I’ve become more and more appreciative of tastes and smells this last year, especially as I’ve worked on my health habits, embracing meditation and relaxation for better mental health, and of course the ongoing awareness of whether I might lose my sense of taste and smell with Covid 19! Thankfully that hasn’t happened. I’ve especially become more and more aware of the smells that really calm me, and also those that set me on edge.
Fresh baked cookies.
Cool, crisp air after a hard rain.
The “sleep” lotion on my bedside table with lavender and chamomile.
Fresh flowers cut from the garden.
Clean sheets fresh out of the dryer.
And also…Dog poop.
Sour milk in a tumbler accidentally left in the lunch kit over the weekend.
Chopped onion gone bad.
Dirty socks.
Sweaty children.
Sometimes life stinks. No, really. Literally. Sometimes it LITERALLY stinks.
Take the story of Lazarus in the Bible, for example.
Lazarus died and Jesus raised him UP. But before that, he was dead in the tomb for four days and there was “an odor”, his sister Martha says.
“Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So, they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” – John 11:38-44
Now just imagine for a moment this scene. I could write a lot about Jesus’ friendship with Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. I could write a WHOLE lot about the fact that Jesus knew Lazarus was sick and waited until Lazarus died to perform this miracle. But what I want to zoom in and focus our lens on right here, if we were to take a snapshot of this scene, is that this is really the moment, the ACT, the THING that is going to get Jesus arrested the next week. And Jesus knows it, and He does it ANYWAY.
I would never presume to know what Jesus is thinking, but what we can deduct from the scripture account is that Jesus VERY MUCH knows what He’s doing, and He is setting the scene for his arrest and crucifixion, so He can SAVE us with His substitutionary sacrifice and resurrection. He is about to overcome death Himself and this is the prelude, the overture, the warmup act.
But Lazarus and the people He cares for in this story are so much more important to Jesus than just the subjects of this miracle, and what I want to draw your eye to is a key point in what Martha says to Jesus. Let me remind you.
“Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”
Can you imagine how stinky it would be for them to roll away the stone of the tomb and the waft of stinky air from Lazarus’ dead body to zing straight into their nostrils? I mean, SERIOUSLY!!!! I’m not sure I could handle it. How about you?
All those people that had come to console Mary and Martha are standing around about to witness this incredible miracle and before they SEE what Jesus does, they get to SMELL Lazarus’ dead body.
I have thought about this a lot in the past year about “stinky” people. I’m not talking about literal stinky people that need to take a shower (although I put up with a lot of stinky band kids climbing in my minivan over the years, so I know all about that and I am glad those years are behind me). I’m talking about people that are just mean and nasty. Their words and actions are plain stinky.
What has become very apparent in this last year especially, with all the political discord, but also true at many times in my life, is that Christians especially can be plain STINKY.
Hear me out.
I will just confess right now that I have not always had the cleanest mouth. One time, back in 9th grade there was this mean bus driver. She was not nice. I mean, she was a yeller, and I was sure that she hated me. It was probably because we were loud, bratty teenagers, tired at the end of the day on a hot bus, getting on her last nerve. But I kind of thought a lot of myself back then and probably needed a little humility, and I have confessed this to Jesus full stop but on my last day on her bus, when my family was moving to Houston, and I thought I wouldn’t see her ever again so “I’m going to give her a piece of my mind”, I literally cussed her out and told her off. Yep. I did. I was pretty stinky to her. I am sure to this day that if she met me and found out I’m a teacher now, she would be shocked, thinking I am the worst human alive. And on top of that, to know that I’m a CHRISTIAN Bible teacher too. That is pretty pathetic and VERY stinky.
