When Jesus died on the cross, it looked like all was lost all. For the disciples who had believed in Him, all hopes were gone. To the mortal eye, it looked as if God had lost and the devil had won. There hung the world’s great Redeemer—dead, defeated, and humiliated.
That is where our gospel reading from Mark begins, the purchasing of spices once the Sabbath was over and the stores were open again. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had come to the tomb so that they could anoint Jesus with these spices- so that they could take away the stench of death during those initial days of the decomposition of a body.
If the story had ended there, Two thousand years of Baptisms, confirmations, sermons, Communions, and ordinations into the pastoral office would mean nothing. And we would all still be dead in our trespasses and sins. You would have no hope of eternal life. Death would hold just as much terror for you as it did for everyone else.
Opponents of traditional Christianity know how essential this piece of the puzzle is. They know that without the resurrection of Christ, the whole house of cards falls down. And that is why they do everything possible to call into question the truthfulness of this event. They do whatever they can to put Jesus back in that tomb, to say it was all a lie invented by later followers of Jesus to preserve His memory. They desire for the sting of death to fester and linger until the end.
Today we rejoice that this is not where the story ended. Death’s victory was short-lived. Its rule over the souls of men was brought to an end on the first day of the week, when early in the morning our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
And now we continue to celebrate his resurrection year after. People are almost always in a good mood on Easter Sunday, it’s like all of the problems in life we contend with just go away in the joyous light of celebrating our Lord’s resurrection.
Things seem so clear in life when we meditate on Christ’s work for our salvation and how his resurrection has changed the course of our life. Instead of being just one person in chain of life, destined for death and decay and composition to the earth, In Christ I am God’s new creation of water and the Spirit. My life, like all Christians, is a fragrant offering before the Lord. In the words of Psalm 141:
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”
Our lives as God’s children are a fragrant offering before the Lord because death was not the end for Jesus. His body did not succumb to decay and the stench of death. The purpose of the tomb Jesus was laid in was for the flesh to decompose on the burial stone slab and then for his bones to be collected for a later time. The gospel’s describe how Jesus was laid in a tomb in which no one had been laid. It clarifies this because
Stone burial slabs were typically used over and over for different bodies to decay.
Jesus did not remain on that burial slab, death could not hold him. Ephesians calls his willingness to die for us a fragrant offering to God. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Until Christ returns we live in a world still with the stench of decay, sin and death. This is a reality that unbelievers like to point out- how death always wins. But especially today we see a bigger picture. And not just that we see a bigger picture we smell a bigger picture. And what a sweet smell it is. This pleasant aroma is not just the lilies here adorning the church, or the fragrances we apply to ourselves in getting ready for church- or even the smell of Easter breakfast items wafting into the Nave here.
This is the aroma of Christ. From 2 Corinthians chapter 1: 14 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. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
The risen Christ leads us in triumphal procession this Easter morning. Because he is risen from the grave we sing these songs of triumph, we process with the cross, and process to the altar later to receive his body and blood. And we go out and spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
There are a few popular comedy movies I can think of with scenes where a character is ambushed by an overbearing department store employee, spraying a perfume with dramatic unsettling requests. I’m almost sure that the Seinfeld character Kramer was probably blown away by a perfume ambush in at least one episode.
But that is not the type of spreading of the fragrance of Christ that we are talking about. St. Paul describes how we the church spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of Christ permeates every aspect of how we live our lives, how we carry ourselves, how we react to difficult situations.
Just like a scent can quickly fill a whole room, so does our Lord call us to be the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved, and to those who reject Christ the scripture says they are going from death to death- as in they remain unmoved by the aroma of Christ sent to them.
The sense of smell permeates our being and teachers us things that words cannot express. Smells evoke unique places and memories. And the aroma of Christ in us translates to the world in ways that transcend the words we can speak.
When you think of all that we have been through in life, how hard you have to work to make it in this fallen world at time, and how often the sins we commit weigh us down, you would think we would give off more of a foul stench than the aroma of Christ.
When Lazarus’ tomb was about to be opened the people warned Jesus of the stench there would be after four days. But there was no stench, Jesus had transformed Lazarus from death into life.
And he has transformed us as well. He has gives us the sweet aroma of the resurrection. Everything we do is scented with this new life in Christ. As Colossians chapter 3 describes for us: 2 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.