Jesus and Lazarus…

Denise and I visited the Denver Zoo on Friday. We had the four-year-old daughter of friends in tow which always makes a trip like that interesting! Between looking at the zoo from her perspective (can I climb this? can I climb that? why not? but I want to!) and helping Denise watch her it was a busy afternoon. I was still able to get some pictures and Denise even took a few herself! This particular picture of one of the polar bears intrigued me. I wonder what was going on in the bear’s mind.

As I reflect on the bear’s face I almost sense a certain sadness. I wonder if this bear had ever lived in the wild. Even if it had been born in captivity, deep within it’s psyche the bear must have known that there was a world outside of the confines of the enclosure with its cement pond. This brings me to the Gospel reading for tomorrow from John’s Gospel.

“Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus–the man he had raised from the dead.” (John 12:1 NLT) That single sentence says so much in just a few words. This was no ordinary dinner party. Yes, it was six days before the Passover, but that wasn’t the point. This was mere days after Jesus had stood before the tomb of Lazarus and wept. Why did Jesus weep if he knew what was about to happen? I wonder if he wept because he knew the pain the family had experienced and was experiencing at the death of Lazarus. I wonder if he wept because he knew that a week or so later his broken body would be laid in a tomb similar to the one Lazarus was in.

Something else comes up when I truly examine this passage. That thing is the sense of smell. Back in John 11:30, Jesus commanded the bystanders to roll the stone away from the tomb. Martha, Lazarus’ sister, said to Jesus, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” (NLT) We don’t know exactly how many days lapsed between Lazarus being raised from the dead and sitting at the dinner table with Jesus. However, I can assure you that the smell of death… the smell of the grave… would still linger powerfully in the senses of all gathered around the table.

The first time I actually went into a prison/jail on a pastoral call was at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was asked by the Marine Defense Council out of Yuma, Arizona to visit a Marine who was charged with multiple crimes, including murder. He wanted to receive communion and pastoral care from a Lutheran Chaplain. Since I was the closest thing to a Lutheran Chaplain at Nellis AFB, I responded. Walking towards the entrance, I caught a whiff of a strong odor. After I turned over everything in my pockets (including my wallet and ID) and had my chaplain’s kit searched, I went through the clanging doors of the Clark County Detention Center. The odor I smelled outside of the facility became stronger. It was the scent of unwashed bodies, perspiration, dirt, and… fear. I have never forgotten that smell and all these years later (I was in the Detention Center in 1999). There is nothing that can erase that smell and as I sit here writing, it comes to me readily 17 years later.

Even though Lazarus was sitting at the table with Jesus and his sisters, the scent of death must still have lingered. How do you get rid of such a smell? It is nearly impossible. The strange thing is though, Lazarus’ sister Mary may well have done the impossible. “Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar  of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.” (John 12:3) All at once, the fragrance of death which lingered was dispersed. It was replaced by the sweet fragrance of the perfume which Judas said cost a year’s wages.

It is amazing the power of our sensory perception. A scent can stay with us for years and come back unbidden. The smell of death was replaced with… the smell of an ointment/perfume that would be used to prepare a body for burial! Yet, as Mary anointed Jesus’ feet the smell of this ointment/perfume filled the house. Denise has read in her own studies on this passage that the scent of this anointing oil would have still lingered as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He would have smelled like a king!

Is that the aroma of Christ, though? I have come to believe that the scent of anointing oil was the exception rather than the rule. What did Jesus smell like the rest of the time? Well, he was homeless… slept in homes and outdoors… didn’t bathe like we do today… so you do the math. Jesus didn’t smell or look like the cleaned up portrait that I remember from the church growing up. You know the one… wavy brown hair, blue eyes,Nordic features, clear complexion, nice clean clothes…

Have we lost sight of who Jesus was? I think we have. Denise tells a story from when she worshiped at Central Presbyterian Church in Midtown Mobile, Alabama. The church had been undergoing a transformation. It was a blend (at the early service and now at the single, blended worship service) of wealthy, middle-class, working poor, and homeless. It was also a blend of ethnic backgrounds. She arrived just as worship was beginning and saw an empty seat. She asked the fellow sitting next to the empty seat if the seat was taken. He said no and she sat down. As soon as she sat down, she was overcome by a powerful aroma. The scent of dirt, an unwashed body… the man was homeless. The scent was powerful and overwhelming but she couldn’t very well get up and move after asking the fellow if she could sit next to him. As she prayed (Lord, help me to be Christ to him) God caught her off-guard. She heard God say, “He is Christ.” In that moment, what had been a terrible stench became, as she says, the “sweet aroma of Christ.”

As I sat in that jail interview room (five feet by five feet with a small table and two chairs) in Las Vegas, I asked how I could be Christ’s love in a place like that with a person accused of heinous crimes. God showed me how I could do that… I don’t know whether or not my ministry made a difference (he took his life the night before the Marines were to begin their hearings) to Arthur, but I do know they profoundly changed my own life and ministry. When I went to his grave after the media had left, I read from Psalm 51 and asked God’s mercy on his tortured soul and God’s healing on those whom he had hurt. Whenever I smell that distinctive odor, I no longer think simply of prison. I think of  the opportunities I have had to walk with Christ into the valley of the shadows.

Denise still remembers her experience vividly. In all of her work with the homeless community in Mobile, that aroma stayed with her. When we took Thanksgiving meals to a homeless camp in Mobile in 2014 we met Christ in the person of James, a homeless man who asked if he could pray with and for us.

Dear reader, how do you experience Christ’s presence? Are you willing to look beyond the purified and sanctified sanctuary? Are you willing to, like Jesus, go to the grave and the smell of rotting flesh to do God’s work? Are you willing to allow God to transform what the world calls filth into the sweet aroma of Christ? If you are willing, I guarantee your life will be forever transformed! And you may just share the love of Christ with someone who desperately needs it… you AND the other person!