Sermon Tone Analysis

Breaking the Alabaster Box

Ron Dunn

John 12:1-8

 

 

        I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, and John, chapter 12.

I am going to read two different accounts concerning the same incident.

This is the breaking of the alabaster box which you are familiar with.

The reason I'm reading from two different accounts is because each gospel writer saw it from an angle that perhaps the other did not.

One puts in what the other leaves out.

If two or three of us were to write different accounts of this service tonight, you might include an incident or detail that I might leave out.

To get a full picture of what really happened, you would need to read the different accounts.

Let us read  Mark's and John's account of this incident:.

Mark 14:3-9

And 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.

And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor.

And they murmured against her.

And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

She hath done what she could:  She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

John 12:1-8

Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's [son], which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

Now, Jesus said (Mark records it in verse 6), Let her alone; Why trouble ye her?

She hath wrought a good work on me.

And verse 8, She hath done what she could:  She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

And then in verse 9, he makes one of the most fantastic and surprising statements:  Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

When I was still in seminary, I was called to pastor a church over in North Dallas.

It wasn't a big church.

I think we had about 200 in Sunday School when I went there.

It was considered a "full-time" church.

By that, I mean they paid me full-time; I don't mean I worked full-time because I was still going to seminary.

We moved from Fort Worth to Dallas, bought us a home, got some cards printed up with my name on it, and the name of the church.

I was really proud.

My first full-time church!.

I felt like Simeon when he said, Lord, let thy servant now depart for he has seen thy glory.

I tell you, I was so proud of that church.

I was having lunch one day with a preacher friend of mine, an older man pastoring quite a large church in Dallas.

I was telling him about my church and he was glad to hear about it.

He said, well, that's great Ron, but one of these days the Lord is going to give you a good church to pastor.

You know, that was sort of like a pan of cold water thrown on me.

I thought it was a good church!

Of course, I know what he meant.

He was trying to be kind and encouraging.

He meant  that one day  God would give me a  big church.

That is what he was calling a good church.

I've never forgotten that.

Through the years, I've found that most of us are like my pastor friend.

We have a way of highly esteeming that which sometimes to God is an abomination.

We evaluate something  totally opposite from how God would evaluate it.

We call something good if it's big..

A good church today is a church that's big in size, and budget, and staff.

Increasingly I come to realize that what is good is not so much what man calls good, but what Jesus calls good.

And that which is highly esteemed among men is sometimes an abomination to God.

And that which is an abomination to God is sometimes that which is highly esteemed among men.

When this woman broke her alabaster box, she committed a social grace.

The women in that day, particularly in that part of the country, were to stay in the background.

They were never to be the center of attention.

And, suddenly, she does something which is so unusual and so out of the ordinary and such a social error that the people immediately begin murmuring against her.

She has a very expensive bottle of perfume worth about $50 in our money, which would constitute a full year's pay for the average laboring man in those days.

She breaks that and pours it on the feet and head of Jesus.

Immediately the people begin to criticize her.

Judas called it a waste.

He said she could have sold it and given the money to the poor.

Everybody said, what she had done was a terrible thing; that she should be ashamed of herself.

And, you know, they were right.

When you get down to think about it, what she did was about the most impractical, useless thing a person could ever do.

I think if she had thought a little bit about it, perhaps asked counsel from some people who were wise in those things, she would not have done it.

Of what use was it?

She wasted that ointment--wasted that perfume.

It serve no purpose; it didn't feed anybody, didn't clothe anybody, was absolutely useless.

They were right to criticize her.

I can hardly wait to hear what the Lord says.

I'm sure He must be totally embarrassed, having this done to Him in public.

Then He says something, and I can hardly believe my ears.

He said, let her alone; she hath wrought a good work on me.

I think so highly of what she's done, I am never going to forget it, and I'm never going to let you forget it.

And wheresoever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what this woman has done will be spoken of as a monument to her.

I think that qualifies as a good act of service because of what Jesus said about it.

The Lord is constantly surprising us.

I remember the widow who was giving her offering.

It is interesting thing  that Jesus was standing beside the treasury as the people came by and gave their offerings.

I have an urge to follow the ushers down the aisles and watch what everybody puts in some Sunday morning when they start taking up the offering..  I wonder if it would affect the offering.

If the pastor were to follow the offering plates next Sunday morning and watch what you put in, it might increase the offering.

The Lord is standing there watching and evidently from what he says, there were some quite large gifts..

Here comes a widow.

Now, when the Bible wants to describe a person who is living on the very barest of minimums, that person who is more destitute than anybody else, in that day and age and that part of the world, it would be a widow.

She drops in her two mites--which is less than a penny I suppose, according to our standards today.

The amazing thing is that Jesus says she has given more than everybody else put together.

Interesting, isn't it, what the Lord has to say about what we do.

I've often thought it might be pretty interesting if the Lord would just show up physically in our services.

We could ask,  Lord, what do you think about what is going on here?

Sometimes we walk away from a service and say,  wasn't that a great service?.  Oh, I'm telling you, that was  wonderful.

And wasn't that a tremendous message?

Yet, I sometimes want to say, Lord what do you think of it?