breaking the flask

And 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.

Mark 14:3

This was controversial, spontaneous, perhaps scandalous, pure worship. While in the home of a man named Simon, Jesus is enjoying a dinner with his disciples at His host’s generous hospitality. Into this scene, which in the culture would have been a “man’s world”, this unidentified woman enters the room and in an act of contrite worship of Jesus, anoints Him with a flask of the costliest perfume. She gave to Jesus the very best she had. This came at personal cost, not only economically (the perfume is valued as expensive), but also at social cost since it would be unheard of for a woman to interrupt the social protocol of men at a dinner.

We know those around the table were put off by this action. They did not see the worship, just the violation of polite society and the “waste” of money. They were aghast at the very fact that this woman dared to enter the room.... then she did WHAT? Crazy woman! But Jesus did not see it that way at all.

Jesus is not indignant. Instead, Jesus rebukes those who coldly scolded her. He sees her actions as a beautiful thing, an act of worship foreshadowing His upcoming death and burial. He promised her that she will always be remembered faithfully for her sacrificial, heartfelt, costly worship. And her story, repeated in the gospels, is testament to how early Christians quickly believed what Jesus said about her loving worship and agreed that what she did was a beautiful thing worthy of Christian repetition.

Lord,

Like David when he purchased the temple plot, and like this woman who gave the best she had, I cannot give to You what costs me nothing. Though I have nothing as extravagant as nard, I do have this heart... this life. I break this flask before You. I pour this life out to You. It is Yours. I am Yours. All I have is given for Your worship.

Amen