Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
Mark mention that a woman breaks an alabaster flask of pure nard to anoint Jesus. Matthew 26:6-13 is almost identical. John 12:1–8 identifies the woman as Mary of Bethany.
In Jewish thought, anointing was for kings and priests. Jesus accepts this "extravagant" act—worth a year’s wages—without rebuke. The woman’s act was not "waste" because the object of her worship was infinite. Jesus validates His own infinite worth.
Jesus interprets this act as "burying" Him. He is the only person in history who accepted a funeral rite while alive, showing His absolute control over His own mortality.
While Muslims highly revere Muhammad, Islamic theology strictly forbids "extravagant" devotion to a prophet's physical person in this manner, as it risks Shirk (associating partners with God). In Mark, Jesus is the rightful object of such devotion.
Jesus declares that wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, her story will be told.
Mark 14:9: Truy, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."
A mere man (even a prophet) cannot guarantee global, multi-generational fame. Muhammad was just a mortal warner. Jesus speaks as the Lord of History, knowing with absolute certainty that His movement will supersede the Roman Empire and reach the ends of the earth.