Transcript
Vance Havner once said, “God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is [a broken] Peter, weeping bitterly [after denying the Lord], who returns to greater power than ever.”
The fourteenth chapter of Mark tells of a broken alabaster box of ointment that was poured over the head of our Lord. The woman who did this was preparing for Christ’s death by an act of loving worship intending to anoint Him for His burial.
There are principles of faith, love, worship, and sacrifice for us to learn here.
Mark 14:3: “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on His head.”
The scene is Bethany, a village on the Mount of Olives about 2 miles from Jerusalem. The Lord spent much time around this area when He was in Jerusalem. He visited the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha here. He raised Lazarus from the dead there also.
And when He ascended to heaven, Luke 24:50-51 reads, “And He led them out as far as to BETHANY, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.”
According to verse 1, the time is two days before Passover, the Passover when Christ would die on the Cross as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb and to die for our sins.
The location in Bethany is “in the house of Simon the leper.” This is the only time this man is mentioned in God’s Word. Simon was a common Jewish name at that time.
Calling him Simon “the leper” was a way to distinguish him from others with the same name. Simon was a former leper.
Lepers were outcasts. They didn’t interact with people. They were put out of society. Because of their contagious disease, people kept as far from them as possible.
But now he resided in Bethany in his house. It is likely that this man had been healed by Christ. And it is not too much of a stretch to assume that this man, who had been healed by Christ, knowing He would be in Jerusalem for Passover, planned this meal and invited the Lord to his home as a way to say thank you.
Verse 3 says that they “sat at meat.” In that time, according to their custom, they reclined at a low table to eat. Their meals were prolonged conversations.
Their lounging, reclining position was the normal posture for having a relaxed, protracted, conversation around a meal.
And this would be the exact opposite of our drive-thru fast food restaurants and meals.
While they were eating and conversing, an unnamed woman approached the Lord, “having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious.”
An alabaster box was a jar, a vial, or a vase with a long slender neck. The long-necked jar was made from a fine variety of marble, quarried in Egypt, which could be carved into delicate containers for storing costly perfumes. This material had proved to be the best container for preserving expensive perfumes and oils.
It’s said that the container had a “small plug from which small drops of this perfume could be poured out or sprinkled.” It could thus be stretched out and used over a very long period of time because small drops were all that was typically needed.
Because of the value of the vase itself, it was often an heirloom passed from one generation to another.
Contained within this expensive jar was “ointment of spikenard very precious.” Not only was the container valuable, but also the perfume within it.
Spikenard was imported from India. Nard was an aromatic oil from a rare plant root native to India. Interestingly, nard from India is still used for perfume.
The word translated “spikenard” means pure nard. It was undiluted, as opposed to nard mixed and diluted with inferior substances. This made it even more valuable and costly.
Mark described the perfume as “very precious” in verse 3. Then in verse 5 we learn how precious. It was valued by the disciples as worth “three hundred pence.”
A pence was a silver Roman denarius. One of these coins was a typical day’s wages for a common worker in that time. So the perfume was valued at roughly a year’s wages. It was as verse 3 says, “very precious.”
This all shows us that to have this valuable jar with such costly perfume in his home, Simon the leper was likely a very wealthy man. Because it’s hard to imagine spending a year’s wages on a bottle of perfume, unless the person was wealthy.
The familiar Psalm, Psalm 23, says in verse 5: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil…”
In verse 1, we learn that Christ being in Jerusalem and Bethany was in the presence of His enemies, who were conspiring for how to put Him to death while He was there.
“After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by craft, and put Him to death.”
In verse 4, we see the Lord’s head being anointed with oil. Anointing the head of a guest with oil was a common way at that time to honor a person at a festive or special occasion. But only a little bit was used, not a whole container full!
An unnamed woman in Simon’s house, while those present were reclining at the meal, went and took the alabaster vase in her hands. She doesn’t want to pour out or sprinkle small drops of it out. So she does something that wouldn’t ever be done.
Probably on the edge of the table for the meal, she banged the alabaster jar against it, and she broke off the slender neck of the valuable vial, so that all the costly perfume could now be poured out more easily.
She then takes the broken vial and pours all the perfume out over the Lord’s head.
The breaking of the vase and the pouring shows that no portion of the ointment was held back. All was poured out on Christ’s head. Both the expensive jar was broken and the expensive perfume was all poured out, making the act that much more costly.
Now when my wife puts on just a little perfume, I can smell it around the house. Imagine the scent from dowsing a whole jar full over Christ. It would have dominated the house.
It was an expensive offering that she gave to the Lord. This was lavish love. It was profound, sacrificial affection and worship.
She could have poured out drops of ointment and sprinkled it on His head. She could have emptied all the perfume, but kept the expensive bottle and not broken it. But she didn’t. She both broke the vase and she poured out all the perfume. It expresses the wholeheartedness of her devotion.
