The other day while little Z and I are were taking a walk, this horrible stench assailed my nose. It was so awful that I gagged and Z wrinkled up his nose and put his hands on his nose to cover it. I'm still not sure what was causing the offensive odor, but it was definitely dead. Death stinks. Literally.
As I was thinking about that, the Lord brought to mind what I had been reading in Matthew 21 about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and then the Holy Spirit brought to mind a connection between that passage and 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 that I had never noticed before.
Matthew 21:6-11 says,
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus,from Nazareth of Galilee."
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says,
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. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, the multitudes which had been following Him for some time began to spread coats and branches across the road for Him to ride across. They treat him like a victorious, conquering king who has returned from battle. Their shouts of acclamation and praise identify Him as a Son of David, which signifies that they believe He is of royal heritage and has come to take his rightful place on David's throne.
Of course, they were right. Jesus is the victorious, conquering king and from the royal line of David, but what they didn't' know was that this victory parade preempted Jesus' most valiant victory. Jesus was not yet marching to the throne in this scene. He was marching to the cross where He would vanquish sin and death once and for all. His triumphal entry was, indeed, victorious--just not in the way anyone expected. It was a triumphal procession that marched Jesus to a gruesome death on the cross, though it would ultimately lead to victorious eternal life and Jesus' everlasting reign on the throne of the kingdom of God.
I wonder if Jesus could smell the stench of my sin, the odor of death and decay as he rode through the city that day?
Before the sweet aroma of victory could waft into the hearts and lives of those He came to rescue, the stench of sin and death had to be defeated. It was to vanquish those foes that Jesus set his face like flint to march to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51. The sickening scent of our rotten sin compelled Him to drink the cup of God's wrath mean for you and for me in order to bring us back to life. When Jesus breathed, "It is finished", (John 19:30)the sweet smell of victory danced on the wind and the fragrance of new life overpowered the stench of death when Jesus burst forth from the grave.
It is this victory, Jesus' victory that enabled Paul to claim Jesus' triumphal entry as his own and to remind the Corinthian believers that it was theirs as well. It is Christ's redemptive work on the cross that gives us, as believers, the ability to walk in triumph, spreading the sweet aroma of life in Christ to those who are still drenched in the stench of sin and death.
Because of Jesus, we are the fragrance of new life to the world around us. We should spend our days shouting, "Hosanna", to the King of kings so that those in the city would long to smell like our Sweet Savior, too!
