Will You Break Your Box?

By DR. TOM SEXTON

Pastor, Gulf Coast Baptist Church, Cape Coral, Florida

“And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

“And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

“For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

“And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

“For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

“She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”—Mark 14:3–9.

This incident took place during the last week of our Lord’s earthly ministry. In just a few days He would be crucified, so He was trying to prepare His disciples for what was ahead. He spoke to them on various occasions about this.

The first time He mentioned going to Calvary to die, Simon Peter rebuked Him; and for that, the Lord Jesus said to him, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Mark 8:33).

Ever since I first read that statement, I’ve been suspicious about those who say to me, “I’m behind you, Preacher.” That’s where the Devil is, and I don’t want people back there with him on his team. I want people to get out here beside me where we’ll both be shot!

On that first occasion, He was not able to teach them great truth. Then on another occasion He talked about Calvary, and James and John via their mother asked for the best seats in the kingdom.

“Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

“But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask.”—Matt. 20:21,22.

But now Jesus is at Simon the leper’s house in Bethany. This was an unusual place for Him to be. Simon is cleansed and home with his family, and he is holding a feast. Sitting at the table with the Lord Jesus is not just Simon the leper but “Lazarus…which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead” (John 12:1).

Wouldn’t that have been something to see? Both the cleansed leper and the resurrected Lazarus were sitting with Jesus and enjoying fellowship with one another.

Then, entering from another room, comes a woman named Mary. She has an alabaster box full of ointment in her hands, “and she brake the box, and poured it on his head” (Mark 14:3). Then “Mary…anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment” (John 12:3). What a night!

Mary did something that God mightily used, and I want you to think about breaking your own alabaster box. Nothing ever gets done for God without somebody’s breaking an alabaster box and taking care of what needs to be done.

The Bible says that the Lord Jesus was going down to Galilee to minister to the people there and do a great work.

“He went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,

“And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,

“And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.”—Luke 8:1–3.

These women made it possible for the Lord Jesus to do something in Galilee. God is always looking for those who will break their alabaster box and do great and mighty things for God with their lives.

I want to take a few minutes to talk about Mary.

I. WHY DID MARY BREAK THE ALABASTER BOX?

This ointment inside the alabaster box was worth at that time almost a year’s salary for a man and possibly three years’ salary for a woman. Why would Mary take this expensive ointment and pour it on Jesus?

Because of What Jesus Had Done for Her

She did it because she loved Jesus because of what He had done for her. The Lord had allowed a tragedy to come into the lives of Mary; her brother, Lazarus; and her sister, Martha.

Lazarus became so ill that there was nothing that the doctors could do to help him, so Mary and Martha sent for Jesus. “When he [Jesus] had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was” (John 11:6).

Jesus tarried His going to see Lazarus, and finally Lazarus died. That’s a hard thing to understand if you are Mary and Martha waiting on the Lord.

Have you ever had the Lord delay His coming in your life? Has something come into your life that was so serious and needful that you couldn’t fix it; and when you prayed, nothing happened; it seemed as if Heaven was closed? Have you ever been disappointed with the way the Lord worked in your life?

We’ve all experienced God’s delays, and we question what He is doing. But God had a plan and a purpose in Lazarus’ sickness and his death. When the Lord Jesus came, He spoke to Martha first. Mary was still inside the house, and Martha called her and said, “The Master is come, and calleth for thee” (vs. 28).

One of the reasons that the Lord Jesus delayed His coming to Mary and Martha’s house was that He was trying to work in Mary’s life.

I thank God that there was a time when He brought some things into my life that I could not fix myself. I thank God that there was a day in my life when the Master came and ‘called for me.’ I am glad that there was a day when I saw the need of Jesus Christ in my life, when I realized that I was a lost sinner on my way to a Devil’s Hell, when I heard the good news of the Gospel and I turned my life over to Christ and trusted Him as my Saviour. I thank God that I am now saved and on my way to Heaven.

If you have ever had God work in your life to get you to the place where you surrendered to Him, then you can understand why the Lord worked this way in Mary’s life.

Mary loved Jesus for what He had done in her life. Aren’t you glad that He still works in our lives? Aren’t you glad that He stops us and gets our attention? If He didn’t work in circumstances in our lives, sometimes we would be far away from what He wanted us to do. But He is as much in disturbances and circumstances as He is in deliverances.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 143:8: “Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”

Dear friend, there are times when the Lord brings things into our lives to get our attention, and that’s how He was working in Mary’s life. He got her attention and then changed the direction of her life. “The Master is come, and calleth for thee.”

