OT Sacrifices
A
sacrifice was offered on behalf of the nation every morning. Another sacrifice was offered every
night. Sacrifices of lambs, goats, rams,
bulls, and birds who offered for sin, guilt, reimbursement, cleansing, and
thanksgiving every day by anyone who needed to or wanted to. There were special sacrifices each week on
the Sabbath Day, more sacrifices on new moon festivals every month, even more
sacrifices during the annual feasts throughout the year. And blood, lots of blood. And death, lots of death. If the Old Testament people of Israel
followed the commands of their Lord, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of
animals were slaughtered on the altar of the temple for thousands of years, vast
amounts of blood were poured out there, countless carcasses were burned.
Can you
imagine the smell? The smell of all that
blood? The smell of all the hides, the
hair, the innards of all those animals being incinerated on the altar? The smoke?
The ashes? The corpses? The curtains of the temple must have reeked
with that smell! The ground around that
altar must have been soaked with that odor!
The clothing of the priests must have been saturated with that
stench! How long did it take the priests
to wash that stink out? Did it ever come
out? Did others avoid them on their way
home? Did their wives make them hose
down outside again before they stepped inside the house at the end of the day? Because after all of the offerings those
called servants of God had to sacrifice, they undoubtedly smelled like death.
A Pleasing
Aroma
But what
a sensory experience that must have been for God’s people in Jerusalem: to
constantly smell that, to get sick of that, to have their noses filled with
that unmistakable scent of death every day.
What a vivid reminder of their sins!
What a graphic indication of the price that had to be paid! But no matter how bad it must have smelled to
those believers in Old Testament times, it didn’t smell bad to their Lord at
all. In fact, the Lord loved that smell
of death! This is how those sacrifices
were described by Moses: “It is a burnt
offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma,
an offering made to the LORD by fire” (Exodus 29:18). The aroma of a burning animal, the smell of
blood and smoke and death was actually pleasing to the Lord! He enjoyed it! He treasured it! Not because it was a nice smell of course,
but because it meant that his people were sacrificing something to him out of
reverence and humility, thanks and praise.
And, most importantly, that smell of death was pointing his people to the
death of their Savior. And so that smell
of death was a sweet smell, a pleasing aroma, to their God. It was a smell that he wanted wafting up to
heaven every single day until the day of the death of his Son that he had
promised was coming.
And when
his Son did die, it was the sweetest aroma of all. The sacrifice of his Son was a more pleasing
smell to his Father than any sacrifice that was ever offered before him. Which is strange, isn’t it? Normally the death of a son is not a good
thing. And normally death itself does
not emit a pleasant aroma either. If you
have ever been in a room where someone has just passed away, you can almost
smell it, can’t you? It’s hard to
describe if you haven’t experienced it, but it’s kind of a stale smell, a stagnant
smell. And, of course, the state of death
itself doesn’t just have its own distinct smell, the body that has died will
take on a whole new smell of its own soon after. If nothing is done with the body, the natural
decomposition of all its parts will let everyone know that something should
have been done with it. Remember how
Martha the sister of Lazarus didn’t want Jesus to open her brother’s tomb
because he had been dead four days and there would have been an awful smell by
that time. Remember how Nicodemus
brought 75 pounds of spices to wrap
Jesus’ body in after his death. Nicodemus
wanted to preserve Jesus’ body as long as possible; according to the normal
practices of the day he didn’t want the body of his Lord to stink too much too
soon.
The Aroma of
Christ
But that
wouldn’t prove to be a problem, would it?
Because Jesus’ body didn’t rot; it didn’t begin to stink. Because what the Lord himself had predicted
through King David 1000 years before the resurrection of Christ came true: “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor
will you let your holy One see decay” (Psalm 16:10). Jesus’ body did not decay. It did not decompose. Instead he rose. His death and his grave did not reek like it
would have from any regular corpse. Instead
his death smelled sweet because it ended in victory. And his grave smelled fresh because it lay
empty. And now all those who believe in
Jesus as their crucified and risen Savior smell exactly like him. This is how the apostle Paul says it, “Thanks be to God who always leads us in
triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance
of the knowledge of him. For we are to
God the aroma of Christ.”
You know
when a person walks by you with strong cologne or when a woman is wearing way
too much perfume and even after they walk by you 10-15 feet the fragrance
trails in their wake? And it seems to
hit you in the face and almost makes your eyes water? Through faith, we are the aroma of Christ to
God. It trails in our wake wherever we
go. Which means: you smell like
death! You smell like the death of your
Savior because through faith he has rubbed off on you and everywhere you go the
fragrance of his sacrifice follows after.
