Day 12 — The Jar
Matthew 26:6-13
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Extravagant devotion is what we find in this scripture today. And, as so often, there are different responses – indignation, surprise, judgement and revelation. Only Jesus can see the true act of worship here: the broken alabaster jar of perfume, worth a fortune, is going to be the only way in which he will be anointed for burial. Jesus is well aware his greatest trial is coming swiftly and there won’t be time to anoint him properly after this.
So in this season of containment how can we be extravagant towards God in our worship? It might be you love exuberantly dancing around your lounge to a worship song cranked up high enough to annoy the neighbours, or you’re attempting to sing along to muffled guitars on a small group Zoom. Or it might be you don’t have a song to sing right now. You feel so shaken by this global crisis and distant from the heart of the Saviour. It’s in times like this that extravagance takes on a different form: it’s bringing what we can – and being honest about what we can’t – and laying it all at the feet of Jesus. It’s choosing to worship him anyway, and seeing beyond this moment to the unchanging glory and goodness of God.
A while back Tim and Nick with a few others wrote a song called ‘Broken Hallelujah’. The chorus attempts to articulate that choice to worship anyway in the tough moments of life:
‘Now all I have to bring
A song of honest praise
A broken hallelujah,
Take this broken hallelujah
In silence and in pain
I choose to sing again
This broken hallelujah
Take this broken hallelujah’
Maybe today extravagance for you looks like simply choosing to bring the full, raw honesty and pain and, through it all, to sing again to him. It’s as if each one of us is a jar and we can choose to stay upright and untouched – or, in being broken before him, can pour out our hearts before our maker.
One Prayer: Be honest before God about how you feel right now. Let that lead you into worship with a broken hallelujah.
Nick & Ali Herbert