The Alabaster Box

You might have already heard about the woman with the Alabaster box, or maybe you haven't. Her story is found in Luke 7:36-50, but I'll give an overview here. Jesus had been invited to eat at the house of a hoity-toity man (Lucky him. *eye roll*) They'd just gotten seated at the table for their meal, when their meal was rudely interupted by "a woman who had lived a sinful life." She didn't come in to seduce the men, or to convince them to sin like her....

She threw herself at Jesus's feet, and began to weep. She washed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and began to kiss them and anoint them with perfume she brought in a box made out of alabaster. She is the greatest example of humility I've ever seen...

The other men in the room began to mutter and become offended. They doubted his power, because he let a woman so sinful touch him. I mean, if he were so powerful, wouldn't he have KNOWN she was a sinner?

Jesus began to compare Simon the Pharasee (the hoity-toity who'd invited him to eat there) to this woman.

Simon, you didn't even give me some water to rinse my feet off with when I entered your house. This woman wept at my feet, and washed my feet with her TEARS.
You did not give me the customary greeting of a kiss, but this woman will not quit kissing MY FEET.
You did not put oil on my head, but this woman poured her perfume ON MY FEET.

Jesus explained that he forgave her... she had done many things wrong, but that didn't make her trash to him... it made her someone who would love him that much deeper, because so much had been forgiven. Simon, on the other hand, did not see his sin... he considered himself having done so little wrong, that forgiveness meant next to nothing to him.

Psalm 51:17 says: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

I think Simon must not have read that verse lol He was so caught up in being "holy" by obeying rules, that he missed the heart of God.

A wierd note that I found today, that brought this scripture to my mind: Alabaster (what her perfume container was made out of), comes from either calcite or gypsum, both of which come from CAVES. You can see a picture of a gypsum formation here.