Perfume

We've all had these experiences before;

  Walking through a department store, you pass the make up department and are bombarded by a wave of perfumes. 
 You sit down in a dark movie theatre and kick up your feet, only to have some man sit behind you who is apparently quite fond of his Old Spice. 
 You hug a distant relative you haven't seen in years, only to have a bit of them literally rub off on you, and you carry them with you... until you change clothes.

Lets face it, perfume can be offensive.  I don't wear it very often, and when I do, I have to put it on the back of my neck as to avoid despising it in a matter of minutes and having to scrub it off.  I am one of those people who smells everything.  EVERYTHING.  So I can be a good 30 yards from a perfumed offender and know they are coming.  I have a head ache just thinking about it.

But then, thinking about it, I am reminded of a perfume that may not have been so offensive.  One that, if I could smell it, may be life changing.

"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat to dinner.  But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying "to what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much money and given to the poor." 
When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, "Why do you trouble this woman?  for she has done a good work unto me.  You will have the poor with you always, but me you have not always.  For in that she has poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.  Truly I say unto you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this also that she has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."

Can you imagine that?  I have a little perfume on my wrists right now.  Just a tiny dab, yet I can smell it while I type.  This woman poured an entire container of very strong (and apparently expensive) perfumed oil on Christ's head...right there at the dinner table.  Our perfumes are mostly water and alcohol based, but the perfumes in that time were oils.  Oils stay in the skin, saturating it.  And she poured it out.  On his head.  
All of it.  
Our Lord, the Christ, was sitting down for dinner and in walks this woman with a box.  Did he stop her and tell her to wait until an appropriate time?  Nope.  He let her lavish what was probably her most treasured and prized possession upon Him.  He allowed her to pour every last drop of that perfumed oil onto His head, through His hair and down his neck and arms.  He knew what she was doing.


She was making a sacrifice to honor His sacrifice.

"...she has done what she could do; she has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial."

The fragrance would have been overwhelming.  My nostrils burn when I walk through the department store.  Can you imagine what He would have smelled like at that very moment?  
Can you imagine what He would have smelled like less than 48 hours later?

Have you ever noticed that when you wear perfume and you get hot, the smell intensifies?  Let it sink in.
Put yourself there, on one of the streets of Jerusalem.  Crowded, loud, people pushing to catch a glimpse of the accused carrying His cross to His death.  You can get close enough to see but surely, like me, you would close your eyes in horror, not able to view something so horrid.  

But then you smell it.

The perfume.

"Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma."     Eph 5

Thank you Lord, for perfume.  

Remind me always.