The Fragrance of Life

We are usually tuned in to images in Bible stories, and sometimes even tastes. But smells? The Gospel of John uses even smells to contrast the grace of Jesus with the ways of the world. If you're interested, this sermon will explain what I mean.

I am fascinated by magicians. I am astonished at how they can make an illusion appear to be real. I know that after the magician’s lovely assistant lies down in a long, covered box and has a sword slice through her middle, she will get up whole and healthy after the trick is over; but I’m always surprised anyway. Don’t you wonder how they do that? I will probably never know how magicians perform their tricks, because they guard those secrets jealously! I do know, though, that magicians are often successful because they mis-direct our attention. While the magician is showing us a perfectly ordinary black silk top hat over here, we aren’t noticing what he’s doing over here. When he pulls a rabbit out of that hat, it looks like magic; but in fact, we just weren’t paying attention to what he was doing.

Sometimes we read the Bible the same way that we watch magicians – we don’t pay attention to everything that’s going on. We get so interested in one part of the text that we don’t notice what’s going on somewhere else! So, while we see some things in the text very clearly, we overlook other things that are just as important. The gospel of John, in particular, has lots more to tell us than we usually notice when we read it. This morning's scripture reading, for example, is a story that we tend to overlook (John 12:1-8). It’s just a few verses long; and it’s sandwiched in between two of our favorite gospel stories: the raising of Lazarus (which takes up most of chapter 11) and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which is in the middle of chapter 12). So this little story gets lost in the middle.

It’s about a dinner party that Lazarus gave for Jesus when he came to Jerusalem for the last time. John has put this story right after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. In many ways, the two stories are contrasts. In both stories, the house of Lazarus is filled with his friends! But while in the first story, they are mourning his untimely death; in the second one, they are celebrating his return to life. In the first story, no one was eating or drinking a thing. They were fasting while they mourned for their dead friend. But in the second story, the whole town was eating and drinking in happy celebration.

The stories also contain contrasts in the smells they contain. In the story of the raising of Lazarus, the smell is the stench of death. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has already been dead four days; and when Jesus asks that his tomb be opened, Martha rightly notes that there will be an odor surrounding it. After four days in his tomb, the body of Lazarus would already have begun to decay. The King James Version is very direct in its translation: Martha says, “He will stink!” We can imagine Lazarus’ friends wrinkling their noses in disgust as the stone is rolled away and the stench of death fills the air. But in the story of the dinner party, that odor of death has disappeared. Instead, a beautiful fragrance surrounds us! Right in the middle of the party, Mary breaks open a bottle of expensive perfume and anoints Jesus’ feet with it. John tells us that the whole house was filled with its fragrance! Jesus comments that the ointment was to prepare him for his burial after his death – the death that will offer all of us eternal life. There is no stench of death surrounding Jesus, even in the tomb. We smell only the fragrance of life!

That ointment of Mary’s was an extravagant offering! Judas was so scandalized by the cost that he complained about it, right in front of all the other party guests! “Three hundred denarii,” he said, “it cost three hundred denarii! Why, that’s a whole year’s wages! Why didn’t you sell this perfume and give the money to the poor? That would have been a better use of it!” How rude to criticize the host’s sister in front of all the dinner guests! But if Judas was quick to criticize, Jesus was just as quick to respond; and he didn’t mince any words. “Leave her alone!” Can’t you see the other dinner guests looking up in surprise at the tone of Jesus’ voice? “Leave her alone! She has kept this perfume for my burial. You can always help the poor. But I’m here now!” Judas just didn’t get it. Of course the perfume was extravagant! But so is the love for us that God shows us in Jesus! Of course the perfume was expensive! But so is the price of our salvation – the death of Jesus on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter morning! The fragrance of life is as extravagant as God’s grace and as expensive as Jesus’ sacrifice!

Judas never did get it; and neither do some people today. Like Judas, they are bean-counters; and there is no room for grace in their faith. Their Jesus insists that we follow the rules, criticizes our efforts, and condemns us when our best isn’t good enough. They aren’t very different from the Pharisees who stood outside the home of Lazarus and plotted how to get rid of Jesus. Do you smell the stench of death that surrounds them? Jesus’ ways are very different from their ways. Jesus doesn’t criticize us and condemn us; he loves us and encourages us. He rescues us from all the ways of the world that lead to the stench of death, and offers us the fragrance of life instead!

What do you think that fragrance is like? Jesus offers us love and acceptance. I think that smells like freshly-baked bread, just out of the oven, a smell that welcomes us home. He offers us forgiveness and the possibility to begin again. Maybe that smells like lilacs in the spring and new-mown grass: the scent of growing things and new beginnings. And he offers us hope: the certainty that God’s ways will triumph in the end. Surely that must be the smell of the sea as its powerful waves roll eternally onto the shore.

You know, it’s so easy to become caught up in the ways of the world that we never notice the stench of death swirling around us. We’re so used to hate and fear and judgment and greed that we can’t even smell that it’s garbage. As the air freshener commercial says, we’ve gone “nose-blind” to it. But Jesus knows exactly how it smells; and he also knows how to help us get rid of it. And all we have to do is to ask. He is always ready to replace that stench with the fragrance of the costly perfume of grace. It’s an offer that’s good today, tomorrow, and forever; in this life and in the life to come. So this morning, I invite you to welcome the presence of Jesus into your life, and enjoy all the beauty that comes with it. I guarantee that once you have tasted his grace and smelled the fragrance of the life that he offers us, you’ll never be satisfied with anything else!