Alabaster Flask

Matthew 26:6–13. Mark 14:3–9. (Luke 7: 36–50. John 12:1–7)

Today we look at the message from Matthew 26:6–13 and Mark 14:3–9 to learn more about the relationship Jesus called us to have with Him. As narrated by Matthew and Mark the chapters begin with Jesus at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. The house is filled with people, specifically men, and Jesus is there along with His disciples. At this moment a woman comes into the room full of people, goes to Jesus with an Alabaster Flask that has very expensive oil, she breaks it and starts to anoint Jesus. She pours it faithfully, selflessly, she is extremely focussed on anointing the son of God regardless of the contempt from the other voices in the room. The fragrance of the beautiful perfume then fills the whole room… Looking at the account in Luke 7:36–50 and John 12:1–7, a sinful woman comes to Jesus in the Pharisees’ house with perfume in an Alabaster Flask, washes Jesus’ feet with tears, wipes His feet with her hair, and pours the oil onto Jesus’ feet.

Friends, we are called to submit to Christ, to love Him with all our hearts and souls(Matt 22:37) and serve Him with gladness and singing(Psalm 100:2). The woman with the Alabaster Jar who pours oil on Jesus’ head in Matthew and Mark, demonstrates what it means to be wholeheartedly submitted to Christ. We start by looking at what an Alabaster Jar is in order to understand this message more: Alabaster is a beauty precious stone that is strong and used to hold perfume. During these times women used Alabaster Jars to store and preserve perfume that they would only pour onto the bridegroom the night of their wedding. The jar itself was worth more than a year’s savings and it was one of the most precious belongings any woman could own. However, the woman with the Alabaster Flask knew that Jesus is our first love, the bridegroom(Luke 5: 35) the one who forgives sin, and He is far worth more than any perfume or expensive jars we can ever own. The woman submits to Him and anoints Him with the most expensive perfume she has demonstrating humility, full trust, and true love for Christ.

We submit to Jesus by giving Him our time through prayer, meditation and consciously choosing to live for Him on a daily basis. When you love and trust someone you are willing to give them a lot, most times everything. You communicate with them on a daily basis and you await patiently to hear their instructions for you. Jesus wants the same with us, for us to give Him our time and to seek Him first (Matt 6:33). Many times we struggle a lot to do this because we are often entangled in our schedules, interests and challenges of life such that as far as giving Jesus time, we squeeze in a quick prayer somewhere in our day, read a verse, and go to church on Sunday. And as far as giving Him our all and serving Him, when we come to Him often we are in the position of need, I mean, we have already been burnt somewhere, we are burning, we need Him to rescue us or to build our endurance through the fire, we need Him to grant us the desires of our heart, the list of our requests goes on. We maintain the position of need and its dependent on the seasons in our lives. Jesus cares about all the things that are happening in our lives, our needs, He wants us to have good things as His plans for us are good, but more than that He wants a consistent and unconditional relationship with us, just for us to submit to Him on a 1:1 level. I love to vizualize the story of the woman with the Alabaster flask as narrated by Matthew and Mark: it’s just one dedicated woman, anointing Jesus, she is in this position where she is just giving to Christ who is about to suffer for the whole world… and the fragrance of the perfume is just radiating to everyone…As we meditate on this, it’s important for us to examine our lives and see what we still haven’t surrendered to God.

From the woman with the Alabaster jar, we also learn that true love for God is shown by a simple trust in God’s Word and standing firm in it. Upon witnessing what the woman did, the disciples of the Lord, specifically Judas got very angry. He shares that this is a waste of oil, and the oil should have been sold and the money given to the poor, but the woman with the Alabaster Jar doesn't stop, she stood in the truth of her calling regardless of what the disciples of Jesus were saying, regardless of what the people who had spent a lot of time with Jesus(and would know Jesus well) said. In order for us to stand firm in God’s truth we have to know what the truth is(Ephesians 6:17) We can only know this by reading the Bible daily and meditating on the message daily. When we know the truth of God, we can then stand in the truth of the Word as opposed to the truth/knowledge of this world. When we stand in truth, we gain courage to go past any group of people to get to Jesus, we gain access to Jesus’ heart, our hearts are not troubled by the voices from self-righteous knowledgeable individuals, nor by our own insufficiency, we cannot be distracted by the world when our focus is entirely on Christ. Only when we trust and love God first like this, then we can serve others with the love of Christ. Hence it is important that we gain courage in Him, such that when the room is filled with discouragement or gloom, in turn we can fill the room with the fragrance from our outpouring flasks and hearts for Christ.

My prayer for you today is that despite what is going on in your world, I hope you understand that nothing will ever be more important than living for Christ, and nothing else is worth it if Christ is not the center of it, a career, success, marriage, righteousness, expensive jars. I hope you intentionally make a choice to serve Jesus Christ daily, to anoint Him with your love. I pray that your faith and love for Christ will be like that of the woman with the Alabaster Flask, and as you break your own Flask, may the chains that tie you down from Christ break, may you break free from sins that you struggle with and any past or current patterns that stop you from serving Jesus. I challenge you today to do that devotional, to just humbly come into His presence right now, today, and give Him time. I pray for you that you repent, may the love and peace of Christ be with you.