Mark 14: 3-9
“While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly. ‘Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’”
A vintage cedar chest graces the sitting room off of our master bedroom, storing some of our girls’ baby clothes along with other items that belonged to my mother. This old piece at one time was my mom’s “hope” chest, a traditional place for a young girl to store items that would be needed in her future life as a bride. In some cases, a cedar chest was all a young woman had in which to place her hope if there was no suitor in her sights.
Alabaster was a stone commonly found in Israel often made into boxes or jars for storage of expensive perfumes to keep them pure and unspoiled, then sealed with wax to retain and preserve the scent. When the owner wished to use it the neck had to be broken for the perfume to pour out.
The woman we read about with her alabaster jar, containing very expensive perfume equal in value to a year’s wages, was probably saving it as a dowry for a future husband. She may have looked at it every day, running her hands over the smooth, expensive alabaster, dreaming of opening the jar on the occasion of her wedding. But this particular day, she had decided to bring her precious, treasured jar to Jesus, the One who assured her of freedom from her past and eternal hope for her future. She was met with judgment and ridicule from the other houseguests who criticized her for wasting such expensive perfume that could have been sold to help the poor. However, in her mind, nothing was too precious, nothing was too expensive for Jesus. Perhaps like other women in the Bible, she had been rescued, forgiven and restored. And so now, she opens her jar like a pure bride, offers her dowry to her bridegroom, lavishes it on Him as an act of worship in full surrender to her Savior.
But let us not forget the other part of the story—with the contents of her alabaster jar, the woman not only lovingly and reverently anointed the Lord Jesus, she prepared the Lord in a way no one realized but Jesus Himself. Her precious gift, her loving, extravagant act of worship, had prepared the Lord’s body, soon to be broken, for burial.
The woman with the alabaster jar reminds us that we are only serving one person, it doesn’t matter what the world says, what the critics say, or who else is in the room. We are called to worship our King and do His work. In what way can we sacrifice something precious for Jesus? How can we love Him extravagantly as Mary did? May this verse from the song, “Take My Life and Let it Be,” by Francis Havergal be our prayer today:
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Ever, only, all for Thee. Amen.
