Mary, who already loved Jesus and was now even more grateful to him for raising her brother, brought with her an alabaster jar of sweet-smelling ointment worth a year’s wages. She dumped it on his head and his feet, and then wiped his feet with her hair.

How much do you make in a year? $25,000? $150,000? $1,000,000? In any case, would you be willing to part with that much just to show Jesus how much you love him? One wealthy young man’s answer to that question would have been a solid, “No.” (Mark 10:21-22)

The priests and kings of old were inaugurated into their positions by being anointed with oil. By means of revelation, Mary knew that Jesus was both the Highest Priest and King of kings. Her anointing was an acknowledgement of both his identity (“Christ” means “the Anointed One”) as well as his destiny (to die on a cross). Jesus is King, and the means by which we enter his kingship is his sacrifice. “The path into his kingdom passes through the cross.”

In order to empty its contents, the neck of a jar of this type had to be broken. It didn’t have a twist top, so one couldn’t preserve any leftover ointment once it was opened. Mary’s was no slow-drip worship. She emptied the entire container on him! To her, it was all or not at all.

[Excerpted from: Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and Their Churches, which you can get at the same time as supporting an essential ministry in San Francisco’s Tenderloin called Youth With a Mission. Just click on the “Latest Book” tab and you’re off to the races to get the book and help YWAM pay off their property!]