Why was this waste of the ointment made?

 

Why waste this ointment?

 

Mark 14:3-5『And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he 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. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.』

This painting consists of Simon the leper, Jesus Christ, and a woman breaking an alabaster jar and pouring it on Jesus' head, but it also depicts the Israelites like lepers groaning against Pharaoh of Egypt, who symbolizes the king of the world, and Moses, the mouthpiece of God who brought Israel out of Egypt. He shows how salvation is achieved through.

 

When Moses met Jehovah in the flame of the bush, he experienced miracles such as his staff becoming a snake and the snake turning into a staff again, and his own hand being infected with leprosy and then recovering again. The transformation of a staff into a snake symbolizes a fiery serpent (death on the cross), and the transformation of a snake into a staff symbolizes a bronze serpent on a pole (resurrection). Likewise, a whole hand symbolizes being infected with leprosy (death on the cross) and becoming a whole hand from leprosy (resurrection). So, through these two symbolic events, the Israelites were exodus from the world through the death of the eldest son (death of the Lamb: death on the cross) and entered into Canaan (resurrection).

This magnificent story is reexamined through one woman. This woman is a symbolic character, but Moses' sister Miriam appears in this story. Miriam is Mary in Greek. This is because there are scenes where Mary, her sister, pours perfume on the feet of Jesus as Lazarus in Bethany, and Mary Magdalene pours perfume on the feet of Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee. The Bible focuses on Mary. That is why Miriam appears. This is because it shows how a leper becomes a perfect person through Miriam.

Leprosy, which appeared among the Israelites at the time, was a skin disease, but it was almost incurable. When the people have leprosy, there is information in Leviticus about how he would quarantine and treat them. When the Israelites left Egypt, the population numbered nearly two million. Since they live in groups, these diseases could endanger the community. However, in the New Testament, leprosy represents a sinner. The leper represents a fallen sinner who cannot be saved by his own efforts.

What is introduced in Leviticus 13 shows the nature of leprosy. What kind of disease is leprosy? In other words, through leprosy, it explains what sin is. Chapter 14 is a regulation for those with leprosy to be purified. In other words, it explains salvation.

Leviticus 13:2-42 are mainly related to today's dry ringworm, mechanical worms, and skin damage, and verses 47-59 record symptoms related to fungi and bacteria. The nature of leprosy is divided into four categories. This leprosy is unclean. This means that sin is spreading. Leprosy is a disease that must be isolated. This is a disease that must be solved through non-salt.

Chapter 13 verse 26 『But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the other skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:』

To be confined for seven days is to die and die again (second death). When leprosy spreads throughout the body, sin is revealed. For a sinner, being exposed to sin has the same meaning as realizing one's sin. Because of Jesus Christ, the priest, all sins of sinners are forgiven through death for their sins. If the leprosy has spread to the skin, the entire area has spread, and the sin is completely exposed. So the priest declares that it is clean through atonement for sin. This is facing the second death. So he gets new life. It means dying (dying to sin: the second death) and being born again (resurrection).

In Leviticus 1:7 『And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire:』 In Ephesians 5:2 『And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us , and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour..』Jesus' death on the cross means becoming a sacrifice to atone for human sins. The Bible says that sacrifices are a fragrant aroma to God.

The act of breaking the perfume and anointing Jesus is a foreshadowing that he will become a fragrant offering in the future. All humans are beings who deserve to die like lepers. Animals that died in place of criminals were cut into pieces and burned. This means that all sinners with leprosy were spiritually burned to death in this way. However, that animal is Jesus Christ, and he is the fragrance and ointment. The balm is Jesus Christ. The breaking of the ointment signifies the death of Jesus Christ. However, there are still people who look at the breaking of enjoyment with human eyes. This means that expensive perfume can be sold and given to the poor.

 

There are many people today who think that doing good deeds is a condition for salvation. They tend to accept death on the cross with a sacrificial spirit. So they also talk about living a life that resembles Jesus Christ. When they say, “Let’s live a life that resembles Christ,” this means being humble like Jesus, serving with a merciful heart that is different from the people of the world, forgiving others, and living a distinguished life, and living a life that is different from Jesus’s death on the cross. Therefore, the purpose is to make non-believers believe in God by demonstrating a sacrificial spirit of love that is close to the death of the cross. However, believers must not live a life that resembles Christ, but must be united with Christ. It tells us that we should not become what we want to be like God, but that we should become one (unity) with God.

