THE FRAGRANCE OF CHRIST
This is going to be a different type of Waybread piece. I usually have an idea or theme in mind when I start to write. But in my own personal devotions this morning, a verse or two from every reading stood out to me, and they all seemed to fit together in a way that I thought was important not just for me, but for all of you as well. I hope you find that to be the case because I believe that this is somehow tied to the "new thing" God has so recently begun in us.
DAVID, FROM THE PSALMS
In one of the Songs of Ascent, David sings:
"O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem." (130:7)
In English, we can often identify poetry by lines that rhyme. In Hebrew, poetry is often defined by what's called parallelism–the repetition of a single idea in using different words in order to emphasize a key point. So here, look at those last two lines. "With the Lord" and "with him" repeat themselves, but then the latter phrases reflect off each other as if in a mirror, only each one adds subtle meanings to the other. With the Lord there is "steadfast love" and "great power to redeem." Do you see it? The great power of love and redemption work together! Love is at work in redemption, and redemption is a fruit of God's love. His steadfast love is demonstrated for us in its power to redeem! And the work of redemption is the work of steadfast love!
But let's not go too fast. What is redemption, anyway? When you redeem a coupon at the grocery store, you are exchanging a little slip of paper that has virtually no value (notice that most coupons say in very small print something like: Cash value: 1/100¢) for something of immeasurably more value–a can of corn perhaps. But when we look at ourselves and our own souls, and we consider that because of sin our entire selves have been rendered virtually worthless, and then we think (how wonderful!) that Christ's freely-entered-into sacrifice on the cross, the shedding of His blood, redeems our whole self, body, soul, and spirit, how can we not fall down on our knees in worship and adoration?
Everything we have and everything we are flows from this wonderful and mysterious exchange, this beautiful redemption, this steadfast love in which we find the wholeness we could never know on our own. And to know that this redemption not only secures for us eternal, abundant life but that it does so because it binds us to the risen Christ in love … this staggers the imagination. Truly, eye has never seen, nor ear heard of such a wonder.
PAUL, IN 2 CORINTHIANS
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: 16 to the one group a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is qualified for these things? (2 Cor. 2:14-16)
I also like the way Eugene Peterson says this in The Message:
14-16 In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
16-17 This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on?
So let's not leave the idea of steadfast love and redemption behind! Let's bring it with us into this new thought. This redeemed people of God–you and me, can you believe it?–become Christ's gift to the world. Having been redeemed, we move into the world with love and grace, joy and peace, emanating from us like heat from a fire or like scent from a flower. In fact, that's the exact image Paul uses here. In and through Jesus we are the aroma of Christ to everyone we meet.
I hope you see here that this is nothing you have to do. It is not a mission or a task or even a calling–it is the simplest thing imaginable: it is nothing more than who we are. When you walk through the rain and then enter a shop or a store, you leave wet footprints. You don't try to. You don't make it your mission. You don't check "Leave wet footprints" off your to-do list for the day. You just got wet and you took wetness with you. The Christian life means we find Christ and take Him with us. In Christ, we catch the scent of love, service, and sacrifice, and we leave that secnt wherever we go. It's just who we are!
JESUS, IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
Again (without straining too hard!), bring with you into this passage, like a little bouquet of flowers, what we've found in the previous couple of passages. As lofty and beautiful and awe-inspiring as David's and Paul's words are, we can never divorce them from the actual stuff of our lives, how we really live, and those with whom we eat and talk and worship. We aren't, any of us, completed works of grace. We are still becoming the men and women God intends us to be. And part of that process of growing in grace involves navigating the bumps and potholes of our relationships with one another.
What's more, what Jesus is saying in this part of the Sermon on the Mount is that how we live with one another is actually woven into the fabric of our worship of God. The redemption we have experienced becomes the reconciliation we pursue with others. We don't have a family life, a work life, a friendship life, and a worship life. Our worship is laced with family, work, and friends. Our family, work, and friends, are (or ought to be) steeped in our worship. It's like a teabag. When you place a teabag in a steaming cup of water, the water takes on the color and flavor of the tea; you can no longer separate one from the other.
This is the mystery of what it means for us to be the Body of Christ! Our salvation, our life in Christ, is no secret exchange between each of us and God, and hidden from others. Far from it! In Christ, we are, as Paul says, members of one another, like the various parts of a human body–unique, and yet inseparable.
And so, when we come to the altar, when we come to the Table, when we come to worship the one true and living God, and we know that our brother or sister harbors some grudge or ill will toward us, Jesus says we should go and be reconciled to that brother or sister before continuing with our worship. You might even say that the reconciliation is an actual part of our worship–it's like the teabag again: the various facets cannot be completely severed from one another.
Friends, this is the gospel! Not only redemption, not only basking in the Word of God (and there is so much more we could say about all these passages!), not only reconciliation with one another, but union with Christ Himself, our Savior and Healer, the One who sends us into the world to spread the aroma of Christ, not so much that others can be persuaded or convinced of His existence, but so they too can partake, share in, the same life of Christ which we have tasted and known!
Be encouraged, friend, for God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who spoke all worlds into being, is both with you and for you.
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