, and resurrection if you are going to broaden that moment. The disciples were self-centered and totally missed it. They said, “That’s fine, but who is going to be the most important person in the kingdom of God?” We do the same thing.
As to this woman, she had come to anoint Jesus’ body for burying. This was an act of faith. She heard it, she understood it, and she believed it. When Jesus was in the tomb, the religious leaders said, “Let’s set a watch and make it as sure as we can because the disciples will come to steal Jesus’ body.” They were attributing intelligence to the disciples that they did not possess. Nothing could have been further from their minds. They did not plan on stealing the body of Jesus to make His words seem valid. They didn’t need to because Jesus’ words were valid.
This woman lived by faith, and by contrast in the next story, Judas, who said this was a waste, betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Then, he hung himself because he is the one who wasted life. This woman didn’t waste. It wasn’t social. She wasn’t even named here. It was faith.
At the end of the day all that matters is the Lord’s appraisal and approval. As to His appraisal, Jesus said, “She hath done what she could.” God never wants less or expects more. Do what you can and do what is right, right now. As to the Lord’s approval, what matters is the Lord saying one day, “Well, done thou good and faithful servant.” The reason we are still telling this story millennia after it happened is because in verse 9 the story wraps up by saying, “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.” We remember this because we should. It is a memorial of what she did.
Are you defining success by the internal, the external, or the eternal? Are you living by faith in obedience to Christ? Only one form of success will last.