Read Mark 14:1-11.

There are three events that we can assume occurred on Spy Wednesday (the name given to emphasize Judas' betrayal). 

1. The Jewish leaders conspired to arrest and kill Jesus.

2. A woman pours expensive ointment onto Jesus in worship and love.

3. Judas (one of Jesus’ twelve disciples) approaches the Jewish leaders and agrees to betray Jesus for money.

Why? Why death? Why betrayal? Why not a silent, quiet, alternative way to pay for sin? Why this way? Why through betrayal from one of His own? Why so much pain and suffering and rejection? Why such a vicious death?

First, our sin needs to be seen for what it is. Sin. Betrayal. Choosing self-glory over God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Choosing self-worth over God’s worth. Choosing value in other things over God’s value. Loving creation over the Creator. Loving gifts over the Giver. Passions and desires broken, and now men will do anything… ANYTHING… to get what they desire (James 1:14-15). Imagine a child being more infatuated with the Christmas gift and rejecting the giving parent. Or a wife more infatuated with a husband's friends than the husband himself. And it’s not just infatuation, but preference! In my sin, I not only love other things but I prefer them to God! Betrayal stings painfully.

Second, God cannot accept and love and embrace sinners while sweeping sin under the rug. If God makes sin “not that big of a deal” then He makes His worth “not that big of a deal”. What is man to do? How can we come home, come to rest, come to God’s very presence with so much sin and betrayal and division in our hearts?

Finally, the Father and the Son crafted a masterful plan, a plan of suffering, a plan of rejection and betrayal, a plan of crucifixion and murder, the weight of sin on the shoulders of the suffering Servant. Christ died for the ungodly (1 Peter 3:18, Romans 5:6) to bring us to God-- to worship Him, to anoint His feet and His head with the oil of worship and love and obedience and affection and treasuring and preference. Your new heart (if you are born again) prefers your First Love, prefers Him as our very best, and He makes THE way for us to be at home with our First Love. Seeing in part for now, but seeing fully soon (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Today, as we hunger, as we fast, let’s ask God in prayer stir our hearts to long for Him more, to act the miracle and prefer Him more, more than even the good gifts of food. Our hunger represents a longing for the eternal and divine. We long to wipe the feet of Jesus with our tears and our very best oil. And to love Him in that way.