Mark 14:8-9 “He prepared my body in advance by pouring ointment on my body with all his might.”(ὃ ἔσχεν ἐποίησεν· προέλαβεν μυρίσαι τὸ σῶμά μου εἰς τὸν ἐνταφιασμόν.)Translated again, “The woman did what she could; she came beforehand and anointed my body for burial.”

Likewise, what saints can do is pour perfume on the body of Jesus Christ. It means being buried in union with Jesus Christ. That is why saints participate in the death of Jesus. This is the anointing. In other words, because saints are united with the death of the cross, God gives them a resurrected body. This is to be anointed as a royal priest.

In Mark 14:9, “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.”(this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.) If this part is translated again, it means, 『What this woman did will be spoken of for the memorial of her (Miriam)』 That is. Through what this woman did, the events of Moses' sister Miriam were remembered.

First, Who is this woman?

Mark 14:3『And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman(guine γυνὴ) having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

In John 12:1-8, we are introduced to the story of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who was raised by Jesus from the dead in Bethany, pouring perfume on the feet of Jesus in her home.

In Luke 7:36-50, while Jesus was having a meal at the house of a Pharisee named Simon, a woman who had sinned in the town took an alabaster jar filled with perfume and poured the perfume on Jesus' feet. This appears. A woman who sinned appears in Greek as hamartolos (sinner). Therefore, she is not a woman, but a sinner and therefore a woman. It is assumed that this is Mary Magdalene, who was possessed by seven demons.

In Matthew 26:6-13, as in the Gospel of Mark, there is a scene where a woman (Gwine) takes an alabaster jar and pours it on the head of Jesus in the house of Simon the leper. Gwine, which appears in the Gospel of Mark or Matthew, can be seen as a word with a symbolic meaning.

Gwine (woman) finds its root in the word kinomai (verb). Kinomai means to separate and divide. In Genesis 2:21-23, God put the man (Adam) to sleep (died) and separated the man (Eve) by giving him a rib. So, this is the story of God bringing the woman to the man (Adam). The human Adam means a person before being separated into man(male) and woman(female), and the same word, male Adam, means man after the separation, so they are different beings. The human Adam is the first person, and the male Adam refers to all humans who came to the world after Adam. The woman represents the spirit of a sinful angel separated from Christ.

In the Gospels of Luke and John, a woman appears under the name Mary. Guine means one who has left God. It tells us that those who leave God are sinners who deserve death and are like lepers.

Second, what happened to Moses’ sister Miriam?

In Numbers 12:1, 『And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.』

Miriam criticized Moses because he married a foreign woman. In 12:8-10, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.’ So Moses confined her outside her camp for seven days, and then he came into her camp. I let them in.

Exodus 17:45-46 『And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto these people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.』

Lepers were isolated from the camp. Because of the spirits who sinned in God's kingdom, God blocked God's light, created a material world of darkness, and confined the spirits. This is isolation from the kingdom of God. That place is called the world. Tearing one's clothes represents one's spiritual nakedness. The upper lip symbolizes the kingdom of God. It shows that one has been driven out from the kingdom of God. 『Live alone』. This word expresses the spirit trapped in the body. Everyone has their own spirit trapped in each body.

Leviticus Chapter 14 talks about the purification ceremony, which was performed a total of two times. Verses 1-9 talk about the first purification ceremony held outside the camp, and verses 10-32 speak about the second purification ceremony held inside the camp.

Chapter 14 Verse 4『Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:』

Believers must know the meaning of two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. When Jesus told a parable in Matthew 13, he expressed, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed sown in a field.” He said that after that, the mustard seed sprouted, sprouted stems, grew, and became home to many birds. It is said that a mustard seed is heaven. So birds mean people (gentiles).

The cedar tree is the ark mentioned in Genesis 6:14. 『Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.』The gopher tree is a cedar tree. The ark is covered with bitumen, which symbolizes the blood of Jesus. So cedar wood became the material for the ark symbolizing Jesus Christ.

