Heart Tracks - The Alabaster Jar

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 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. Luke 7:36-38

It is believed that the woman who made this act of sacrificial worship was Mary Magdalene, the former prostitute. The perfume within that jar was expensive. It would likely have been the entire sum of what she owned. It was certainly the most precious of her possessions. She had already believed upon Jesus as the Messiah, and there is no indication that she had any expectation of a return from Him. She simply gave all she had as an act of devotion and worship. And that act filled the house with the scent of the perfume. Jesus said that what she had done would be remembered forever; not just upon the earth, but throughout eternity. It makes me wonder, what acts of worship that we offer are worth His remembering.....or anyone's remembering for that matter?

Most professing believers are willing to give....usually out of their surplus. What they think they can afford, or what they think is found acceptable. Up to a tithe, and maybe a bit beyond. Rarely do we "break" our alabaster jar of what we believe precious and pour it all out to Him. Someone asked if we shrewdly calculate what we can afford to give Him without actually giving up anything of ourselves? Do we, as Oswald Chambers stated, "shuffle our feet" in the light of that question?

Everyone's concept of what they deem to be precious can be different. Whatever is contained in our "alabaster jar," can we freely offer it up to Him? I have in my prayer journal this question, written long ago. I don't remember the source, but it asks, "When was the last time we did something we'd never done before, or would do for no one else, but did for Him, simply as an act of worship?"

What do you carry in your alabaster jar that is precious beyond anything else? It can be anything. Dreams, desires, wounds, betrayals, hopes, plans, relationships, goals, and most of all, ourselves. Can we break the jars we hold these in, release them to Him, and pour them out upon His feet.....in trust, and in worship? The offering of that which we have always held as most precious, to Him who has become precious beyond what words can describe.

Whatever is your "alabaster jar," do you offer it, all of it, to Him? Or, do you hold it all back, and give to Him something less valued, something more "affordable?" Are your, our, offerings of worship unforgettable to His heart, or tainted by the reality that we hold to something else believed to be more precious to us than Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O