And just as those Old Testament sacrifices were pleasing aromas to your
Lord, you are pleasing to your God because you smell like the sacrifice of your
Savior.
But you
are not only the aroma of Christ to God; you also smell like Christ to
others. “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved
and those who are perishing. To the one
we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal
to such a task?” Your fellow
Christians like that death-laden perfume you wear. Unbelievers are repulsed by it. Christians enjoy being reminded about the
resurrection because of who you are and how you act and what you do. Unbelievers plug their noses. But that’s the life of a Christian: You are
to God the aroma of Christ. Some are
going to like it, others will not. Some
will want to be around you because of it.
Others will run the other way.
Some will want to know why you smell so good and where they can get some
for themselves. Others will never want
to smell it again. But either way, you
smell like death. And there is no other
aroma that your Lord likes more.
The Smell of Sin
We have
a trash can in our house with a lid on it that sits next to our kids’
bathroom. We’ve been using it to throw dirty
diapers and pull-ups in for years. And
although we’ve always had a bag in that trash can to hold the dirty diapers
that we throw away on a regular basis, over time that trash can has begun to
take on a rather unpleasant smell. We’ve
sprayed it with the appropriate cleansing agents, we’ve washed it out, we’ve
even put it outside for days on end hoping that the exposure to the sun and
some fresh air will eliminate the odor.
But nothing has quite worked to get the smell out of entirely. The plastic has absorbed that stench for so
long that any cleaner we use just makes the trash can end up smelling like a
bar of soap in a dirty diaper and any floral scented Lysol we’ve tried makes
the trash can end up smelling like flowers in a dirty diaper. The odor is not erased, it’s not eliminated, it
just gets mixed with other scents. It’s
probably time to get a new trash can.
But I
know that’s what happens to the beautiful aroma of Christ sometimes as I carry
it around with me. I mar the scent. I mix up the sweet smelling fragrance of my
Savior with the awful smelling sinfulness that I can’t get rid of. And so sometimes the aroma of Christ might be
evident in my life, but at other times this terrible stench radiating from my
rotten attitude and my pungent actions overpowers whatever sweet smell Christ
has left on me. Which means that at
times other people can’t notice the pleasant smell of the Savior because
they’re so distracted by the disgusting sinner instead. What a tragedy when that happens: when
someone cannot detect Christ in us or on us or even anywhere around us because
of the stench of our sin. Sometimes it
seems that we are like that little kid on the Charlie Brown cartoons called Pig
Pen - the boy who has a cloud of dust and dirt and flies following him around
wherever he goes. No wonder Paul says,
“Who is equal to such a task?” of carrying around the aroma of Christ. It’s hard to smell the sweet aroma of our
Savior when the trash can itself has been saturated with dirty diapers for so
long.
The Fragrance of Life
And, truthfully,
that’s not really going to change as long as we live on this earth. We are always going to smell a little foul, a
little rancid, because that sin is always going to be hanging on to the very
end. But our ever-present sin does not
change the Lord’s ever-present promise.
And here it is one more time: “We
are to God the aroma of Christ.”
Still. Still! Even though he knows what we smell like
underneath it all! (No spiritual deodorant
is ever going to cover up that stench.) Even
though he knows how awful and nasty we can be inside. Even though he knows that the fragrance of
Christ might not always emanate from our lives like it should. We are still to God the aroma of Christ. The smell of the sacrifice of his Son has
risen to his throne and he is pleased with it.
When he smells you, he smells Christ and vice versa. He accepts his sacrifice on your behalf; he
receives his payment in your place. And
so just as Jesus walked on this earth smelling of your sin, you walk on this
earth smelling of his death. And it’s a
beautiful smell, a liberating smell, a peaceful smell. It’s a smell that needs to be shared with the
world. Who is equal to such a task? On the one hand, no one is. But on the other hand, you are. Because God has placed this fragrance of
Christ’s empty grave on you. And he
wants everyone you come across to know without a doubt who you are and why by
the way you smell. That is one of the great
privileges and honors of being a Christian: to smell like death. Do not hesitate and do not be afraid to share
that aroma with everyone you know.
Because it truly is the fragrance of life.
Amen.
“[May] we always
carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also
be revealed.” 2 Cor. 4:10
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