Maybe you are now going through some things in your life, and you wonder what is happening. Maybe the Lord is trying to get your attention.

Because of What Jesus Had Done for Her Family

Her brother had gotten so sick that he had died—you can’t get any worse than that—and they buried him. When the Lord Jesus came, Mary said, ‘If You’d have been here, Lazarus would not have died!’

Jesus reminded her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). Then Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus.

“He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

“And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”—Vss. 43,44.

What a day that was when God brought Mary’s brother back to life!

I thank God for what He has brought into my life. Can you imagine God’s saving a thirteen-year-old boy named Clarence Sexton; then calling him to preach; then saving his brother, Tom Sexton; and their mother and sisters and then their pop? How good God is to do that for the Sexton family! What a Saviour we have!

We ought to love Him enough to break our alabaster box because of what He has done for us and what He has done for our families. Whole families are on their way to Heaven because of what the Lord has done for them! God can save your whole household.

The apostle Paul and Silas gave this testimony to the jailer when he asked,“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”—Acts 16:30,31.

If your family is not saved, you ought to get serious about getting them saved and claim this promise of God that Paul gave to the jailer. Paul could make that statement with conviction because before he got saved, he had family members who were already saved.

“Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.”—Rom. 16:7.

Paul’s sister prayed that God might save her brother. At that time he was called Saul, and he was a tough case. It wasn’t easy to get his attention. So she prayed and asked God to do something, and God reached down on the road to Damascus and got Saul’s attention and turned his life around and saved him and then used him mightily.

Later, this same sister’s son “heard of their lying in wait [to kill his uncle Paul, and] he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul” (Acts 23:16).

No wonder Paul could say with certainty, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”!

We need to seize the moment of opportunity to see our family and friends come to know the Lord. We ought to become desperate about our unsaved family members and become desperate about asking God to work in their lives.

I rejoice when people get saved in our church, and we work hard at soul winning.

We had a teenage girl get saved, and she began praying for her father to get saved. He had left her mother and had been gone for three months, but God got hold of his heart, and he got saved. God brought him back home to his family. It should thrill our hearts when we see families getting saved.

Because of What Jesus Had Done for Their Friends in Bethany

“Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.”—John 11:45.

God got their attention! Before Lazarus’ death, can’t you picture Mary and Martha and Lazarus telling their neighbors what God had done in their lives, telling them about the Lord Jesus and pleading with them to trust the Lord? But they rejected what was told to them until one day God brought something into all their lives with which they could not deal, something that only God could fix.

Jesus delayed His coming long enough to get everybody’s attention; and then, because His timing was right, the Lord Jesus came and not only brought Lazarus back from the dead, but He also saved their friends in Bethany. And God is still able to save!

“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”—Rom. 10:13.

Mary started thinking about what God had done for her and her family and what He had done in her neighborhood among friends and neighbors, and she could not help but love Jesus. The Holy Spirit put something in her heart to do: she came and broke this alabaster box full of ointment. She didn’t take off the lid and pour out just a little bit; she broke it and poured every drop over the Lord Jesus.

If you know the Saviour, if you know that you are going to Heaven, if you know that you are not going to spend eternity in a Devil’s Hell, if you have had the joy and privilege of seeing your loved ones come to Christ, if you have seen God work in the lives of people you know and love, then, dear friend, you have a reason to break the alabaster box at the Lord Jesus’ feet!

II. WHAT WAS THE CROWD’S REACTION?

It is amazing what they said. In fact, in the three Gospels where this story is told, we get the reactions of three different groups of people.

The Stand-Still-and-Complain Crowd

“Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

“This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.”—John 12:4–6.

We should not be surprised at Judas Iscariot’s reaction, nor should we be surprised that there is a Judas crowd around today. In fact, you have to climb over them to do anything. Every time you get excited about God, every time you start to do something for Him, the Judas crowd won’t like it at all. In fact, they don’t think anything should ever be done for the Lord Jesus.

They think it is terrible when Christians give up a Wednesday night to go to church in the middle of the week. They think it is crazy to give money or time to a ministry.

This crowd doesn’t want anything done.

The Measure-and-Pour Crowd

“Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, “There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. “But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?”—Matt. 26:6–8.

The disciples didn’t mind Mary’s pouring ointment on the Lord Jesus, but they thought she was carried away with it. They thought she was a little too crazy about it. Why not use just a little bit? Why waste it all on Him?

