Aromas

Leviticus 2: 4-9

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Matthew 26: 1-13

Aromas

Have you ever been assaulted by a smell? Long time ago, in New Jersey on a dock as friends and I prepared to go fishing for blue fish out off the coast, I saw a sign that said, “Old fishermen never die. They just smell that way.”

Now I do not have a sense of odor. Almost none. I lost it working with formalin in a biology lab as one of my jobs to pay my way through college. But I do remember that walking down the street, creeping out of a vent in the sidewalk; or strolling along the mid-way of a carnival or fair, wafting its way from a kiosk - sometimes an odor will "hit you". Sometimes that odor will even thrust your psyche back into another time and place.

Maybe it's the sweet smell of caramel apples. Maybe it's the pungent punch of garlic and onion. Maybe it's moldy and murky smell of a basement. Maybe it's the sea-weedy smell of the beach.

Whatever the odor, it is officious - meaning, it is "large and in charge." It teleports you back to a particular place and a particular time. I suspect each of you has memory smells. Our sense of smell is the physical sense most associated with memory. Smells, more than sounds, more than sights, more than touches, transport our minds and bodies back in time to an imprinted memory. Rising yeast might bring you back to your grandmother's kitchen. A wet sock smell brings you back to the locker room-or to the terror of the day you fell in a frozen creek up to your waist and almost froze. Roasting chicken smells like every Sunday dinner. Gasoline chokes you with memories of a car crash. Nothing evokes strong emotions, strong memories, strong longings, like the sense of smell. It is a powerful communicator to our inner being.

In the days of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, burnt offerings were the norm - small birds, little lambs, calves, great grains - all were sacrificed and burned. Burnt sacrifice was offered to appease God's righteous anger over the sins and transgressions the people of Israel had committed. In fact, burnt sacrifices were commonplace in several cultures during the time of Jesus. The Romans offered burnt sacrifices to their gods, especially when a Roman General came home to Rome after a great victory.

Jesus’ world was full of strong odors. Cooking was often done out in the open, over wood fires. There were no sanitary sewers in the towns he walked through. At the time of Jesus, the bathroom in most homes was a dung hill at the back of the house and even though they did not know what germs were or how it worked salt was used on the pile as a disinfectant to stop infection from spreading. There were no garbage men to make regular rounds. Garbage often simply rotted in heaps on the outskirts, or was burned with trash. Incense was burned in homes and meeting places, to help overpower the odor of unwashed people and all the other smells that surrounded the places. It must have been wonderful to Jesus to walk in the open countryside with a clean breeze between visits to the towns and villages.

Jesus also encountered strong odors among the people with whom he spent much time. Not just because even people who were well off didn’t wash as much as we do now—Jesus spent time with those who had even less access for personal hygiene. He also encountered awful odors in his ministry. There was the odor of rotting flesh from the lepers he met and healed. And there was the odor of his friend Lazarus who had been dead for four days by the time he arrived. We read in the Gospel of John 11, “…He was warned not to open the tomb because it would stink.” But he opened the tomb anyway.

Incense and perfumes, such as Mary used that day to anoint Jesus, were valued, and the perfume she used was especially valued. Not the way we use it today, but to mask odors. However, good perfumes were hard to get then.

So it is no wonder scriptures speak of odors so much, and how they refer to sin as a stench in God’s nostrils. The rank odors were common place, but no matter how common they were, they would have been repulsive. The writers of the scriptures wanted their readers to see sin, while common, as just as repulsive as the most awful smelling garbage that could be experienced. Scripture also likened sin and injustice to the stench of death. When sin dominates our lives it creates a stench about us that’s hard to overlook. God hates sin because it corrupts people, and separates us from him. It eventually destroys us. Because of that he has no intention of rewarding us for bad behavior.

A lot of people make the mistake of trying to cover up that smell, by doing good deeds, being kind to strangers, giving lots of money to good causes. They convince themselves that the fragrance of their good behavior will cover up the smell of their past. But they’re kidding themselves. That becomes hypocrisy, which Jesus considered the most repugnant smell of all.

On the other hand, service to God was said to be a sweet smell. Sacrificial giving of time and resources and self and a willingness to take risks, even risks to one’s life, to spread the Gospel was the counter to sin. It still is.

Paul’s letter to the Philippians in chapter 4:18 says, "But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God." Those churches had supported him generously in his mission ministry, and he was referring to their gifts and service to him, given out of love of God.

There is an odor to a spirit of love. The Lord looks at the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Lord looks at what motivates what we do. What we do is not half as important as what motivates us to do it. Our hearts, our attitudes, are what the Lord is looking to.

Jesus called upon his followers, and us, to be the salt of the earth. He wasn’t just thinking about what salt does for food. We are to help disinfect the world of sin, and give our surroundings. Similarly, the Church today is to be the antidote to the evil and depravity rampant in society.

When we serve God whole heartedly, because we love him with all our heart and mind and strength and soul, scripture says we will have the fragrance of Jesus. May your aroma bring God closer to those you meet this week.

Amen