Perfect Praise from a Broken Vessel
Mark 14 :
3And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. 4And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
6And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
As we read in the scripture above, Mary, had come to pour the ointment for Jesus' burial upon Him. This was shortly before Jesus was to be Crucified.
The part of this scripture however I want to focus on, is in Mark 14:3 when it says she brake the box and pored it on His head.
Broken, that's a word that has some deep meaning for me. To make this blog a little personal, God has just been...breaking me. He's been taking all my plans, all my desires, all my dreams, and breaking them.
Now why would a loving God who loves me enough to die for me, to be broken and poured out for me, want ME, to be broken. It's so my life could be poured out upon Him. So I can pour perfect praise out upon Him. So that I can be used. So that He could give me new life.
We have 3 portions of this act by Mary Magdelene I would like to talk about:The Box, the ointment, and Mary, pouring it out on His feet.
First let's talk about Mary Magdelene. A lot of times when speaking of her, we think about her being the woman caught in the act of adultery, or the woman who had devils cast out of her. Jesus saved this woman from a horrible and broken life, just like He did all of us. While the other disciples were rebuking her for buying this box instead of giving the money to the poor, Jesus said she was doing a good work upon Him. I find it so awesome how the ones that God uses are the ones that most people (even church people sometimes) look down on. God loves to use the outcasts.
If she hadn't done what she did, who would have prepared Jesus to do His greatest work, the death burial and resurection of Himself to conqueor sin.
Let her represent the situations in life that come and make you broken. Here you are, an alabaster box, ready to be poured out upon Jesus, but you won't do it yourself. Most of us love our comfort too much, so the storms of life, the toils and snares, come to break us, so we can be poured out upon the Master.
Next is the alabaster box itself. I would like to make this alabaster box represent the people of God. Alabaster is a very precious stone. The alabaster of back then was very hard to break.
Alot of times, when we start being used by God, when we start seeing His work in our life, we become like this alabaster stone. We start to make ourselves look very presentable. We come to church on Sunday, wearing our festive ties with matching suits, and we don't go to the altar and shed a tear. We can become so hard. We become so sure of ourself, that we forget where God has brought us from. God REQUIRES for us to be broken. When we are broken laying down at the feet of Jesus, is when His strength can be shown in us.
God has been showing me this lately. I am personally in a season of repentence. A season of change. God is drastically changing me, breaking me, and making me new. In order for us to be made new, we have got to constantly be at a place of brokenness and repentence before God. If my people who are called by my name will humble themeslves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven says the Lord in 2 Chronicles 7:14. We must be softened, and broken, before Him.
The last part I'd like to talk about is the ointment inside the alabaster box. As precious as the alabaster stone was, it was what was inside that was even more precious. The parfumed oil that was to prepare Jesus for His burial. Inside of us who have the Holy Ghost, is something so much more precious than our exterior. Much like that hardened alabaster box, our resistance to the will of God holds our destiny within.
GOD LONGS for what is within us to be POURED OUT!
Each one of you reading this has a purpose, an ultimate destiny, something God has put deep inside of your heart, something for His kingdom, for His glory. Something you have been saving up for. Something your Spirit wants to do to say "thank you Jesus, for saving me". We were all like Mary Magdelene, lost in sin, but thanks be to God for saving us.
Something in us cries out to give Him perfect praise, perfect obedience, however it is held inside by our pride.
It is held inside by our disobedience. It is held inside by our resistance to His will. He wants to take over. He wants to take control.
Warning: You will have to be broken. What is inside of you is screaming to be poured out upon Jesus, let Him break you, and make you new.
Maybe you are reading this, and you feel God telling you to give something up. You hear Him asking you to deny some things, to live by faith and not by sight. You may be afraid of the brokenness, but I have come to tell you that your brokenness... is what God will use for the furtherance of His kingdom! Your life can be something so beautiful! Let go of your alabaster box of resistance! Let the ointment of the Holy Ghost be poured out of you! Stop resisting, start letting the Master break you, and trust Him to pick up the broken pieces and make it a even more beautiful life. A life of perfect praise poured out before Him.