This was not something that could be repeated. She gave it all. She gave everything. It was a final act. There was no turning back. You could not reuse the perfume. You could not repair the vase. It was all given to the Lord out of her worship and love for Him.
It’s symbolic of what God desires out of each of our lives. Breaking the vase and pouring it all out for Him. Christ is worthy of our sacrifice, He is worthy to give all of ourselves to Him, to make the break from our old life and to pour out our lives for Him without turning back.
Traditional ways of doing things, demanded that she not do this, as we see by the reaction afterwards to what she did. But this woman dared to be different. She dared to be a fool for Christ’s sake. This is where her greatness was.
She symbolizes all who love the Savior with all their hearts and hold nothing back and giving it all.
What she did she did for Christ alone. The jar was broken, the perfume was all poured out for Him. So our worship, the sacrifice of our lives, is likewise for Him and Him alone.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Mark 14:4-5: “And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
“For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.”
In Matthew’s account of this, he wrote that the disciples had indignation. The disciples were the “some that had indignation within themselves” as Mark puts it. But we don’t which disciples for certain.
Some of the disciples were indignant, angry, and upset at what they perceived to be a “waste.” They felt that she was reckless. In their minds, this was a year’s wages gone to waste. It was enough to help feed many, many poor people. Now all was lost.
Often in life, people still think it is a waste to give even a part of one’s life to the Lord. And like pouring out the entire valuable contents of this jar, many still get indignant at what a tremendous waste they consider it to give one’s whole life and valuable time to the Lord! But it is never a waste to give your life or sacrifice anything for the Lord.
The disciples considered it a waste because they did not understand that Christ’s death was imminent. The Lord had told them on their way to Jerusalem for this Passover, in Luke 18:31-34:
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on.
“And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”
Years earlier in Luke 9:6, we learn how “they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel.” And yet, in Luke 18:34, years later, we see that the disciples did not understand in the least that our Lord would be put to death and would rise again.
Now, if you think the gospel they preached in Luke 9 is the same gospel as the one we preach today, trusting the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal, there’s a problem. This wasn’t their message.
They preached the gospel of the kingdom, which required repentance, faith in Christ as Israel’s Messiah, water baptism, confession of sins, and selling all they had.
But today under grace we make known the gospel of grace, which requires faith alone in Christ, that He died for our sins and rose again.
The disciples were indignant and they murmured at this woman. They were shooting her angry glances and showed their shocked disapproval as they grumbled.
They viewed it as unnecessary extravagance. Saying “it might have been sold” they contemplated its great value before it was wasted.
It once had value, now it had no value at all in their eyes. It once was worth 300 denarius, but now it wasn’t worth anything. The money could have been given to the poor, now the poor will remain poor and hungry. And they murmured.
While others may misunderstand or murmur against us because we follow and serve the Lord, we should not allow that to keep us from our devotion to Christ. We must keep our focus on Him, and our concern should be His approval alone.
The disciples were insensitive to this beautiful expression of adoration and devotion to Christ. Their concern for the poor contrasts with her concern for Christ. And this is what the Lord points out to His disciples.
Mark 16:6-9: “And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on Me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but Me ye have not always.
“She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”
A husband comes home with a dozen roses. It isn’t her birthday or their anniversary or Mother’s Day. It’s just another day, and he brought her roses. She thinks something must be wrong, or that he was preparing to break some bad news.
But he tells her, “No, honey. I bought these flowers just because I love you. There’s no other reason. I just love you.”
An unexpected act of genuine, selfless love. We see that kind of love in this story in a beautiful way. You see, it’s sad to say, but most of the people who followed Christ came to Him for selfish reasons, whether they thought about it that way or not.
The blind, the deaf, all kinds of infirmed people came hoping that He would have compassion on them and heal their maladies. Many came just out of curiosity, hoping to see an amazing miracle.
Religious leaders followed Him because they wanted to trap Him by His words. Great crowds followed Him. Then they left Him. Most of them were merely there because they wanted something, not because they believed in Him or truly cared about Him.
But Christ loved them all, and so out of His love He proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, He taught them the Word of God, and He healed their diseases.
Hardly anyone even bothered to come back to express their love and appreciation after He had healed them.
That is why this story is so special, because this woman is overwhelmed by love and gratitude for Christ, just Him, because she believed in Him and knew who He was as Lord and God, and she found a way to express her worship.
Thus, the Lord defends the woman’s action, and He rebuked her critics. Instead of condemning her, He shows how they should have been commending her.
He tells them to “Let her alone” or “Let her be.” This was a command for them to stop their attacks. “Why trouble ye her?” or “Why are you bothering her?”
