14:3 "And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,a as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she
broke the flask
and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denariib and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
"She broke the flask."
This was probably her most prized possession--her "one special thing," that she had always kept for herself. Many sermons have been preached about her gift, but the thing that struck me as I read this was that she broke the flask. I asked myself "why was that mentioned? When I thought about it, it was obvious. Once the flask was broken, she couldn't go back. She had to lavish all of her most precious thing in this world, to literally "waste all of it" on Jesus. It was reckless. It was beautiful. That's the point. Sometimes, if you don't do it all, you won't do it at all. If you don't "break the flask" and dump the contents, you won't do anything. "Breaking the flask" was her way of forcing herself to give all of the best thing she had in this world to the Lord. He didn't order her to do it. She didn't have to. She did it because she cared for Him.
Let's be like her. No holding back. All for him.
"Joyful recklessness."
