What’s in Your Alabaster Box?
Jesus and his disciples were sharing a meal with a prominent Pharisee named Simon. While they were eating a woman carrying an expensive alabaster box of ointment entered Simon’s house, a woman who was known for her sin and uncleanliness.
That woman was Mary Magdalene
The ridiculing whispers she surly endured didn’t deter Mary from doing what she had come to do. When she reached Jesus she fell at His feet. She began washing His feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing His feet with her alabaster box.
Simon belittled Jesus, saying if He were a prophet then He would have known that this was a sinful woman who touched Him. Then Jesus in perfect Jesus fashion shared with Simon a thought-provoking parable about a creditor who had two debtors. Jesus finished his story by putting Simon to the test, asking him which debtor would love the creditor the most. Simon answered correctly, “ I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most.”
Jesus then uttered the most beautiful words, “Her sins, which were many, are forgiven, for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.”
But seven?
My mind can’t comprehend how agonizing that would be. Obviously, Jesus had cut down those heavy chains and set her free, but I get this picture of her being broken and weighted down. Jesus had already freed her from the bondage of seven devils, but had Mary let go of it?
The Lord gave me this thought.
Not only was the ointment inside that alabaster box, but I believe Mary’s pain, her fears, her doubts, her insecurities were also in there. Not only was she thanking Jesus for what He had done for her, but I think she was once and for all pouring out the heartaches she had lived.
So today, I want to pose this question to you. What’s in your alabaster box? What do you need to pour out at Jesus’ feet?
I have always believed that situations can make us bitter or better. With God’s strength, I’ve poured my fears, pain, heartache, and insecurities out at Jesus’ feet, and I’ve worked hard to be better, but I have wondered when would I see the fruits of being better. The devil he knows our story and he wants to keep us from seeing the better of our situations. The more God wants to use our story, the more Satan is going to fight us.
Look at Mary Magdalene- she was possessed with seven devils! Satan had to see her God-given potential and that’s why he fought her. When Mary came to Jesus to anoint Him, she was choosing to be better. She was choosing to thank Jesus for what He had freed her from. She was choosing to let go of the pain and heartache of her circumstances. I think though she might have wondered when she would see the fruits of being better. Little did she know, Jesus was about to use her story.
Mary of Magdalene went from the woman with seven demons to the woman who selflessly and humbly anointed Jesus. She went from being unclean and unfit to be in company with to one of the people who traveled with Jesus and helped proclaim His good news. Mary went from having no friends to being one of Jesus’ closest friends— so close she was one of the people who stood at His feet as He was hanging from the cross. She went from the woman who wasn’t credible, believable or worthy, and Jesus bestowed on her the honor to be the first person who saw Him when He rose from the dead.
When Mary anointed Jesus, she may have not seen how her story could be used, she may have wondered where the fruit of her determination to be better would come from, but Jesus was going to go exceedingly abundantly above what she could have ever asked or thought.
God gave Mary better.
He’s done the same for me as well. The painful trials I’ve had to go through, when I wondered what good could come of them, God gave me better.
And He can do the same for you. He wants to do the same for you.
I truly believe God’s favorite miracle to perform is to take someone’s hopeless situation, where answers aren’t clear and make beauty from ashes. I don’t know what pain, heartache, doubts, or insecurities you have stored in your alabaster box, but I encourage you to let go of them today, pour them out before Jesus’s feet like Mary did. You may not see how God can use your story, but He already knows your potential— If you trust in Him no matter what He’ll give you the beauty, He’ll give you the better.
