Heaven Sent

We had a visitor from Nottingham Memorial Hall today, who talked to us about fragrance. She brought quite a few perfumes with her, and talked about perfume and the fact that it is a multimillion pound business. People use fragrances in their homes, cars, work etc. everyday. You can even get a fragrance for your dog!! Fragrances can conjure all kinds of things in our minds, they can make us feel all kinds of emotions, and they can bring back memories, sometimes ones that are buried deep, be they happy or sad, pleasant or traumatic.

We don’t just wear perfume for ourselves, we like to feel that we leave a lasting impression and that can be associated with a fragrance. Very often someone may say, “that fragrance reminds me of such and such a person.” It is lovely when we receive a gift from someone that is fragranced. Julie, showed us a lovely candle in a box, with matches that she had received as a gift, she stumbled upon the maker on the internet and was surprised at the cost, and felt she hadn’t the heart to burn it. She also had always wanted a certain perfume, and when it was bought for her, she was so sparing with it that eventually it went off, her husband said it smelt like alcohol! They may be expensive but they are to be used.

Julie shared with us the wonderful story of the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume.

Mark 19:1-14

After two days, it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticised her sharply. But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

Both the perfume and the jar were expensive, but this woman was not counting the cost. And neither should we, the cost of our salvation is beyond price, not only do we get the benefit but when we are saved then the fragrance of Jesus makes an impact on others in so many ways, for His fragrance flows through us, and so they get the benefit too. We don’t have to do anything spectacular, it should come from us in our everyday lives as we speak to other people, and interact with them, showing kindness in word and deed.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

The Romans on returning from war would bring the captives in chains behind them, and they would burn incense at the front of the victory parade. To the victors it was the sweetest fragrance but to the captives it was the smell of death.

May people remember us not just by the perfume we wear, but by the fragrance of Christ, and may it be by the Holy Spirit's power the fragrance that leads to everlasting life.