Are You Wearing the Fragrance of Christ?
Do you have a signature scent? A perfume (or cologne) you never leave home without? As a chemically sensitive person, I am inundated with the toxicity of fake scents all the time. I often wonder at the motive behind wearing a scent so ostentatious that it announces your arrival long before your body appears and lingers abusively after you leave. Perhaps the haughty advertising claims of a better image, attraction, and connection contribute to this. But what if the fragrance we chose to wear communicated a meaningful truth? Wearing the fragrance of Christ accomplishes this precise result.
“ For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life.”
For those who belong to Christ, their lives emanate the pleasing aroma of Christ’s sacrifice. Perceived differently by those receiving salvation and by those rejecting it, the fragrance of Christ speaks a meaningful truth. To those who reject Christ, it wreaks of the smell of death. While to those who receive Him, it diffuses a life-giving perfume.
In speaking of Christ’s sacrifice as a pleasing aroma to God, the Apostle Paul drew from the truth expressed in Numbers 15:
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you, And will make an offering by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto the Lord, of the herd or of the flock: Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the Lord bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil. And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or sacrifice, for one lamb.”
The burnt offerings of obedience, sacrifices of consecration, peace offerings, and free-will offerings, when placed upon the altar of God, ascended to Him as a pleasing aroma. Demonstrating obedience and devotion, these sacrifices foreshadowed Christ’s penultimate sacrifice on the Cross.
Paul connects the truth of Numbers 15 to Christ’s sacrifice for believers, but then also explains through their union with Christ, they also wear the fragrance of Christ.
When Fragrance Speaks Truth
During Lent, as we approach commemorating Christ’s last week on earth, culminating in His crucifixion, another poignant reflection on the fragrance of Christ comes to mind.
“Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.”
A beloved place of rest and fellowship, Bethany offered a safe haven in a perilous time for Jesus just says before His death. Only two miles from Jerusalem, and hours from His triumphal entrance into that city, knowing the horror awaiting Him, the presence of His dear friend Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead, spoke the hope He needed.
Here in this place, sitting at dinner with beloved friends, and their neighbors, an overwhelming fragrance permeates the house.
Mary, the sister of Lazarus, sacrifices a precious offering of devotion to Jesus. Breaking an alabaster jar of spikenard, an amber-colored rare essential oil derived from a Himalayan honeysuckle, which travelled more than 3,000 miles to Bethany, and cost a small fortune, she anointed Jesus’ head (Matthew 26) and feet.
The sheer quantity used and the powerful scent of spikenard would have remained upon Jesus for days, which is perhaps the reason for His comment that she anointed Him for His burial.
But even more striking, the fragrance remaining upon Him was inhaled by Judas as he kissed Jesus in betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. Those who mocked, robed, and thrust a crown of thorns on His head smelled it, and the Roman soldier who nailed Jesus to the cross smelled it.
The fragrance of Christ permeated the Judgement Hall of Pilate, and the atmosphere of Golgotha.
To those who hated, condemned, rejected and crucified Him, it was the aroma of death. To those who wept at His cross in love and devotion, the fragrance was the promise of life yet to come. Even to the thief on the cross who saw Him as Messiah, and the Centurian who stood at the last proclaiming Him as the Son of God, the fragrance of Christ proclaimed a truth filled with eternal significance and hope.
In Mary we see the picture of complete surrender and adoration, pouring herself out before Christ as she poured out the precious spikenard. Giving her complete self to Christ in worship, she, too, bore the fragrance of Christ for days after, literally, and subsequently in union with Him after His resurrection as all who believe in Him.
As blood-washed believers, God has anointed us with the fragrance of Christ, a sweet savor to the Father, and an aroma of the knowledge of His glory to all we encounter. Living surrendered, Spirit-filled and sacrificial lives, we spread the truth of the gospel everywhere we go.
Are you wearing the fragrance of Christ?
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