Mark 14:3 ¶ 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.
No one is ever excited about bad times but let’s face it, often our worst times give birth to our best times. That is probably true in Mary’s case. In John 11 she is struggling with the sudden death of her beloved brother Lazarus. In John 12 Mary is caught up in broken hearted worship. Sometimes we have to go to the depths of despair before we discover what we really believe and what we really value. Mary’s broken heart at the death of her brother gave way to broken hearted worship as she anointed Jesus body for burial. In many ways we never discover worship until we experience the power of a broken heart. Here is how Jonathan Edwards describes this passage.
“Mary poured forth this precious ointment on Christ out of a broken box. So true grace flows out of a broken [heart]…True Christian grace and divine love always flows out of a broken heart, an heart broken with a sense {of sin}. And the heart of a saint never sends forth such a sweet savor as when it is most broken and contrite… This admirably represents the excellent frame that a believer is in {when of a broken heart}. In this also the external act of the woman in the text was a representation of what was then in her heart. By what the evangelist John informs us, we learn that the deed not only {touched} his head but {also} his feet. One thing showed by this was her brokenness of heart. Thus is livelily represented to us what the love and what the joys of a true Christian soul are.”
As Mary washed Jesus feet with her hair and her tears she begin to see even more clearly the beauty of redemption, Christ would die for her. It was Mary’s sins that were being taken to the cross. This was too much to bare, her heart began to gush with a fragrance sweeter than the spikenard she was pouring on His head and feet. This fragrance flowing from heart was the aroma of a broken heart.