Can I tell you a story? It’s actually recorded in Mark 14:3-9. But I want to tell it to you a different way. You see, it’s a story about a jar of clay.
It was not clay like this. This is brownstone. It’s good clay, but not as good as the kind in this story. The clay in Mark 14 is alabaster. One of the most pure minerals on earth. When it is fired it turns white, almost translucent. It was used for only extremely valuable things. In fact, in this story, the alabaster jar held a very expensive perfume made from the spikenard plant. It’s like the fragrance of lavender except it was very thick. It was so valuable that this vessel of perfume it was said was worth more than a year’s wages. So think about all the money your family makes in one year. This one vessel contained more value than that.
Well, You can imagine what this jar thought about itself. I’m sure if you were the jar you would think pretty highly of yourself. In fact, in your house, you’re probably the most valuable possession. You were only used on very special occasions and in only teenie tiny doses. Well one day, your owner comes running into her room, and picks you up. Someone special must have arrived, you think. But instead of using you, she carries you into the main room. And you’re expecting that some royalty must have arrived. But there, before you, sits a beggar. He’s wearing a robe that probably hasn’t been washed in weeks. His hair is in tangles. There’s dirt, caked in his beard. And his feet. You don’t want to even look at them they’re so disgusting.
And suddenly the worst thing imaginable happens! Your owner, this woman she breaks your perfectly slender neck. You crack down the sides. In an instant you have become worthless. You will never be used again. Perfume starts oozing down, dripping on the floor. And she carries you, your broken pieces and she pours out the perfume. A lifetime’s worth. She pours out every drop on this beggar’s head.
It’s unthinkable! You wouldn’t do this to a King! And yet, here she is, anointing a beggar.
And now you hear voices.
v. 4-5 And the people in the room didn’t understand her. They rebuked her.
And you agree with them. This woman has ruined you. She’s lost her mind. But then, suddenly, you hear another voice. It’s choked. Dry. But there is strength in it. You can tell because every one falls silent.
v. 6-9 Listen to what Jesus says. Jesus doesn’t say this about any other person.
And you realize, all of the sudden, that he’s not speaking only about this woman. His eyes. The beggar’s eyes, they drift to you.
v. 6-9 You, broken one, the one in which I have placed my treasure. You have done a beautiful thing. You did what you could. You poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.
You see all your life, you thought your value was what you were on the outside. You thought your worth was based on the stuff that you were able to keep for yourself. Little did you know, you were actually much more valuable than that. You would be the one to anoint the head a king. Not just a king. But the King of Kings.
And three days later, on the cross. As the King suffered and died. The perfume you held, that fragrance would still be clinging to that beggar king’s caked beard, his tangled hair. It would be the last beautiful thing Jesus would experience on this earth before his death. Because you were broken. Because you were used in the manner he intended.
That’s what can happen when we allow the Shaper to shape us. Yes, we may be broken. But it will always serve a higher purpose. When your life is shaped by Christ, you will experience meaning and a purpose that is far greater than any meaning or purpose you could create for yourself.
That’s the invitation God is offering you.
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