The Alabaster Box

Alabaster is a smooth cream colored stone used to make containers for perfume and ointment. The alabaster box in the Bible was a flask with a long, thin neck that was broken to release the contents. The Student Bible Dictionary (2000). Pictured is a replica.

The Book of Luke chapter 7:36-39 gives an awesome account of a woman, said to be a sinner, who saw Jesus at the home of a Pharisee sitting and eating dinner. She stood behind Him crying and then began to kneel to wash His feet with her tears while drying them with her hair. She then kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
The fragrant oil was released by breaking the alabaster box at the feet of Jesus. This oil that the woman released was precious and expensive perfume. This was her sacrifice at the feet of the Master.
Oil represents anointing. The anointing of God is very precious and costly. It is precious because it enables us to do the work of the Kingdom of God; we are anointed usually with the pouring of oil which symbolizes that we have been chosen by God to complete a specific and unique task. It is costly because we pay with our lives; becoming separated from the world’s system and separated unto a holy calling—one that requires that we die spiritually to our carnal agenda.
What did it cost this woman to approach the holiness of the Messiah amongst the crowd? To become anointed one must pay a price, remember? How long did it take her to accumulate the contents in the flask? How desperate did she have to become in order to rid herself of the costly fragrance in exchange for worship at the feet of the King of kings?
Everyday we press precious oil into our little treasure box as we deal with the trials of this life. We live with frustrations and disappointments becoming fatigued by the weight of it all when all we have to do is break open the contents of our alabaster box at the feet of Jesus for healing. Pressing through the crowd of naysayers and into the presence of the One who understands the cost of our praise is where new life begins.
Now lift your hands and your heart and give it all to God....