Extravagant Love

God’s love for us isn’t a love that tiptoes or calculates. It breaks things open, not to destroy, but to unveil the raw, vulnerable beauty within. 

Matthew 22:37 instructs us to love God with every passion of our hearts, with all the strength of our being, and with every thought within us. Jesus said this is the great and supreme commandment. If you get that right in your life, everything else falls into place - every decision, every step, every breath aligns with that wild, uncontainable love.

Extravagant love breaks things. It breaks expectations, traditions, fears, pride, monotony. It breaks silence and demands expression. It breaks routine, isolation, even churches, what they look like, how they breathe. It’s broken our church, because loving God isn’t just our mission - it’s our heartbeat, our obsession. Everything else, every song we sing, every outreach we launch, every tear we shed, flows from that passion. It’s a force that upends the mundane and pulls us into a life that’s vivid and alive.

Two moments in Scripture shock me with their divine beauty and call me to love in the same untamed way. These aren’t tales to admire from a distance - they’re not just history, they’re invitations.

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar

Luke 7:36-50

Picture it: a Pharisee’s house, thick with the stench of self-righteousness. Simeon, the host, reclines with Jesus, his eyes narrow, his mind a ledger of judgment. Then she enters - uninvited, unnamed, undignified, unforgettable. A prostitute. A wreck of a woman, her life a shattered shell, stained by sin but still bearing God’s image. Her passport to Jesus’ feet isn’t wealth or status - it’s her tears, her vulnerability, her brokenness. A life surrendered is her offering.

She carries an alabaster jar, heavy with perfume that cost her every last coin - a year’s wages, every shred of pride. She doesn’t bring a few drops. She breaks the seal open and pours it all out. 

Extravagant love doesn’t hold back - it breaks things wide open. The jar cracks, and with it, her heart breaks right open. Fragrance floods the room, a scent so rich it drowns the murmurs of disdain. Tears pour from her eyes, a beautiful waterfall washing Jesus’ feet. She unbinds her hair - her glory, her crown, and scandalously, wipes His feet, kissing them again and again, her lips pouring out adoration.

The room erupts in silent fury. Simon sneers, “If this man were a prophet, he’d know what filth touches him.” But Jesus? He sees her. He doesn’t recoil - He’s awash in her worship. “Simon,” He says, voice steady as stone, “her sins are many and they are forgiven.” That’s why she loves like this. Extravagantly forgiven, extravagantly she loves. Her jar wasn’t just perfume - it was her soul, poured out in a deluge of gratitude. She didn’t care who stared, who judged. She broke everything - her treasure, her dignity, her fear - because Jesus was worth it.  

And here’s the stunner: she’s not just a story. She’s us. Every tear she shed, every crack in that jar, whispers our own invitation: What will you break open for Him? What pride, what comfort, what smallness, what hidden room of your heart will you shatter to spill your love at His feet?

Jesus Broken Open for Us

John 19:34

Now turn your eyes to Calvary, a blood-soaked cross. Jesus hangs there, His mission finished, His body a ruin. 

Extravagant love breaks things, and here it breaks Him. A soldier’s spear pierces His side, and what spills out isn’t mere blood and water - it’s the very life of God. Some say the spear ruptured His heart and lungs. But it’s infinitely more. Like that alabaster jar, the heart of Jesus is broken open - not by accident, but by design.

What pours out of God, your Creator? A flood of extravagant love. The blood gushes, a torrent that drowns every sin, every shame, every chain - the price of your forgiveness and freedom. 

The water flows, symbolising the promise of a wellspring of life that washes you, fills you, remakes you - the Holy Spirit’s gift. This isn’t a polite gesture. This is God shattering Himself. Not a drop held back, not a breath spared. His heart bursts, His side splits, and the universe trembles as love pours out - wild, costly, unstoppable.

He breaks Himself because you are worth it to Him. Sit there a moment. Let it sink in. The King of glory, broken like a jar, spilling His everything - for you. It’s jaw-dropping. It’s unbearable. It’s beautiful beyond words. This is the love that anchors us, the love that frees us, the love that calls us to respond.

Our Call to Break Open

Here’s the breathtaking truth: we can love like this because He loved us first. She broke her jar in worship. He broke His body in sacrifice. Every time you break open your heart, your life, you’re not just giving - you’re surrendering, bit by bit, shouting back to the cross, “You’re worth it, Yeshua. Your extravagant love deserves mine.”  

We self-preserve. We watch, we wait. We don’t want to embarrass ourselves. We’re fearful, reserved. Her alabaster jar had a seal on it - that seal had to be deliberately broken. So do ours. 

Let’s not hold back. Let’s break our jars - shatter our smallness, spill our everything - because the One who broke Himself for us is worthy of nothing less. 

Let extravagant love flow, not as a trickle, but as a flood, a force that redefines us, our churches, our world.