Alabaster Jars to Extravagant Love
Mark 14:3-9
The love of Jesus takes believers way beyond responsible giving to extravagant love!
I want to begin this series on giving with the extravagant gift of Mary to our Lord Jesus.
Those who are forgiven much love much.
Cantankerous old barber Juan is explaining to Tomas the reason why he has never had to pay chair rent at the barbershop.
Juan and Tomas are alone at the shop as Juan tells his story in flashback. Before gaining employment at the barbershop, Juan was a thief. On the run from the law for stealing some meat for a barbecue, Tomas’s father concealed Juan from the police, but also gave him a job and a purpose for living. Juan remembers how he nearly joins a Hispanic gang, who were talking about killing police officers and being killed as well. Juan decides he would just rather stay and be of service to the shop. Juan then recalls the South-side Chicago riots that ensued after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Militants are everywhere, breaking into stores and looting. Tomas’s father tells Juan that they should be honoring King’s memory, not looting.
Suddenly, a young man approaches the barbershop with a Molotov cocktail in his hand. As he moves to throw it through the window, Juan steps right in front of him and yells, "No!" The man steps aside and tries again to throw it through the window, but Juan again interposes himself and shouts, "No!" All the while, Tomas’s horrified father looks on. Eventually the young man gives up and throws the flaming bottle through the window of the building across the street.
As a reward for his bravery, Tomas’s father tells Juan that as long as he wants to work at the barbershop, he will never have to pay rent for his chair. But Juan puts it in perspective for Tomas. Juan says, "I didn’t save the shop – the shop saved me."
Juan goes from thief to hero because someone took an interest in him and fitted him for a life of service rather than a life of crime. Because of the extraordinary kindness of Tomas’s father, Juan’s life was redeemed. In gratitude for what was done for him, Juan puts his own life on the line to defend the store that represents his redemption.
Jesus explains that those who are forgiven little love little – while those who are forgiven much love much. When we see people in the depths of sin, our natural desire is to turn away. We cannot imagine how our holy God would want anything to do with such people. Yet Paul reminds us that many of us were once like "those people." Only the grace of God saved us, redeemed us, and made us His children. When we see desperate people caught in the web of sin, we should try to look at them with God’s eyes. In God’s equation those who are fallen lowest will be the ones who ascend the highest. They understand the depth of their sin, and rejoice, love, and serve all the more in response to their great redemption.
This is the beginning of responsible giving to extravagant love.
I. She broke open her treasured alabaster jar (Mark 14:3)
We find ourselves in the home of Simon the Leper at Bethany. There is a dinner being held without explanation as to why. Possibly it could be for the healing that Jesus did for Simon.
In the movie Matrix: Revolutions Neo finds himself on a concrete floor. As he awakens, he is looking up at the face of a little girl, Sati, who explains to Neo that he is in The Train Station, a place between his world and the Matrix.
Sati asks Neo if he is from the Matrix. Neo says that he used to be. Sati says that she had to leave home also. Her father, Ramakandra, calls her over, explaining to Neo that his daughter is just curious. Neo recognizes the man and says, "You’re programs."
Ramakandra responds, "Oh yes. I am the Powerplant Systems Manager for Recycling Operations. My wife is an interactive software program -- she is highly creative." He explains that the train station is a place to take things from one world to another. When Neo asks if that is what he is doing here, Ramakandra’s wife warns her husband not to answer, but Ramakandra wants to be kind and says he doesn’t mind:
"The answer is simple. I love my daughter very much. I find her to be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. But, where we are from, that is not enough. Every program that is created must have a purpose. If it does not, it is deleted. I went to the Frenchman to save my daughter. You do not understand."
Neo is stunned, "I’ve just never heard of"
Ramakandra recognizes Neo’s problem, "You’ve never heard a program speak of love."
Neo explains, "It’s a human emotion."
But Ramakandra corrects him, "No, it is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see that you are in love. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection?"
Neo, thinking of Trinity, says, "Anything."
With understanding in his eyes, Ramakandra says, "Then perhaps the reason you are here is not so different from the reason I am here."
Love is not an emotion, it is a connection. Emotions come and go, but love based in a commitment of the will, bears and believes all things. It is not surprising that a creation would bear the stamp of its creator. The program is responding to its programming. God, our Creator, has indelibly marked us with His image. We love, because He first loved us. And when a true connection is made between people or between a person and God, preserving that connection becomes a priority of the utmost importance.
