In the meantime let us recall what he makes of the wasted life.  “In thinking of the case,” said Seeley. “they had forgotten the woman”—­a common occurrence with those who deal in “cases.”  It was once severely said of the Head of a College that “if he would leave off caring for his students’ souls and care for them, he would do better.”  Jesus does not forget the man in caring for his soul—­he likes him.  He is “the friend of publicans and sinners” (Luke 7:34); he eats and drinks with them (Mark 2:14).  Let us remember again that these were taunts and were meant to sting; they were not conventional phrases.  See how he can enter into the life of a poor creature.  There is the wretched little publican, Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)—­a squalid little figure of a man, whom people despised.  He was used to contempt—­it was the portion of the tax-collector enlisted in Roman service against his own people.  Jesus comes and sees him up in the tree; he instantly realizes what is happening and invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus as a guest; something passes between them without spoken word.  The little man slides down the tree—­not a proceeding that makes for dignity; and then, with all his inches, he stands up before the whole town, that knew him so well, in a new moral grandeur that adds cubits to his stature.  “Half my goods,” he says, “I give to the poor.  If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, he shall have it back fourfold.”  That man belonged to the despised classes.  Jesus came into his life; the man became a new man, a pioneer of Christian generosity.  Again, there is the woman with the alabaster box, the mere possession of which stamped her for what she was.  It was simply a case of the wasted life.  I have long wondered if she meant to give him only some of the ointment.  A little of it would have been a great gift.  But perhaps the lid of the box jammed, and she realized in a moment that it was to be all or nothing—­she drew off her sandal and smashed the box to pieces.  However she broke it, and whatever her reasons, Mark’s words mean that it was thoroughly and finally shivered (Mark 14:3).  Something had happened which made this woman the pioneer of the Christian habit of giving all for Jesus.  The disciples said they had done so (Matt. 19:27), but they were looking for thrones in exchange (Mark 10:37); she was not.  The thief on the cross himself becomes a pioneer for mankind in the Christian way of prayer.  “Jesus, remember me!” he says (Luke 23:42).  How is it that Jesus comes into the wasted life and makes it new?  “One loving heart sets another on fire.”