Title 1: An Alabaster For Easter Title 2: Your Worth, His Action — An Alabaster Story

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It's Easter week and I am so excited. I guess you are, too?

But somewhere within the week, just before Jesus' betrayal, was a significant act of worship by a woman to Jesus (Matthew 26:7).

Even Jesus concurred that that was too significant an act as it prepared Him for one of the things that would befall Him during the week —His burial.

For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

Matthew 26:12 KJV

The story of the woman and the alabaster box is found in Luke 7:36-50, Matthew 26:6-13, and Mark 14:3-9. The woman in question is not named, but our Sunday school teachers like to assume she was “Mary Magdalene(I'll be using them interchangeably just for the purpose of this write-up). So, if you're an OG like me, you probably have heard from Sunday school, the story of one “Mary” and the alabaster box. How one woman, “unworthy", as she may have been labelled(Luke 7:39), wetted Jesus' feet with her tears, wiped it with her hair and anointed Jesus' feet with perfume from her alabaster box.

For a large part of my being a Christian, I didn't but interpret what she did as something cute. Maybe she was too grateful for Jesus' forgiveness that she used that act to say “thank you”.

But from today's topic, I guess you already know it's more than that.

A little digression. Somewhere on the streets of social media, a pastor was celebrating his rich daughter-in-the-Lord. Paraphrasing his words, “I’m having a hard time deciding on what to gift you for your birthday. It's a bit tough trying to gift a rich person”. His not wanting to gift her “just anything" coupled with his statement, shows two things:

• her inherent worth and

• the kind of worth he places on her.

Worth : /wɜːθ/

Adjective

worth (not comparable)

• Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.

Eg: A painting worth thousands.

• Deserving of.

Eg:I think you’ll find my proposal worth your attention.

• Valuable, worthwhile.

In the same vein, this woman, whom we like to assume is Mary Magdalene, having experienced the depth of Jesus' mercy, grace, and love, had her perspective changed about the nature of God and the kind of worth she should place on Him. I guess that is what sponsored her action of anointing Jesus with the costliest of oils. More often than not, our perceived value of a person sponsors our action towards such a person.

Jesus, likewise, being in the beginning with God (John 1:1), understood the inherent worth of mankind (Genesis 1:27) and placed that same worth on them. He perceives us as valuable, and He demonstrated this by giving His life for our salvation, not regarding how far we've gone(Romans 5:8). That is what we celebrate at Easter.

From these three scenarios, we can find a common thread— worth defines action. Someone's response to you or actions towards you is sponsored by their perceived worth of you. Unfortunately, we live in a world that sometimes we could be perceived wrongly or inaccurately. Jesus was, during His time on earth (John 1:11, Matthew 12:24). That is why you CANNOT and SHOULD NOT derive your identity from background, circumstantial, social, or cultural narratives. They would never give you an accurate perception of yourself, save the One who made you.

Another thing to learn from this alabaster story is that it's on you to know your worth and live it out, irrespective of societal labels, tags, and circumstances. Your environment will catch up later, if you're consistent. Jesus was labelled everything but the Son of God and Saviour of the world. But because He knew who He was, He was consistent in declaring the same, till a woman couldn't resist but honor Him by anointing Him with fragrant oil. The world wouldn't stop cooking up definitions of you and for you if you do not know who you are and insist on it.

It's Easter week, and we commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for mankind. If Jesus’ worth on us is such that He was willing to die for us, who are we to derive our worth otherwise? Your worth is such that God Himself took your place and shed His blood so you can be preserved. Why do you choose to believe otherwise because of pains, pasts, inadequacies, disappointments, failures, or unanswered prayers?

Angels marvel at such worth and honor God bestowed on mankind (Psalms 8:4), but it’s so sad we do not see ourselves that way. Now this isn't some self-glorifying stunt. It is simply making the name your Maker calls you the loudest amidst the clangs and chimes of every other name vying for your prestigious attention.

Lastly, a significant Easter lesson from the story of the woman and her alabaster box is this: she brought what she could offer, regardless of what people were saying.

She reasoned, “If Jesus is who He says He is, He can take what I have that causes me so much shame and give me what He has that gives Him so much boldness”. She literally shut her ears to the noises and labels of men and her world and left it wide open for the One whose words mattered the most(Matthew 26:13).

This same posture should be adopted by us this holy week if we really seek to reclaim our identity in God. The only way we can participate in what Jesus has done is by believing that there is a portion for us in what He did, and we go ahead, like the woman with the alabaster box, to exchange our lowly estates for His high calling.

Mary gave her box of alabaster, and Jesus gave His life—more like, the highest gift you can think someone can gift a person. It is only reasonable for us to obey the injunction in Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (New International Version)

(This is verse 1-2 in the Message translation)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Jesus gave His life and shed His blood for mankind. It will be unreasonable for us to just celebrate Easter without deeply thinking about what the actions of Easter mean and how they(death, burial, resurrection), affect us.

Jesus has a stake in your life. If He gave His for you, it is because He wants to start living through you.

That is how valuable you are. God paid the ultimate price so you can become His abode, and an extension of His hands and feet on earth. That is your worth, so live as such. When you begin to live from this viewpoint, it changes how you view your past, people, and circumstances. It redefines your purpose for existence and gives you a certain future — an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11).

Things begin to happen for you, not to you, and every minute or meeting with people or situations is an opportunity to spread the fragrance of this perspective/understanding you have received about mankind in God, their Creator.

I'll close out with this scripture

Romans 8:31-39 (New Living Translation)

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[a]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In our next post, we'll be taking the second part of “Beauty Will Save the World”. Read the first part here.

Happy Easter (Think I'll still be saying so by next post😗)

I'll see you soon,

Always with love,

Ada-Helen

P.S: I had a tough time deciding what to call this piece. I guess you should help me.