Alabaster Worship: Break open your jar

Our devotional scripture today for Holy Week was Mark 14:3-9, and it reads as follows: 

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 harshly rebuked her . “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.”

The lady in Mark 14:3-9, who came to Jesus with an expensive alabaster box full of perfume, is still known today throughout the world. For what is she even remembered? Wasting her best on the Lord Jesus. She "wasted" her most precious possession on the main focus of her life and love, the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. 

This story perfectly illustrates the meaning of true worship.  Can you see it in your mind's eye.  This woman rushes to her room and runs to her chest of drawers.  Ruffling through its contents, she finds a carefully wrapped alabaster bottle filled with the most precious of perfumes.  As she looks down at it, she remembers it worth, but inside her heart she bursts to share it with the Master.  What would He say? What would He think if she poured it upon Him out of the love she felt in her heart?  Would He be angry or would He see into the depths of her soul and see how deep her love was for Him?  As her thoughts imagine that moment, she can hardly contain herself and rushes to the object of her adoration.  This woman gave her most valuable possession to show her heart felt love for the Master. Now that is some kind of worship!

The alabaster flask was an expensive clay jar that was used to carry oil or perfume and it  was crafted by the best craftsmen.  It was very expensive to buy.  The only way to get the to open the flask in those days was to break it open. As she broke the flask she showed the brokenness in her life and her desire to be broken for the Lord.

I've ever heard a powerful example of what whole-hearted worship is, this would be it: breaking open your alabaster box (your heart) on a consistent basis in praise and worship. Are we consistent in pouring forth our hearts and sharing our love with the Father? If not, we need to start breaking open the spiritual vial of costly perfume to anoint the Lord through prayer and praise on a daily basis. This is really just our reasonable service and offering to the Living God.

Three very important points are made here in this passage of scripture:

• Demonstration of Abundant Love
  

By giving her most precious possession, this woman showed much love to the Lord Jesus. Some commentaries say that this vial of expensive perfume was equal in value to a whole life's savings. For us as New Testament believers, can we even begin to match this lady's act of giving her all? And then, will we learn to flow in extravagant worship on a daily basis? In the alabaster box contained precious ointment that was worth a years wages. It cost her something. True worship has a cost to it, following Jesus has a price and this woman choose to spend her year’s wages to minister to Jesus. What does your worship cost you?

• Don't Spectate…Participate

The second point is the attitude of the onlooking disciples. They were so "wise" in their own eyes that they almost missed one of the most significant events of personal ministry to Jesus during His lifetime on earth. So many times I have missed the important point in being a worshiper. Worship is a choice, not a feeling. Worship is a commitment of heart, not just an emotional outflow. Even though the disciples got upset with her for her "wasteful act," the Lord Jesus was blessed and His heart was touched by her. Remember this: Non-worshipers (or spectators) will always be on a different wavelength. They will see it as an overstatement, even a gaudy display of affection or emotions. Isn't this onlooking attitude strange? For selfless worship is exactly what blesses the heart of your Heavenly Father. People who worship God unashamedly serve as working models and examples for others, and this helps them begin to enter into His Presence.

• The Beauty of Worship
  

Finally, we look at the response and admonishment of Jesus to this woman and the disciples. Jesus said that "she has done a beautiful thing to me." This speaks of the beauty of worship in God's sight. In this case, it was the beauty of her act and the fragrance that was left over in the room after she anointed Jesus. There is a fragrance to your worship, an aroma that comes from the overflow of heartfelt love toward God. Many people still stand on the sidelines, never fully breaking open their alabaster box in praise and worship. That sweet smelling savor is rarely let out of their box to be enjoyed by God and His people. This area of aroma, sweet-smelling savor, and fragrance deserves the attention of our own personal Bible study. For within it, are locked up some of the great truths about being worshipers in the fullest sense of the word.

• Brokenness releases the sweet aroma
  

There is an aspect of aroma to brokenness that has not yet been understood by this generation concerning whole-hearted worship. Brokenness is not a bad word. Without the breaking open of the box, there is no anointing. Without the anointing, there is very little or no fragrance.

I truly believe that this woman did not have time to think about what she was doing. She seized the opportunity and she ran. She wasn’t worried about people’s reaction, all she desired was to glorify Jesus. She wasn’t qualified to worship but God qualified her. She did a significant thing in the bible as she anointed Jesus ministry placing and validating it with honor, brokenness, beauty and affection in it. She did an extraordinary thing and if a sinner can bring such worship before God what kind of worship are we to bring, us the saved ones who are called of the Lord. 

I invite you to enter into The Sanctuary for Alabaster Worship. Alabaster Worshiper is someone who loves Jesus completely, and one that exemplifies surrender, humility, and total abandonment to the Lord. Someone who loves Jesus completely, and one that exemplifies surrender, humility, and total abandonment to the Lord. Someone who puts Jesus before anything and everything. Alabaster Worship is worship from deep within the recess of the Spirit, it’s not for show off but the glorification of God. It is an overflow from within a heart that is pouring itself before God. I pray that God opens our eyes to know how to worship Him as he is meant to be worshipped to bring brokenness, humility, honor and beauty into his presence.

In The Sanctuary on Worship Wednesday break open your alabaster jar, yield up to the Lord the most precious, costly things of your life. The sweet communion with God will be so rich, it will draw you back time and time again. As it always is with obedient servants, God will be sure to fill your alabaster jar over and over again. 

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