Total Surrender

Luke 9:²⁴ “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Mark 14:³ “…She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.” (emphasis added). Unlike this woman, many people come to Jesus with this beautiful jar of expensive oil. But they open it only a little and pour small on Jesus. “Jesus should be happy and grateful, after all I am giving Him something valuable”, they think. Jesus said concerning this woman that everywhere the gospel is preached, this woman’s story will be mentioned. And the lesson here is, she did not just open the jar and administer some on Jesus. She broke it! Breaking it means no going back. Her statement before heaven was, “I am not storing it up anymore”. Many of us have been storing up the value that God has put in us. You need to break it open.

You are trying, you have been opening it, and we have been experiencing some of the fragrance of the beauty of the content of your life. But God is saying it is time to break it open. He that keeps his life will lose it but he that loses his life for my sake, Jesus says, will find it. She chose to break it open. We all have a choice. This lady had a history. She was described as a sinful woman. This is not talking about the Adamic sin that even the writer is guilty of. To describe her as a sinful woman in that culture meant that her ways were not pure, and it was public knowledge. But when you come to God, He does not judge you, and see you like every other person does. And when you come to God, you must ignore every other person and focus only on Jesus. That was what this woman did.

Imagine when she was coming closer, imagine the gossip that will have been going on. Even her customers were there. In fact, another translation says that the people were so upset. They said, “If this man were truly a prophet, he would know that this woman’s ways are not pure” (paraphrased). But Jesus ignored them. This woman ignored them and broke it open. Many of you need to break that jar. You have just been opening the lid. But you need to smash it. You need to give complete surrender to God, the God of your salvation. Do I get an Amen?

Mark 14:⁴ “Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” (emphasis added). The truth is to them it was a waste, but to her it was not a waste. To them it was a waste, but to her it was pure love, it was worship. Many times, when you pour your love on God, the people that are in your life will interpret it as wasteful. Why spend that much money on this when you can do better things? And the things they said were pious, “take care of the poor”. You cannot have any defence against that, at least they thought. In fact, it was a year’s wage. Similar to how we buy stocks and real estate now, back in the day they use to buy expensive perfume to store. To them it was a waste, but to her it was pure love and worship.

Prayer (song): Like oil upon your feet. Like wine for you to drink. Like water from my heart. I pour my love on you. If praise is like perfume, I’ll lavish mine on you… Amen!