Let Us Break the Jar of Alabaster in Our Lives

From: September 9 – 15, 2008 Study: # 557 TOPIC: “Let Us Break the Jar of Alabaster in Our Lives” John 12:1-8

John 12:1-8 Judas was called to be an apostle, but he did not want to give Jesus what belonged to Him at all. Judas spent a couple of years walking beside the Master, but for him Jesus was no longer the one who had called him; he had lost the vision on how to look at Jesus and that is very dangerous. Men become too attached to this world and give to other men what they have, but they give nothing to Jesus. This is what happens to many who are called by Jesus, and no longer see Him in the same way as the day that they came to Christ. When this is lost it is easy to fall as Judas did. Matthew 26:6 The appearance of charity frequently serves to cover and hide covetousness! It seemed that Judas cared about the poor, but what was really in him was covetousness. Jesus had trusted Judas, He handed him a bag with all their money, probably because He wanted to save him. Jesus' heart was powerful in love and generosity. As in the case of Judas, many deprive God from receiving what belongs to Him with a charitable excuse and they keep it for themselves. There is no intention of giving to the poor or to any other worthy cause. Judas degraded himself before Jesus, and ever since he was known as a traitor by Christians and impious for that degradation and for wanting to take what didn't belong to him. We should give to God the best of us. Sometimes it seems that we give, but we complain. If we are going to give let us do it with intensity and without a reproach. When God gives us the opportunity to administrate, He doesn’t expect us to break the rules contained in the Holy Scriptures. When we make bad decisions as Judas did, it is because behind everything there is the gravity of covetousness; God is deprived from what belongs to Him and this is a sin. God has given us gifts and ministries according to each ones capacity, but we must understand that everything that has been given to us is to serve Him; under no circumstance should we see this for us. We can see this in the service to the Lord. The more God corrects us and reprimands us the more we will fear God. When a man falls, it is not known how great this evilness will be seen before this whole world. It was time for Jesus to die for our lives. And there was a woman, Mary who was willing to do God’s will; she had to anoint the body of Jesus. We have to be prepared when Jesus calls us to do what He wants. That certain day, Mary did God’s will. It didn’t matter what everyone else thought because she could be rejected by the other ones. She wouldn’t recover her expensive perfume and her reputation was forbidden. But, for her it was like a farewell to Jesus, physically, and for that reason she didn't think or reason what she was about to lose because she had the Master right before her, to love her. She was in the disposition of losing her personal pride. She was willing to lose everything for Jesus, she didn't add but rather she subtracted for her. We must be careful, in our vanity, not to give God what belongs to Him thinking that we are losing. When we give ourselves to God we must not think that there is loss because He becomes a part of everything we have. When we converted it was to surrender all our service to God. Sometimes, when we provide a service to someone, we think that it is too much or too little what we do, but to serve a table has great value, it is not a discredit. It was the last supper with Jesus; it was as if Mary knew it. For that reason she broke the jar of alabaster, she spilled all of it, without leaving a drop. The problem is when we reserve something for ourselves. Beloved, let us not keep anything planning without satisfying us. The man and the woman of

God say: "enough" because with God we don't have any losses but profits, but when we have reserves then we begin to have losses. Let us break our jars to give Jesus the best of our lives. For Mary there was enough ointment to anoint the Lord, there were no narrowness in her. Those who really love Jesus will put at their feet the best that they possess; everything. Some regrettably, have given to God their own and personal vanity. We should put everything to his feet. Let us surrender our whole life to Jesus. There are things that we need to surrender. Are we the columns were Jesus can lean and continue building upon us? We have to be careful. Let us be like Mary. If we are like Mary we won’t reserve anything either. We have to break what is most precious to us because it is Jesus who revealed Himself to us. Love is not love if we calculate meticulously everything that we give. Let us not calculate what we surrender to God. We can see love and humbleness in Mary, because it was normal in those days to anoint the head, but she anointed His feet. When one loves one can see the naturalization of love. She was interrupting what was already established. She didn’t consider the consequences or what was going to happen afterwards. It didn’t matter to her what they would say or think. If in our lives we give Jesus the spot that belongs to Him our spiritual home will be filled with perfume. There is nothing better than to have the aroma of our sanctity wherever we move. Which is our glory? Mary demonstrated her love for Jesus with her own life. This remained in memory as an example for our lives. Jesus needs from us that we love him with all our strength. He wants our lives completely without any reservations. No one took Jesus life by force but He surrendered it freely because He was grateful to do this. He preferred to suffer for us. How wonderful is the love of our Master! At first sight, it can seem to us impossible that somebody who followed Christ during three years, who heard His teachings, received repeatedly kindness from His part, that was an apostle, at the end resulted as corrupted of heart. Judas showed clearly that this can result this way in any other person. We must take care of our hearts so that it never corrupts and as Mary we give the best to the Lord without reserves and to not wait anything in exchange. Amen.