BROKEN BUT NOT WASTED

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Mark 14:3 “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.”

Here, the Lord Jesus is in the home of a man sharing a meal who was once rejected by society because of his disease. The atmosphere is likely calm, filled with conversation. And then, a woman enters. She doesn’t say a word. In her hands, she carries an alabaster box, a vessel of immense value. This wasn’t just perfume; it was spikenard, an oil so costly it could represent a year’s wages. And in one stunning, decisive act, she breaks it. The sound of that breaking must have silenced the room before the fragrance ever did. In that moment, she poured out everything she had upon the head of her Savior.

This article is a story about being broken, but not wasted.

That beautiful alabaster box was sealed tight. It was designed to preserve, to contain, to hold in the precious oil. The perfume, with all its value and potential, could never fill the room as long as the box remained intact. The purpose therefore of the alabaster box was not just to contain, but to be broken.

How many of us then are living like that alabaster box? Inside all of us, God has placed priceless treasures. Your gifts, your true and unhindered worship, your divine purpose—they are all sealed inside. But they are still in the box. For many of us, it is sealed shut by the hardness of pride, the deep ache of past pain, the paralyzing grip of fear, or the heavy weight of trauma. We hold it all in, protecting what’s inside, but in doing so, we prevent its fragrance from ever being released.

Sometimes, in His infinite love and wisdom, God allows the breaking. He allows life’s pressures, heartaches, problems and trials not to destroy you, but to break open the vessel and release the precious oil He has placed within you. He knows that what is inside you is too valuable to remain contained forever. The breaking is not the end of you; it is the beginning of your true offering. David understood this when he cried out in Psalm 51:17,

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

Do you hear this? God doesn’t despise your brokenness. He doesn’t turn away from your shattered pieces. He receives your broken and contrite heart as a fragrant offering, a worship that is more precious to Him than any unbroken vessel.

As soon as the fragrance of the spikenard filled the air, so did the sound of criticism. The Bible tells us in Mark 14:4,

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

They saw it as a waste. They calculated the cost, they judged the act, and they completely missed the heart behind it.

And so it will be with you. When you finally decide to break your box at the feet of the Lord Jesus, others may misunderstand your sacrifice. They may criticize your total surrender, calling it foolish. They may question your lavish giving, your heartfelt tears, your radical decisions to follow Jesus with everything you have. They will look at your life and call it a waste.

But oh, listen to the voice of your Savior. Listen to the One who sees your heart. The Lord Jesus immediately came to her defense in Mark 14:6, saying,

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

When the world calls it waste, the Lord Jesus calls it worship. When they see a foolish loss, He sees a beautiful work. He cherishes your offering. Your tears are not wasted. Your surrendered dreams are not wasted. Your poured-out life is the most beautiful work He has ever seen.

This woman was not named in Mark’s account. She wasn’t a preacher, a prophet, or an apostle. She held no title. She was, by all accounts, simply a broken woman with a broken box, who gave everything she had in a single moment of profound love. And yet, her simple, broken offering touched the heart of Christ so deeply that He made one of the most astonishing declarations in all of Scripture.

In Mark 14:9, the Lord Jesus says, “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.”

Let that sink into your soul. This unnamed woman’s act of worship would become an eternal memorial, forever intertwined with the Gospel itself. God takes the humble, the unseen, the broken offerings of His children and He makes them eternal memorials in heaven. He doesn’t need your strength; He desires your surrender. He isn’t looking for your perfection; He is looking for your passion. He uses broken people to do the most beautiful things.

When she broke the alabaster box, the fragrance was undeniable. It filled the entire room, changing the very atmosphere. No one present could ignore it. The smell of criticism and judgment was overcome by the sweet perfume of sacrifice.

This is what happens when you allow God to break you. When you break in authentic prayer, when you break in total surrender, when you break in gut-wrenching repentance at His feet, the very fragrance of Christ is released through you. That kind of raw, honest worship affects everyone in the room. It changes the atmosphere of your family. It shifts the environment in your church. It can alter the entire course of your future. Your breaking isn’t a sign of defeat; it is the release of a spiritual fragrance that announces the presence and power of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:15, “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ…” Your life, poured out, becomes a sweet aroma to God that pushes back the darkness.

Right now, you may feel broken inside you. You are broken by the circumstances of life. You may feel wounded by the words and actions of people you trusted. You may feel utterly crushed by loss.

But hear the heart of your Savior tonight: God does not discard the broken—He uses them. The crushing is what releases the anointing. The breaking is what releases the beauty. And I promise you this, your most painful surrender, the thing you think has disqualified you, may very well become your most powerful and life-changing testimony.

So I am encouraging you now to bring your own “alabaster box” to the Lord Jesus. Stop clutching it so tightly. Stop trying to keep it all together. Bring the pain. Bring the past. Bring the shame. Bring the praise that has been locked inside. Bring it all to Him. And right at His feet, I am asking you to do the unthinkable: break it. Surrender it all.

Your breaking is not your ending—it’s your releasing. What’s inside of you, that precious thing God has placed in your heart, is too valuable to stay hidden. Let God pour it out. Let its fragrance fill your place.