Mark 14:3
And while He (Jesus) was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure Nard and she broke the vial and poured it over His head.
This Alabaster vial contained a perfume know as Nard or Spikenard that was one of the most costly perfumes that anyone could possess during that time of biblical history. History also tells us that the oil from this perfume was also used as a healing oil for the body, a palliative care that could be taken to help relieve pain and ease the transition from life to death and also used as one of the ingredients the priests used in the Holy anointing oil for the temple.
Let's look at this word "Costly" and what it means: Expensive and valuable, but another facet or meaning of this word that I want to bring out is, if something is valuable enough to you, important or a priority there will always be involved a great deal of effort, time and sacrifice on your part to accomplish or show just how valuable something or someone is.
And this is exactly what she did, she lavished her love on Jesus and she gave Him her most valuable possession and didn't hold anything back. Let me ask you a question? Are you willing to give to Jesus that valuable possession that you possess? And what is this that you possess that He wants? Your love and your worship. So when we lavish something on someone the dictionary says that: We are giving in excess to the point of being extravagant. This is how Jesus wants us to worship Him, to love Him and pour ourselves out to Him and hold nothing back. He wants us to surrender to Him, put our faith and trust in Him and not to hold anything or any part of us from Him.
This woman with the alabaster vial could have only poured a few drops on Jesus because it was the custom of that day to pour only a few drops of perfume on the head of a guest when they arrived at a house or when they sat down to a meal. As Jesus reclined there during the meal at Simon's home it was not just a few drops that she poured on His head, it was the whole vial....she gave extravagantly all that she had.
We know that the anointings that were applied to Jesus body were symbolic acts that were to help in the preparation of His soon death and in the burial process that He would experience in a matter of hours. This woman didn't even realize how her act of love was so timed and orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. Even those that were with Jesus that night in Simon's home and those that followed Him understand the depth of what He would soon endure. In a matter of hours He would die so He could accomplish and make available for us,(through the death of His flesh that was to be in the natural), so the way could be opened for us in the spirit.
Not only did Jesus break through the veil of His flesh that limited Him as it does us, but on the day of His resurrection it was at that moment in time and eternity that He broke through the "Realm of the flesh" and into the "Realm of the Spirit". He stepped out of death (the flesh) and into life. And so because of that unselfish act of love that Jesus accomplished for us in His death, He made it possible for us to "Breakthrough the veil of our flesh". The flesh with all of it limitations that have affected the way we think, act, respond and begin to walk in "Freedom" and "Victory".
These limitations are not only our fleshly nature that wants to control, but they are areas in our thought life, our hearts and wounds of the soul that have been veiled by the enemy. The acts of sin and the weaknesses of the flesh have caused us to be limited in certain areas of our lives and we're not able to grow or mature into the character of Christ.
And so in the same way that Christ has poured out the Holy Spirit on us, we are to pour out to others from the overflow of the Spirit with words of encouragement, hope, healing, restoration, deliverance and speak words of life to those who are going through the "Breaking Process".
Blessings
Next week Part III
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