Extravagant Love

When Mary anointed Jesus at the banquet given in his honor, she gave her very best. In fact, she may have laid down her very future when she poured the perfume on his feet. For that jar of perfume-which Matthew and Mark describe as an alabaster jar, broken in order to be opened- may have very well held every hope and dream she'd ever had. As far as we know, Mary never had the opportunity to marry. Because she and Lazarus lived with Martha, it appears that their parents must had died several years before. The fact that it was called Martha's house is interesting as well, for the family estate usually went to a son. Some commentaries speculate Martha may have been married and widowed, the house an inheritance from her husband. But what did Mary have? The alabaster jar of perfume may have been a part, if not all, of Mary's dowry. Worth more than three hundred denarii, nearly a year's wages, this was no ordinary perfume. In fact, there is no perfume I know of today that can even compare in worth-approximately thirty thousand dollars a bottle. Alabaster, on the other hand, was a common container in the Near East. What mattered most-what matters still today- is the treasure the container holds. And the treasure Mary poured out that day was more than an expensive perfume. She was pouring out her very life in love and sacrificial service. Unfortunately, not everyone present had Mary's kind of heart. (From:Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World)