an alabaster jar.

Imagine this scene: Before Jesus’ burial, Jesus is at the home of Simon the Leper, a Pharisee. A promiscuous woman discovers that Jesus is there and she brings an expensive bottle of perfume to the house.  When she gets to Jesus, she breaks the alabaster jar that contained the perfume, pours it over his head, and anoints him for his burial.

Immediately, the Pharisees object, suggesting that she could have fed the poor with the amount of money the jar of perfume was worth—more than a year’s wages. And while one would think Jesus would feel the same—after all, he seems to always advocate for the poor, the needy, and the sick—he says, “She has done a beautiful thing for me….”

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as 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. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 14:3-9)

The same story is told in Luke, though slightly differently:

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50)

How did this woman get such expensive perfume? How did the woman know that Jesus was the Messiah? Why was it ok in the eyes of Jesus for her to “waste” such wealth? What does this mean for us, since Jesus is no longer physically present in human form? What does her vulnerable and humble behavior suggest about how Jesus wants us to worship?

I wish I had answers to all of these questions.  I cannot say with complete certainty that I know exactly what we are to take from these accounts, but I do have some insights about what we can learn about worship and Christian behavior:

• We are to bless the Lord
• The Lord cares about generosity
• Perception isn’t everything
• We are to love wastefully
• The danger is not so much in wealth, but in the idol that it can become
• Quality matters, not quantity (especially when compared with the widow’s offering)

I think all of those thoughts align with this Scripture, and I could probably write entire blog posts about each of them with cross-references to other Scriptures (who knows, maybe I will); but I think the key point of the story–the main idea that Mark and Luke are trying to get across to us, the readers, is this: We experience real life through giving our best—our all—to the Lord, and by sitting at the feet of Jesus.

In light of that, let’s ask ourselves: What is my alabaster jar of perfume? What is my best? What is my all? Where do I sit in relation to Jesus? And, let’s pray that God reveal those things to us and give us the wisdom to pour out our best once we know what it is, and sit at his feet once we realize how far away we are.

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