That’s the crowd that knows exactly what their tithe is and that’s it—not one penny beyond that amount. When you say, “Show up on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and visitation night,” they will ask, “How many hours do you want from us, Preacher?”

This crowd will measure out their lives until the trumpet sounds, and this crowd has never done anything great for God! They will take off the alabaster box lid, but they’ll only pour out what is absolutely necessary. They don’t understand what Mary saw or what she got hold of.

This crowd is filled with indignation.

The Turn-Loose-and-Pour Crowd

“[They] sat at the table with him.”—John 12:2.

The crowd that gets it done is the crowd that breaks the alabaster box, the crowd that turns loose of it all and pours it on the Lord Jesus.

One of those sitting at the table was Simon the leper. He’d been cleansed; he was at home with his family; he was enjoying the sweet fellowship of family and friends and especially the Lord Jesus. If he were to comment, he would say, “Break it! Break it! Pour it all on Jesus!”

Lazarus, who had been dead, also sat with Jesus; and if he had spoken up, he would have said, “Mary, give it all to Jesus!”

Those who have been touched by God, those who have been brought back to life, those who have been “quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1)—they are part of this crowd. They say, “Pour it all on Jesus!”

If there was ever a time in your life when you needed the blood of Jesus to cleanse your heart—and every child of God needs that—then you ought to be a part of this crowd.

Every Christian is a part of one of these three crowds: the Judas crowd, the indignant crowd or the break-the-alabaster-box crowd.

There is nothing that should be held back from Jesus. We need to put it all on the Lord.

Through all of this—Mary’s action and the reactions of Judas and the disciples—Jesus had been silent. He was just sitting there. Remember, He had been trying to prepare His disciples for what lay ahead.

He had tried to tell them about Calvary and His death before, but Simon Peter rebuked Him. When He tried to tell them again, James and John, by way of their mother, tried to get the best seats in the kingdom. He must have been wondering how to get their attention on what He wanted to tell them.

III. WHAT WAS JESUS’ REACTION?

There is an interesting statement in Matthew 26:10 that makes you stop and meditate: “When Jesus understood it.…” He was sitting there as the crowds reacted to Mary’s action. Judas made his first comment recorded in the Bible, and the disciples let their opinion be known. Simon the leper and Lazarus who had been dead were sitting at the table with Jesus, watching Him as they smelled this ointment and saw Mary wipe His feet. Throughout all of this, the Lord Jesus was silent.

And then the Word of God says, “When Jesus understood it….” In other words, God revealed it to Him, and He understood it. He understood that God had found someone who had such a love for the Lord Jesus and wanted so much to do something for God that God put this inside her heart. Look at what Jesus did when ‘He understood it.’

Jesus Accepted It

“And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.”—Mark 14:6.

The goal of us Christians ought to be to please God, to be acceptable to Him, pleasing Him with our lives, doing what He wants us to do.

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”—Ps. 19:14.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”—Rom. 12:1,2.

Jesus Appraised It

“She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.”—Mark 14:8.

It was worth something, and He put this price tag on it—Mary had done it all.

Don’t you want to meet the Lord someday and hear Him say, “You have done what you could”? Each one of us is given different abilities, different talents and different things. We have different measures of faith, but it is wonderful to come across a child of God who takes all that God has given him and puts it on the altar. One day that person will hear the Lord Jesus say, “You have done what you could.”

I want to take advantage of the opportunities that God has given me; I want to do with my life all that can be accomplished in my life. That’s the way Mary felt. She wanted to do something for God with her life, and the Lord Jesus said,

“Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.”

“She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.”—Mark 14:6,8.

After accepting it and appraising it, Jesus did something else.

Jesus Anointed It and Used It

“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”—Matt. 26:13.

I’ve always been amazed at what God revealed to women in the Bible and how He used them in a mighty way—here is one of them!

While Judas was whining about the loss of income from Mary’s act, while the disciples were wondering how things were going to work out for them, Mary was waiting on God.

As soon as the Lord put it in her heart, she ran and grabbed up her alabaster box, went back to the table, walked past Judas and the disciples, broke her alabaster box and poured all its contents over Jesus. Then she knelt down on her hands and knees and wiped His feet with her hair.

God has the power to give life to those that are dead in trespasses and sin and to cleanse anybody’s heart. No one is so far gone that God cannot save him or so far away from Him that He can’t cleanse his heart. The blood of Jesus does the work in the hearts of people.

