{"id":4513,"date":"2024-03-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/march-4\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:43:51","slug":"march-4","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/reading-plan\/march-4\/","title":{"rendered":"March 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Insight from Mark 14:1\u201331:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mark goes into great detail concerning the events surrounding the anointing of Jesus. He talks about the type of flask used, the type of ointment, and the cost of the ointment. Mark doesn\u2019t normally provide this level of detail in his stories. This level of detail is Mark\u2019s signal to the readers that the anointing of Jesus is highly significant. These verses are about the great worth of Jesus\u2019 body. The woman recognizes the great worth of Jesus\u2019 body and pours out her very best in order that she might prepare Christ\u2019s precious body for burial. Mark notes that some of the people seeing this woman\u2019s actions do not see Christ\u2019s body as precious. They see other things (like giving to the poor) as more precious than Christ\u2019s body. Jesus, however, says that this woman has done a \u201cbeautiful thing\u201d. She, like the widow who gave \u201ctwo small copper coins\u201d in 12:41\u201344, gives everything she has to anoint the place where God is worshiped (the widow anoints the temple, this woman anoints Jesus\u2014the new temple). This woman pours out all of her expensive perfume on Jesus because of the value of Christ\u2019s body and because of her love of him. In the same way that the widow, more than anyone in the temple, understood the great worth of the temple, this woman, more than anyone in the house, understands the great worth of Christ. Both of these stories demonstrate how all people are to treasure Christ\u2019s body. To fail to treasure Christ\u2019s body is a great sin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is significant that this story of Jesus\u2019 body being \u201cprepared\u201d by anointing is taking place during the time immediately before the Passover when the people are \u201cpreparing\u201d their lambs for the Passover feast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like the colt in Mark 11:2, the alabaster flask of pure nard has been set aside for this one sacred purpose. The alabaster jar is also a picture of Christ\u2019s body. It, like Christ, is broken so that its precious fragrance might be poured out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4513","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}