In Mark 14:3-9, we see a woman displaying an act of full and pure devotion for Jesus. I’m quite familiar with this account, but recently in church I learned more details about why this was such a big deal. I did a little Internet searching on my own and learned a few more details afterwards.
Alabaster is a soft, translucent type of stone often used for decorative purposes. Since it’s so soft and susceptible to the elements, anything made of alabaster should be used and kept indoors. So we see that the alabaster jar in this passage was not just some casual container, it was an important, delicate, expensive one, likely kept in a special place in the house.
The contents of the jar were even more precious and expensive. The ointment inside was from the spikenard plant, and would have come all the way from the Himalayas, which was quite far and could be a dangerous journey. The ointment is made with oil extracted from the spikenard root, which would be dug up by hand, and only a little oil can be obtained from each root. The process of making the ointment and the sheer distance it would have had to go made it quite rare, expensive, and precious.
As an interesting side note, because spikenard oil has a very, very strong scent and clings to skin easily, the smell of it likely permeated the room for days afterwards, and Jesus probably still smelled like it by the time He was arrested and taken to the cross.
The alabaster jar was sealed to protect the precious spikenard ointment. According to one source I read, once opened, the ointment had to be used all at once and could not be saved for another time. Since spikenard was often one of the ointments used in burial processes at the time, it is possible that the ointment would have been used on this woman’s body upon her death.
An alabaster jar of spikenard ointment would probably have cost about an entire year’s wages. Knowing how many other expenses can take up money, one would likely spend years saving up for such a thing. A jar like this was sometimes given to daughters by their fathers as a dowry, an inheritance, or like a form of life savings, so this was not just a cute little bottle of perfume that this woman carried in a purse to spritz sometimes, this was her future and her financial security.
With all of this in mind, we see that this wasn’t just a woman giving Jesus an expensive gift, this was a woman lavishing everything she had on Jesus because of how much He loved her and how much she loved Him back. Her life was changed because of Jesus, and she expressed her gratitude without restraint. There were people witnessing the act that felt this woman should have used some restraint, but Jesus immediately corrected them.
So now that I know more about what this action meant, I am left with the question: Do I love Jesus so much that I am giving Him everything I have? After all, He gave me everything. Am I giving Jesus only portions of my life, time, and resources, or am I lavishing Him with all of them? I should not be afraid to love Jesus without restraint, especially because He has loved me without restraint!