As for the scarlet thread, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the clothes the rich man was wearing were purple, and the purple clothes were made of scarlet thread. It becomes the material for making the tabernacle, curtains, and priestly clothes. The scarlet thread symbolizes the priests. In Exodus 26:1, “Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.” And in Exodus 28:6-8 『And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulderpieces joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; Even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.』The ephod is a garment worn by priests.

When David commits a sin, he asks for hyssop to be used to purify his sin. Hyssop is a brush used to apply sheep's blood. In Exodus 12:21-22, “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.” And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.』

Chapter 14 Verse 5『And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water:』

Flowing water is an expression of being alive. The law is lifeless. However, Christ is hidden in the law. The hidden Christ becomes the water of life. The law acts as a teacher to revive people and lead them to life. Water is the word. The word in which life is hidden is the law. Earthenware refers to a vessel made of clay. This refers to the human body. In 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

The treasure is Jesus Christ. The earthen vessels are Christ and those in Christ. It is the Son of Man who brings the law into truth. So the earthenware vessel here represents the Son of Man. It means catching a clean bird in the earthen vessel, the Son of Man.

14:6-7『As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.』

Of the two birds, the other was tied with hyssop and scarlet thread to a cedar branch. Then the priest took the blood of a dead bird and sprinkled it seven times on the person who would receive the blood, declaring him clean. 7 (seven) is a perfect number, and “sprinkling the blood of a dead bird on the person to be purified seven times purifies him” means that the saints, who are sinners, were purified by the blood of Jesus being sprinkled on them. It is shown symbolically.

This also means that the salvation of the saints is as vital as the cedar tree, and that salvation is due to the blood of Jesus, symbolized by the scarlet thread. Just as hyssop was used to sprinkle the blood of sacrifices, the blood of Jesus is sprinkled on saints who are sinners. Because of this, the power of salvation came to the saints. This is shown symbolically.

Of the two birds, the living one was released into the field, showing that the leper was completely free from leprosy and at the same time symbolically showing the resurrection of Jesus. And it also symbolically shows that we have been completely liberated from sin, death, and Satan through the blood of Jesus, and have gained eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus. Dying in Christ represents the birth of new life (rebirth). Two birds live and die for a leper (sinner). In the end, the leper (sinner) lives and dies.

Chapter 14 Verse 8 『And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.』

A leper who was judged clean by the priest was not allowed to enter the camp right away, but had to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash his body thoroughly.

The leper, who had been officially declared clean by the priest, now had to cleanse himself privately. He receives the rite of baptism. It is the consciousness of dying in the water and being born from the sky. While water baptism is the first purification rite, fire baptism can be said to be the second purification rite. Although the leper came into the camp, he had to wait another seven days before he could enter the tent where his family was. There was still a second purification ceremony left, and it was to prepare in a purified state for that ceremony.

14:9 『But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.』

A leper who was declared clean by the priest had to come into the camp and stay outside his tent for seven days. On the last seventh day, he had to shave off all the hair on his body and wash his body clean with water (baptism in water). By preparing for the first purification ceremony, he was able to return to the Israeli community through the second purification ceremony (baptism of fire), and he was able to recover all of his old status.

The reason why God performs this purification ceremony is to show that all physical diseases are cured, but through this, leprosy (sin) will be completely cured in Jesus Christ in the future. It is for those who have left God to realize that they will return to God through Christ. In this way, the Bible tells us that what is prescribed in the law is to find Christ and return to God.

This means, “You lepers who have left God! Look at this and look to Christ, who can free you from disease forever.” So, through the rituals that God sets forth in Leviticus, you must realize that you are those who have left God. Israel has kept the law for over 1,500 years. They should have realized what God intended in Leviticus, but they did not. Those who are in Christ are those who have escaped the law. Therefore, saints are subject to the law of the Holy Spirit, not the law.

In Mark 14:9, “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.”

Her memorial work of Miriam showed that she rebelled against her God, became a leper and was sent outside her camp, and that she was restored through the death of her victim. All of these processes symbolize the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Through the sight of a woman breaking her alabaster box (death on the cross) and anointing her with oil (baptism with the Holy Spirit: resurrection), we realize the meaning of what Jesus said in Mark 14:8. 『She hath done what she could: she is come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying.』The one who left God (a woman) died with Jesus (breaking the alabaster jar) and was resurrected with Christ (anointing the oil). It is one with God in Christ.