THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION OF MARK 14:1-11 ON THE COMMITMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN IN GOD'S SERVICE

Résumé

The fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark reveals Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah who came to redeem mankind from the bondage of sin. Both the gospel testifies to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. The Old Testament prophets prophesy that the fulfillment is being seen here in Mark as the anointing of Jesus by the woman prefigured about the burial of Jesus. The depth of the woman's love for Jesus is signaled by the "wastefulness" of her perfume according to the disciples. The act of the woman here models what it means to be a disciple: to serve, to love one another, and to share in Jesus' death. The work is purely an exegesis of the text of Mark 14:1-11 that portrays the nature of hypocrisy displayed by the male disciples of Jesus that has an almost direct bearing on the kind of commitment and devotion being seen among the followers of Christ in the contemporary church in Nigeria. The paper employed Draper's tri-polar model' of contextual exegesis to explain the character and the kind of devotion that runs through Mark 14:1-11 between a woman and men towards Jesus. The findings of the paper reveal that God is interested in genuine service, a sacrifice commitment, and devotion of every person regardless of sex and culture. Men should learn true service from the woman in Mark 14:1-11. Men and women should learn to be of great help to people when they are alive, not when they are dead.