Sermon Title: BROKEN AND BEAUTIFUL
Sermon Text: MARK 14:1-9
Sermon Series: THE PASSION NARRATIVE: FROM BETRAYAL TO THE CROSS
By: PTR NIC SY
Mark 14:1-9 ESV
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill himfor they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that?For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her.But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me.She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
SERMON NOTES
I. WHAT YOU HOARD, YOU HOLD
(The jar speaks about your treasure)
What we protect reveals what we treasure.
Reflect: What are you carrying? And who are you carrying it for?
What you refuse to break reveals what you’ve decided to worship.
II. NO FRAGRANCE WITHOUT THE FRACTURE
(The jar speaks about your surrender)
broke | Greek: suntribó | “to crush completely, to shatter, to break in pieces.”
The act of breaking was the act of total surrender. The container had to cease to be a container in order to fulfill its purpose.
scold | Greek: embrimaomai | “to have indignation on, to sternly enjoin.”
“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.” (C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity)
God is not looking for well-preserved containers. He is looking for broken ones.
Reflect: What is the thing you’ve been carrying to the table that you haven’t yet been willing to break open and pour out?
You can’t pour out what you’re still trying to preserve.
III. THE SMELL THAT OUTLASTED THE SCANDAL
(The jar speaks about your legacy)
The things you pour out for Jesus will outlast everything you tried to hold onto.
The people who leave the most lasting fragrance in the world are almost never the ones who were trying to leave a legacy.
Reflect: What does your life smell like?