WHAT
SMELL IS THIS?
Our nose or the ability to smell is a special gift from God. Do you know, for example, that a newborn child is capable of detecting 10,000 different scents? That a newborn child, when hungry, will find his mother to be nursed by way of smell? That a mother can pick out her newborn child from other newborns by way of smell? Our nose is a gift from God.
You may have heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s even more accurate to say that odor is in the nose of the smeller. In 1974 Lewis Thomas, a biologist, argued that our genes give off a certain odor, and that people are attracted to those whose genes smell most unlike their own. Recent studies seem to support this notion. This is one reason why it’s so difficult for many widows and widowers to get rid of the clothes of their deceased spouse. Though a person may have died a long time ago, that person’s distinct odor lingers in the clothes. I wonder about Jesus’ odor.
Smell helps a dog to track a missing person. Smell can save us from a house on fire. Smell can also drive us out of a home. A number of years ago, I talked with a colleague who rented a house in his last year of Seminary studies. The house had a porch. And under the porch lived a skunk. One day the skunk had a fight with a dog. The dog lost, and the seminary couple had to move out for a week. They came back and the smell in the house was reasonable once again. A week later the skunk had another fight. The seminary couple moved out for good. The smell of the skunk was unbearable.
Smell attracts, but it also repels. In some cultures body odor is no big deal. In other cultures, we do everything we can to get rid of body odor. Canadian athletes at the Olympics in Japan, for example, observed that many European athletes have different standards of smell than Canadians. In fact, some of the Canadian skiers could not stand to be around some of their Norwegian colleagues. I wonder about Jesus’ smell.
In the days of Jesus, there was no Old Spice stick deodorant. There were no showers, no shampoo, and no Dove soap. Only the very rich in Jesus’ days could afford daily baths. But Jesus did not associate much with wealthy people. Foot washing was common at special occasions to honor one’s guests. But for the rest, people in Jesus’ days accepted smells and odors as facts of life.
This explains, perhaps, why people in Jesus’ days enjoyed the use of oil so much. They used oil as a cosmetic—to keep soft their skin and scalp when traveling through dry and dusty deserts. They used oil as medicine, as food, as fuel to light a room. Olive oil and other oils were used as “money” to trade with. And they used oil for religious rites—to offer to God or to consecrate themselves to God. They also used oil to prepare a body for burial to preserve the body or to slow down the process of decay.
Spikenard is a very expensive oil or perfume that was extracted from the root of a plant found high in the Himalayan mountains in India. Only the rich in Jesus’ days can afford to buy this fragrance. And because it’s so expensive, they use it sparsely, stored in alabaster jars to preserve its fragrance. The magic of nard and the pleasure of its perfume waft toward us in John’s gospel, when he writes “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment” (John 12)
On this Good Friday, as you and I draw near to the cross of Christ, I want you to stick your nose in the wind. What’s that smell at Calvary? What’s that smell wafting around Jesus on that cross?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, there’s a story. Do you know that in his gospel Mark begins the story of Jesus’ suffering by telling of that moving incident in the house of Simon the Leper? Mark takes the spotlight of Jesus’ suffering and says: here’s where it begins—in the house of Simon the Leper. It’s a typical situation for Jesus to be in: totally politically incorrect! For example, Jesus is dining in a leper’s house. Any rabbi worth his salt would never do that. Also, we learn that there is a woman in the company of the disciples. She is not in the kitchen preparing food—as would be expected from her in those days—but she is in the company of Jesus himself.
In fact, this woman—her name is Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha—does an outrageous thing. She walks up to Jesus, holding in her hand an alabaster jar filled with spikenard. The jar filled with half a liter of costly fragrance is worth at least $ 30,000.00 (a year’s wages); Instead of pouring some oil on her hands and rubbing it on Jesus’ head, she breaks the jar and pours the entire content on Jesus’ head.
While the disciples look on in absolute amazement, Mary rubs in the oil on Jesus’ head—and from the gospel of John we learn that she also rubs his feet with this precious oil. She anoints Jesus from head to toe. And her act is inescapable: Jesus “smells like a rose,” and the whole house is filled with the spikenard fragrance. And that smell will stay with Jesus for days to come.
Some people are turned off by certain smells. It happened also here with the disciples. They are angry with Mary. Especially Judas. He is the treasurer of the disciples, and he can think of all kinds of ways to spend $ 30,000.00, including some for his own pocket. So some of the disciples chide Mary saying:
“Why
this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and
the money given to the poor.”
But Jesus tells his disciples to lay off and leave the woman alone. “Don’t bother her,” he says. This infuriates Judas even more, so that he leaves Jesus and the other disciples, and he goes straight to the chief priests to betray Jesus. Judas negotiates with the priests and they agree that Jesus is worth 30 silver coins (about $ 10,000.00 in today’s value). Think about it: Mary anoints Jesus for $ 30,000.00; Judas sells Jesus for $ 10,000.00. Mary’s act, however, is priceless to Jesus—a pleasing aroma in the days to come.
Now listen to Jesus’ response:
“Leave
her alone…. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you
want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured
perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth,
wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will
also be told, in memory of her.”
Now note: it’s not James, or John, or Peter who gets this honor. It’s Mary. Wherever the good news of Jesus is told, the name of Mary is also to be mentioned. Why? Because Mary is the only one of the disciples who takes Jesus at his word and perceives that he is about to die at the hand of the authorities. Mary is getting it, while the rest of the disciples are still in the dark when it comes to Jesus.
