Oh, How Sweet It Is
A woman, a sinner, came to Jesus with a very costly ointment as the odorous scent filled the house. The cost of the ointment was a year’s wage, no small sum. Some murmured and showed an outward concern for the poor. Jesus said that the poor would always be with them and they could help them anytime they wanted. The women wept and kissed Jesus feet, washed his feet with her tears, wiped his feet with her hair, then broke the alabaster box and poured the ointment on his feet and head. Surely she had over done it. Scores of people could have been thus anointed with such a rich supply.
Who was this sinner woman that was condemned by the pious in Simon’s house? Was she a lady of the evening? Some suggest that her employ provided a sufficient income for her to stockpile a year supply of spikenard which she used to perfume her own body to attract and beguile men into her adulterous web.
We don’t know when, but at some point the words of eternal life sunk deeply into her heart. The record is silent regarding the details of her conversion. This much we know, she was finally ready for a total reformation and transformation. After feeling the words of hope and healing, she could no longer live in the darkness of her profession. Whatever the cost, she must be clean again.
The sinner women broke the box of alabaster ointment and generously poured out her whole soul at the feet of her precious Redeemer, holding nothing back, not even a single drop for a future customer. She was empting herself out entirely and completely at the feet of her Savior and breaking free of her past life and the only security she may have ever known.
Author`s note: Each of us in order to truly come unto to Christ as this sinful women, must break our own alabaster box and finally and totally deny ourselves of all ungodliness. Are we holding back a part? Are we sacrificing a few drops of oil here and a few there as our convenience will allow? Are we tossing a widow`s mite into the treasury from the abundance of our own alabaster box? Or, are we emptying our own alabaster box and are yet stowing it away for a “just in case I may need it again someday?” If this be the case, then perhaps those words which we all long to hear, “thy sins are forgiven thee” may yet be a considerable way off. The broken alabaster box may symbolize the only real sacrifice that is acceptable to our Savior, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Oh, the sweet smell of forgiveness! Oh, the sweet smell of being clean! As Jacky Gleason used to say, “Oh, how sweet it is!”