That is why Mary can break a vial of very costly oil. Judas said that this oil would cost three hundred denarii. At the time a man’s wage was one denarius for a full day’s work. Thus we have a man’s wages for one year being used to anoint our Lord. Mary anointed Jesus’ feet and head. It was the custom to anoint the head of a guest. Anointing Jesus’ head was an act of honor; anointing His feet was an act of devotion.
Here we have another act of responsible giving becoming extravagant love.
II. She filled the room with extravagant love (Mark 14:3)
As we read on in the verses that follow we find that some became very upset at what Mary was doing. Many of those who were upset were the disciples. They made comments about how the money could have been used for the poor. Jesus told them to leave her alone.
As Jesus rushes to her defense he wants everyone to understand that her beautiful expressions of her love and devotion should not be met with opposition. They should be met with such acts by others because time was running out for such acts to take place at all.
Mary is showing extravagant love for Jesus by anointing Him in this manner. Love is good.
Miles Massey has finally succumbed to the enemy – a woman. Hastily, and with great passion, he has decided to wed Marylin Rexroad. He finds himself standing before the organization of which he is president, National Organization of Matrimonial Attorneys Nationwide (NOMAN – slogan "let NOMAN put asunder"). But he faces them a changed man.
Massey tries to begin with his prepared remarks. He declares, "In the world of matrimonial law there are a number of tactics..."
But he finds he cannot continue, and he tears up his speech. He looks at all his colleagues and speaks from his heart: "This morning, I stand before you a very different Miles Massey than the one that addressed you last year on "The Disposition of Marital Assets Following Murder/Suicide." I wish to talk to you today not about technical matters of law. I wish to talk to you about something more important."
Massey says he wants to discuss the heart –he wants to talk about love to this group of divorce attorneys. He says, "It’s a word we matrimonial lawyers avoid. Funny, we’re frightened of this emotion which is, in a sense, the seed of our livelihood. Well, today, Miles Massey is here to tell you that love need cause us no fear. Love need cause us no shame. Love is...good. Love is good."
Massey knows that his audience is skeptical, but he calls cynicism, "that cloak that advertises our indifference and hides all human feeling. I’m here to tell you that that cynicism, which we think protects us, in fact destroys, destroys love, destroys our clients, and ultimately destroys ourselves. Colleagues, when our clients come to us confused and angry and hurting because their flame of love is guttering and threatens to die, do we seek to extinguish that flame so that we can sift through the smoldering wreckage for our paltry reward? Or do we fan this precious flame, this most precious flame back into loving, roaring life. Do we counsel fear or trust? Do we seek to destroy or build? Do we meet our clients’ problems with cynicism or love? The choice is, of course, each of ours. For my part, I made the leap of love, and there’s no going back."
He tells them that he intends to resign from the organization to pursue pro bono work and then he takes his leave as his colleagues slowly stand and cheer.
While there is certain playfulness inherent in this speech, as it stands it is a wonderful testimony to the transformational power of love. C.S. Lewis argued in The Abolition of Man that the conditioners of our culture sought to breed cynics – that our young were enslaved to "cold vulgarity." The job of the teacher was to help students to recognize that the universe is such a place where truth, beauty, and love really exist. And that we could recognize and respond to these virtues.
The Scriptures tell us that of the virtues, the greatest is Love. We are to love others and God, and that in doing so we obey the Law and the Prophets. Of all human loves, marital love is worthy of extra effort, and safeguard, because it stands as the metaphor for God’s relationship to the Church. We should never blithely whisk love aside for any other goal. Love is good.
III. She honored Jesus for time immortal (Mark 14:8)
It is often said that women have more spiritual insight than men do. Certainly Mary’s anointing of Jesus at this time would offer validity to that claim. She prepared His body for burial when she anointed Him. Most assuredly she understood more than the disciples did that He was about to die.
What the disciples saw as waste the saw as worship. This woman’s gift of costly oil was worth one year’s average wages, yet she poured it out.
She did what she could. That is all that God asks any of us to do.
Have any of us broken our alabaster vials upon Jesus so that there might be a fragrance in our lives that might be a blessing to others. I wonder if some broke their alabaster vials of ointment if it would help the poor. Yet we always see ourselves as the poor.
This incident raises the issue of how one’s material wealth enters into worship. While Jesus was still physically present and available to her, Mary did “what she could.” Her most valuable possession was given to Jesus in an unusual act of devotion. A waste? Not to the one she honored.
Today Jesus is not with us physically. Yet while we live we control a certain amount of resources. So we might ask: What act of worship could we give while we have the opportunity? How much might we honor the Lord materially?
There are no easy answers. But Jesus offered a clue when He told the disciples that just as the woman had done Him “a beautiful thing,” so they could do good to the poor anytime.
