That Smell

11.27.12

Matthew 26.12 12 For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. NASB

Right before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He was at the house of Simon who was a leper. (We’re not sure if Simon had been a leper or if he still was.) Regardless, it was typical for Jesus to be at the home of someone that society regarded as an outcast, either for sin, sickness, or whatever had befallen them. Jesus was always right at home with outcasts and sinners and those who really needed God.

And while the Lord was at dinner, a woman came in and poured costly perfume on Him as a sacrifice. Well, His disciples were flabbergasted at such a waste of resources and spoke up “indignantly”. Jesus looked them in the eye (I believe) and told them, “[that] when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare me for burial.” How d’ya like them apples, boys?

It is the tale of two perspectives. One saw the perfume as the smell of ordinary life and the Other saw it as the smell of extraordinary death. One saw it as a means of contributing a cup of water into an endless desert of need, and the Other saw it as putting a necktie on a corpse. One saw it as potential, the Other saw it as necessity. It’s all in how one sees it…

We all must come to that place where we’ll accept what lies before us: the end of our physical days. It’s coming. Regardless of who we are, and how we live, death is part of the equation for all of us. What is important is what the earthers will say when we’ve departed. Will they say, “Good riddance”? Or will they say, “Wow, the sun got just a little dimmer today because he’s gone”? Will the absence of the fragrance of our presence be missed or will it be celebrated?

One thing that separates the Lord from every other spiritual leader in all of history in all of the earth is this: Jesus knew Who He was. He knew why perfume was poured upon Him. He knew what effect the absence of that fragrance would have. I think the fragrance of that perfume wafted through the crowd at His arrest, interrogation, trial, beating, and crucifixion. I think it lingered in His burial. I think it hung around in the empty tomb – just sayin’. I think it did for a reason: consider what has happened!?

And when He was resurrected several days later, I think the lingering smell of that perfume was one of the first things that touched the senses of His confused and frightened followers. One thing about expensive perfume, the smell lasts. The cheap stuff is watered down and the odor dissipates rather quickly – even we know that.

Jesus smelled that smell throughout what He experienced in those hours and days, and to Him, though it represented the smell of death, it reminded Him of the magnitude of what He was accomplishing: providing a way for all of mankind to be freed from sin and found acceptable to God. It reminded Him of life. Wow! How d’ya like them apples? Oooo that smell!