Why does Jesus grant Mary this awesome privilege? What’s so significant about Mary’s act of anointing Jesus with this costly fragrance? Consider:
1. By anointing Jesus with the spikenard, Mary indicates her belief and firm conviction that Jesus is truly the Messiah, the Christ—the Anointed One of God. And just as God the Father confirmed Jesus’ mission to be the Christ at the beginning of his ministry (with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, at the time of Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan), so now God the Father confirms Jesus’ mission to be the Christ at the end of his earthly ministry.
Mary is the instrument by whom God confirms the task of his Son, and through whom God expresses his love for Jesus. The fragrance of the oil on Jesus is the fragrance of God’s love and approval of his Son. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, God communicated his love for his Son with water. Now, close to the end, God confirms his love with perfume or oil.
2. By anointing Jesus with the perfume, Mary demonstrates that she believes Jesus’ words about his pending death. Of all the disciples, at this point Mary is the only one who grasps that Jesus is headed for the grave. She does not know what exactly is going to happen. She does not know if there will actually be any time left to embalm Jesus’ body at the time of his death. All she seems to know is that Jesus is going to die. And in her love and devotion toward Jesus, Mary decides to prepare Jesus’ body beforehand with the most precious oil she can get her hands on.
3. Mary knows how to read the times. “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me,” says Jesus. Mary recognizes this time as an opportune time to do something so shocking, so outrageous, and so delightfully pleasing to Christ, that the whole world throughout the centuries will remember her for this act. This woman, this Mary, is Jesus’ disciple par excellence. She will not be forgotten. And no one will forget what she did.
And how can we? Even
days
later, on Good Friday, at the foot of the cross, we can catch the fragrance of
spikenard perfume wafting from the crucified Jesus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the book of Exodus (30:1-5; 37:25-28), we learn that God’s people could smell the presence of God in the incense burnt at the altar. Incense not only triggers the emotions and sensitivities of the people in worship; it also is pleasing in the nostrils of God. The sense of smell is wired in the brain to our emotions.
Fragrance also influences our behavior: chamomile or lavender for relaxation; frankincense or nutmeg and lavender to relieve stress; lemon and peppermint as stimulants. Researchers at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, I learned, have created artificial floral scent that, in preliminary tests, accelerates the rate of learning by as much as 150 percent. Crayola crayons are now sold on the market scented—orange smells like an orange, and blue supposedly smells like fresh air.
Fragrance, my friends, triggers emotions. What do you think Mary’s fragrant oil on Jesus’ head and feet did to Jesus on his way to the cross?
Smell also triggers memory. When my sister died, they laid her up at home in bed. On the day of the funeral, they brought the casket to our home. The casket had a very peculiar (not an unpleasant, but particular) smell. Later I learned that the smell came from the chemicals used to stain the casket. But even today, when I smell that chemical, I remember my sister’s wake and funeral. Some scientists believe that smell is the most powerful releaser of memory there is. What do you think Jesus smelled when he came into the world and was born in a stable? What do you think Jesus smelled in his dying moments?
Folks, what Mary did in that house of Simon the Leper was a wonderful, powerful act of love-- God’s love through Mary; God’s love for Jesus; God’s love wafting and drifting and lingering around Jesus all the way to the cross.
Crucifixion is a horrible way of dying. There is not only physical torture, but also emotional distress. Think of the agony that Jesus endures while hanging on the cross. He has no clothes to cover himself. He is exposed for all to see. There are no bathrooms at Golgotha, no outhouses to use. The mixture of blood and sweat and tears and sewer and spittle create a nauseating stench. The smell of crucifixion must be horrific. Ah, Golgotha is a terrible place to be.
Now why do you think that Jesus tells us to pay attention to Mary and her act of devotion of pouring the spikenard oil on Jesus?
Think! When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, while the people shouted “Hosanna”, Jesus smelled the fragrance of spikenard around him. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he did so with spikenard perfume in his nostrils. When Jesus broke the bread and shared the cup in the upper room, and when he washed the feet of his disciples, he smelled like spikenard oil.
When Jesus prayed his heart out in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood in deepest agony, he was surrounded by perfume from that alabaster jar.
When Judas kissed Jesus, Judas smelled the spikenard which broke Judas’ back and led him to betray Jesus, while Jesus smelled the fragrance which assured him of God’s love and approval.
When Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin, before King Herod, and before Pilate, when he was mocked, ridiculed, spat upon, beaten, and crowned with thorns on his head, he smelled the fragrance of Mary’s perfume.
When everyone who passed by mocked him on the cross, when the chief priests and scribes, even those who were crucified with him, taunted and teased him in his agony; and when the only thing the soldiers offered him was a drink of vinegar—then Jesus looked around…and smelled the perfume wafting from his body.
And when Jesus searched the landscape for signs of love and faithfulness, and realized that he was abandoned by nearly everyone he loved; and when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—then Jesus, with precious little breath left, smelled the perfume. And he remembered Mary who gave all she had, so that Jesus would remember God’s love for him. What smell is this?
All of this
goes to show that God has his own ways to remind us—in life and in death—that
he loves us with an unspeakable love as shown in Jesus, as shown on Good
Friday, and as shown to us today in his Word which says so clearly: “For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
(Acknowledgement: For many of the insights shared in
this message, I am indebted to the writings of Dr. Leonard Sweet as found in
his book A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café.
Jack Van Marion