Mark 14:3-9 tells of this unnamed woman who brought her possession of utmost value and emptied it in one moment upon Jesus.
3And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Last night in our group bible study, we were studying this story. Naturally, there were some questions about what stood out to us in this verse. And then there were the questions about what our alabaster jar was – what was of value to us that we would pour out for Jesus? …..or something to that effect….
Various scenarios presented myself in my head. My first thought was ka-ching! MONEHH. Bible scholars agree that the perfume of that alabaster jar was worth a year’s worth of labour. So, I thought, what if Jesus were to ask me to basically give away a year’s worth of my salary? Not that I even have that kind of money set aside…..but if he asked, would I? It’s not easy to give away big sums of money, but I think it is possible.
As I was still quizzing myself, do I have an alabaster jar and what is it? I can’t really explain what happened next. A vision of the past flashed into my mind, and at the same time, the words ‘lavish love’ and ‘God is no man’s debtor’ also came. As I was trying to make sense of everything, my emotions caught up with me first so I had to excuse myself.
Long story short, the realisation dawned on me that I did have an alabaster jar and it had already been emptied out. The alabaster jar and everything was my past relationship. While I didn’t exactly empty my jar in worshipful submission, the vision was a reminder of one difficult, difficult night that I had just placed the relationship at Jesus’ feet. This was a few months before the relationship ended. God alone knows how much I tried to pour the oil back inside, fix the jar and all that.
But was emptying that alabaster jar worth it? Emphatically, YES!
There should be nothing in my life that I would not be willing to part with, if God calls me to. And for the alabaster jar that I broke, how richly He has recompensed men with His love and other blessings. Thank you, Papa.
learn and live 