Mary didn’t pour the ointment from the box; she broke the box and poured all of it on Him, and the Bible says that “Jesus understood it.” He realized that Mary saw Calvary and that she understood that Calvary was not a waste; it would be the place of salvation, the place of cleansing. She saw that enough blood would be shed on Calvary to reach the world and that the cleansing blood of Calvary would cleanse a child of God.

Nobody else saw that, not even His disciples; and when Jesus understood that, He anointed it and taught a great lesson.

“When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

“For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.“For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”—Matt. 26:10–13.

This helps us understand the Gospel. The Lord Jesus was able to anoint this act and use it in such a mighty way that for nearly two thousand years this act of love and kindness and dedication has been used to stir the hearts of people to come to Jesus. It has been used to stir the hearts of God’s people to break their alabaster boxes at the feet of Jesus and pour it all on the Lord.

IV. WHAT WAS MARY’S REWARD?

The Lord said, “Tell it! Tell this story!” That’s what I’m doing now because He wants us to see Mary’s reward. I don’t know what it will be like, but I know this: it is going to be exciting!

Can you imagine that one of these days—and I believe it is soon—the Lord is coming? This generation of Christians is closer to the Lord’s second coming than any other generation that has ever lived! That ought to excite you!

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”—I Thess. 4:16–18.

That “shout” is going to change the world! We’re going to get a glorified body and have the mind of Christ. The last person saved is the first one to appear at the judgment seat of Christ, and then we will go all the way back to the first ones saved.

We’re going to see all those that made it possible for us to read this message. I’m going to meet the man who went by a nursing home facility and led my father to the Lord, and we had no idea that he had been saved. Many years after my brother, Clarence, began to preach, that same man came to my brother and said, “I’m the one who led your father to Christ.”

We’re going to see that man, and we’ll see the ones who led him to Christ, and those that led them to Christ, and we’ll work our way back to the disciples.

What a time that’s going to be! No wonder the apostle Paul said, “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Phil. 2:16).

Imagine the celebration that we’re going to have with a glorified body and the mind of Christ and the ability to understand all that took place down through the centuries in order for us to know Jesus! What a day of rejoicing that will be!

Then we’re going to meet Mary. I don’t know what she did with her life. As far as I know, she did not become a missionary, but ‘she did all that she could’—she broke her alabaster box.

Then the Lord Jesus did something so kind and gracious: He challenged everybody who ever preaches the Gospel to tell the story. He loved her so much, and what she did was so powerful that He wanted every man who ever preached to ‘tell this story as a memorial to her.’

What she did that day is not finished. Her act of kindness and dedication is still making an investment this day. Every time this story is mentioned, a reward is being stored up for her, and one of these days she’ll receive her reward, and we’ll see it. I cannot wait to see what God pours on this woman as a result of her one act of love for her Saviour.

V. WILL YOU BREAK YOUR ALABASTER BOX?

This story reminds us that it is so important to do what God puts in our hearts to do. What we do has an effect and an influence on every generation to follow.

Somewhere a handful of people with an alabaster box made your church a reality. Every time that God has ever done anything, somebody has had to break an alabaster box. Can you imagine what would get done in this world if everyone that is saved would, with a grateful heart, bring his alabaster box and break it for the Lord?

The truth of the matter is, many are just like Judas and the disciples who were sitting there at the table that day with Jesus. Simon the leper and Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead, were clueless. But Mary saw it.

What do you see? Do you see the work of God? Do you see that your church is not just a place to meet but that it is a work of God? The Lord puts in the heart what He wants a person to do. What has God put in your heart to do?

Years ago we had a missionary give his testimony in our church. As a ten-year-old boy, he had surrendered at a camp to become a missionary. When he was thirty years old, he was on the mission field in a village, and he met a man who had gotten saved twenty years prior to their meeting. The man said, “The missionary that led me to the Lord knelt down beside me and my family and prayed that God would touch somebody’s heart and that he would come to this village and be a missionary.” Twenty years later his prayers were answered.

God heard those people praying, and He reached over and touched a ten-year-old child’s heart, and he surrendered to become a missionary. That is the way the Lord works.

What is God doing in your life? Has He spoken to you about something? Has He put a desire in your heart to do something? Maybe there is something special you can do for God’s work.

Will you break your alabaster box and pour it on the Lord Jesus? You’ll be glad you did.

Return to the SWORD OF THE LORD Homepage