I’ve actually had a lot of guilt over that AND quite a few other stinky things I’ve done that I won’t list for you here. I’ve done much worse and I’ve had to confess that to God too. And I think the thing that I keep going back to, is that Lazarus is ME too. I was “stinky”, in the tomb, and Jesus said, “COME OUT!” He might have actually said it to Lazarus in real life 2000+ years ago, but He also says it to me every time I open my mouth and have to apologize for my stinky behavior.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 says, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the AROMA of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”
Friends, are we speaking like a fragrance from life to life or death to death? Do our words bring comfort like fresh baked cookies? Or do we sound like dog poo? Do we bring calm and reassurance like lavender and chamomile? Or do we make people want to run away from the sour milk? Do we bring reminders of death with our words? Or are we showing the way, the truth, and the life, pointing to Jesus with our kindness and love?
I’m not perfect for sure but I’ve smelled a lot of dog poo and sour milk being thrown around this last year with stinky words, especially when it’s on social media and many become “keyboard warriors”. I’m just sayin’. Perhaps we need to be reminded that Jesus put up with the odor of Lazarus’ dead body at the tomb, in front of ALL those people, because He was preparing to sacrifice HIMSELF for YOU, and for ME, and for ALL of us.
He smells those odors we are tossing around. We need to throw out those rotten onions and get some Febreze found in God’s word. Let’s get out the dryer sheets and fluff those towels with some humble prayers of confession. Or maybe we need to get on our knees and wash those stinky socks AGAIN, and AGAIN! We need to wash those stinky words right out of our mouths and stop them before they even leave our brains. Let’s take a step back and do some apologies. Let’s pause before we type that heated response to that person we think is an insult to humanity. Let’s do the repair work to end the conflict and come together as the AROMA of Christ.
He works THROUGH US. Jesus could do it any way He wants and He chooses to do His work by inviting us to be a part of it WITH Him. We are the AROMA that leads others TO Jesus. We actually don’t even do it with wonderful words, quoting beautiful scripture, or preaching the gospel. Yes, that does do it sometimes, but more often it is the FRAGRANCE of Jesus IN us, that others see and smell. And they say, “Yeah, I want some of that!”
If I could go back and apologize to that bus driver I would. It’s been 35+ years and I don’t even remember her name. I probably didn’t even know her name in the first place, honestly, I still feel horrible about it. I still mess up on the regular but I’m such a different person now, than I was then, and I WISH with all my heart that I had been the sweet aroma of Christ to her instead. Who knows how that might have impacted her life differently? Maybe MY life wouldn’t have impacted hers any differently than just a kid on a bus, but I’ll never know because all I did was leave my “stink”.
I can’t change the past, but I CAN be a sweet fragrance of LIFE today for my family, my students, my coworkers, my friends, the customer service rep on the other end of the phone, and even my political enemy on social media.
My hope, friends, is that you have the opportunity to have someone in your life that is the fragrance that is so pleasing that it leads you straight into the arms of Jesus, full of comfort, calm, kindness, life, and love. If you don’t, I sure hope that I would have the opportunity to tell you about the GRACE and friendship He has given me, free of charge. On this Holy Week, may He be as REAL as real can be for you. Pick your favorite smell and He is the BEST version of that, plus all the other favorite smells wrapped up in one. He is that calming, that lovely, that sweet, and His friendship and love is that beautifully heartwarming.
If your heart has been wounded, it can greatly affect the aroma of His Grace, because the hardness and pain of the world will cause you think He has given you a stinky life. I am here to tell you that He loves you, just the way you are, and He does NOT wish for you to experience ANY of it alone, nor does He enjoy that you are in pain. Even if you are a Christian and already know Him, sometimes the hard things of life cause us to have to admit to ourselves that we need a REFRESH on our aroma. He is grieved that you have faced suffering and He will never give up pursuing a relationship with you to surround you with His love. He gave EVERYTHING, and He did it for YOU. If you feel like you are in the tomb, bound in death rags and stinky, He says “Come out.” He is waiting with open arms to bring you to new life, and give you a new AROMA of joy and goodness.
Shelley Harrington 