“She hath wrought a good work on Me.” Or literally, she’s done beautifully, He tells them. She’s done excellently. It was beautiful in its insight of His Person and it was beautiful by her courageous faith. He accepted her gracious worship.
This was not a waste. Honoring the Lord and giving sacrificially to Him is never a waste.
The Lord tells His disciples, “For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.” The word “always” is important in this verse. The Lord pointed out that ministry to the poor is not a limited opportunity.
The Lord also was making reference to the Law by this statement. Deuteronomy 15:11: “For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.”
Helping the poor was not a limited opportunity, but Christ being with them was a limited opportunity. In a couple days was Gethsemane, the trials, Golgotha, 3 days later the resurrection, and 40 days after that His ascension.
Time for expressions of sacrificial worship and honor for Christ was running out. And this woman wanted to show this kindness while she could. The Lord was telling the disciples that they needed to learn from her.
The Lord says something next that had to have been a stab to the conscience and convicting to the disciples in that house. And they still convict.
He honors her by saying, “She hath done what she could.” She saw and embraced the opportunity that was open to her to honor Him, and she gave the best, what cost the most, and she gave it all. She did what she could for Christ. She did what she could to show her love for the Lord.
In other words, had they? Have we? Have we done all we could for our Savior? That is all that God has ever asked any person to do.
Like this woman, it’s by love, gratitude, faith, and devotion that we do it. When she broke that vase and poured out that perfume on Christ’s head, she gave the best, the most valuable, the greatest sacrifice she could give.
Time is valuable. Giving the Lord our time is giving what we could. Giving Him the best of us, not the rest of us, is doing what we could for our Savior. Giving him my faithful worship and sacrificial service, is doing what we could for Christ. He is worthy of this.
The Lord next said that “she is come aforehand to anoint My body to the burying.”
It’s difficult to tell for certain how much this woman understood, though by the Lord’s statement here it seems she understood better than the twelve that He would die soon.
The Lord saw her action as an expression of love and devotion to Him that anticipated His approaching death and burial. Exactly how soon I don’t think she knew, but knowing and believing He would die soon as He had said, and that she might not be able to care for His body in death, she showed her love for her Lord while He was still alive.
Finally the Lord says, “Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”
I like when the Lord says “verily” in the Gospel accounts. Christ is the Way, THE TRUTH, and the Life.” He only spoke truth.
He stresses that when He says “verily,” which means “truly,” or “I tell you the truth,” and that what He is saying is to be completely relied upon. Often, the Lord would say, “Verily, verily,” or truly, truly to really drive it home.
This verse is a further evaluation by Christ of the greatness of this woman’s act. The Lord says wherever the good news concerning Himself is made known, even throughout the whole world, along with that will be told the story of this woman’s deed.
The disciples’ evaluation of what she had done and the Lord’s evaluation of what she had done were polar opposites. They saw it as a waste. Christ honored it as something to be praised and remembered and told throughout the world.
The Lord erected a memorial for all time to her who had done her best to honor Him. No other ever received such a promise from Christ.
And just like the Lord said, we’re remembering it right now, 2000 years later. The Lord’s prediction has been fulfilled. The testimony of her adoring, sacrificial, selfless worship, is remembered.
The fragrance of that perfume reaches down to our generation. Christ said that she would be memorialized. She has been in the pages of God’s Word. Thus, this act of worship will be remembered forever and ever.
As a part of an assignment for a doctoral thesis, a college student spent a year with a group of Navajo Indians on a reservation in the Southwest. As part of his research he lived with one of the Navajo families, sleeping in their hut, eating their food, working with them, and generally living the life of a 20th-century Indian.
The old grandmother of the family spoke no English at all, yet a very close friendship formed between them. In spite of the language difference, they shared the common language of caring for others, and they understood each other.
Over the months he learned a few phrases of Navajo, & she picked up a little of the English language.
When it was time for him to return to the campus to complete his thesis, the tribe held a going-away celebration. It was marked by sadness since the young man had become close to the whole village and all would miss him.
As he prepared to leave, the old grandmother came to tell him good-bye. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she placed her hands on either side of his face, looked directly into his eyes and said, “I like me best when I’m with you.”
This woman in Simon the leper’s house knew that the Lord was leaving. Out of her love and faith, knowing He was going away, she honored Him. He had changed her life. So she showed her appreciation for Him and the privilege she had had to be in His presence.
“I like me best when I’m with you” is the way we can feel when we spend time with Christ by His Word and in prayer. Christ changes us and transforms our lives by His grace. Living by faith in Him is the greatest blessing in life.
And one day our faith will be sight, and we will have the high privilege to be with Him in glory for all eternity.
Trusting this, may our hearts be humbled, yielded and broken before Him out of our gratitude, and then may we pour ourselves into His service as a living sacrifice, an offering of worship, for Him and Him alone.