The Beauty of Brokenness
Notes
Transcript
Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
Introduction
Introduction
What is true, authentic worship? What does worship look like?
When we hear that word, worship, we think of a lot of things. Probably a song, or a prayer, or a hymn. All of these are wonderful, but they are simply byproducts of worship.
Worship begins internally and makes its way outside. How many know we can sing a wonderful hymn, and yet not truly be worshipping.
The woman found in our text this morning is a portrait of what true worship looks like.
The most authentic portrait of worship is found in the story of this simple woman and her alabaster box.
1. Her Past
1. Her Past
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,
There are many interpretations of exactly what this woman’s past looked like.
(Prostitute)
One thing is certain, it wasn’t clean - she was a sinner indeed. The text makes sure we know that.
The Pharisees saw who she was and knew exactly who she was, where she had been, what she had done.
See man will do that… man likes to keep a record. Man likes to keep a watch on you, keep a list of your offences.
Their response is “If HE only knew...” (v. 39) --- Little did they know that HE knew exactly who she was.
Her past was no secret to Jesus. He knew where she had been, what she had done, He knew all those things.
See here’s their problem… they got it wrong.
V. 39 says “She IS a sinner...” She is one, currently, in man’s book.
Yet, v. 37 rightly tells us that “she WAS a sinner...” (PAST TENSE)
Oh yes, she WAS a sinner. She WAS the prostitute, She WAS the harlot, She WAS the reprobate… But not anymore.
How can that be? Oh she came in contact with a man named Jesus. She got a hold of the Good Shepherd.
Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd, Peter called him the Chief Shepherd, John said He was the Great Shepherd.
BUT, ol David said it best when he said “The LORD is MY shepherd.” ‘Cause it doesnt do you any good for Him the be the Good Shepherd if He ain’t YOUR shepherd this morning.
How many of us have a past like this woman? How many of us have sinned like this woman has sinned. I’d like to identify with the great heroes of the faith seen throughout Scripture, but if truth be told this morning I probably look more like this lowly sinful wretched woman than I do any of the heroes of the faith.
2. Her Possession
2. Her Possession
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,
She brings her “alabaster” box - oh don’t miss this.
Don’t miss the significance of what this woman was doing here this morning.
For us to grasp just how significant this would’ve been, we have to have a basic understanding of what an alabaster box is.
Alabaster is a rare stone, like marble. It was very expensive. It was used for its preservative nature.
Anything you put in alabaster had to be soemthing of great value.
Traditionally, a father/mother would gift there daughter an alabaster box as she grew into a woman. In this box was a very costly perfume called spikenard. Only seen here, and Song of Solomon. It was to be kept for her entire life, and then used at death to annoint the corpse rather than embalm it. This was done to honor the death, because it would cover the stench of decay.
The cost of the alabaster box was equal to today’s $70-100K. However, it’s worth wasn’t only in its monetary value, but also in its heirloom value. Someone only ever had one alabaster box for their whole life.
It was completely sealed in the box, and the only way to get down to this valued substance was to absolutely break open the box - never to be repaired again.
You could not gather it back up, it was completely irreversible.
The alabaster box, with all of its pomp and glory represents the most treasured and valued thing in this woman’s life. She is a woman of the streets, she has a poor reputation, she does not have money, she doesn’t have fame, nor fortune.
All she has is this alabaster box, in it is all of her worth, all of her self, all of her identity - all of her value is tied up into this alabaster box.
And what does she do???
3. Her Passion
3. Her Passion
and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
She breaks open her box, and pours everything she has out onto Jesus.
And in the quietness of this moment, realizing she is a sinner, realizing she is poor and destitute.
Realizing that she, in her own self, can do nothing for herself.
Realizing that what she valued most didn’t any longer belong to herself, but it belonged to Jesus.
She brought all of it to His feet, and began to pour it all out onto Him.
She takes this box, which represents herself, and literally breaks it open to pour it on the feet of her Savior.
She begins to weep, remembering the days of sorrow, and nights of shame. She begins to pour out all of her grief, all of her iniquity, all of her sadness onto His feet.
And she wipes His feet with her hair, this is a show of humility, and she lowers herself to form of a servant at the feet of a King.
This is what worship is - when we get at the feet of Jesus and pour all of ouselves out to Him.
She didn't come with a fancy song, she didn;t come with her shoes shines, and her hair perfect, in her Sunday best with a smle on her face. No, she got real with her Savior and she completely destituted herself in His presence.
She begins to worship Her savior, not for any other reason than that He is worthy of it, He is worthy of it.
He’s worthy of our worship this morning.
I don’t know what your alabaster box is this morning. I don’t know what you’ve been hoarding, I don’t know what you’ve kept hidden from the world.
I don’t know the tears you’ve cried in the midnight hour when not a soul is watching. I don’t know what the past has damaged you with.
I don’t know what kind of hurt you have experienced, or what kind of trial you are facing right now.
I don’t know what your alabaster box holds, but I can tell you this… He does.
And His invitation to you is the same as this woman’s - He said (Matthew 11:28) “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
The Pharisees scoffed at her, for they didn’t understand what Jesus had done.
But Jesus embraces her, redeems her, and loves her.
Now we see beauty in the brokenness of this woman’s alabaster box.
Are you broken this morning? Good, He gladly receives broken worship.
Only He can pick up broken pieces, and put together a beauitful masterpiece.
Invitation
Invitation
Come now, I think there are plenty of us in the building this morning that need to bring our broken hearts, broken lives, broken worship, our broken alabaster boxes to Jesus this morning, and just weep at His feet. There’s restoration to be found at the feet of our Savior. Notice, Mary worships at Jesus’s feet with tears, she then mourns at Jesus’s feet at the Cross, but thanks be unto God - she rejoices at the feet of Jesus when He rose from the grave. Let this hope be in you as well, coem to this altar and get help from The Lord today. It could be that you don;t even know Jesus as your Savior today, come receive Him, and He will glady receive you.