What Does Jesus Smell Like?

Mar 3 2023 - Eric Buresh

My wife and I were recently visiting with friends of ours, sitting around a fire as we love to do, talking about life, faith, and our great God. My wife has been studying Revelation and was sharing about how beautiful it was that God loves our prayers so much that He collects them as incense in “golden bowls” in heaven. (Rev. 5:8). He keeps our prayers close to Him so he can continually enjoy the sweet aroma, like a heavenly bouquet. We chatted for a while about how, as typical, we view things from a human-centered perspective. As though our prayers are only for us. Nope. We have a two-way relationship with God. Our prayers are also sweet to Him. It’s amazing! 

I mentioned that night that I hadn’t thought much about the many pictures God gives us in the Bible centered around aromas, and that I would spend some time tugging on that thread in Scriptures. The Holy Spirit has opened my eyes to more beauty through that study. As a side note, personal Bible study can be this easy. Pick any topic, get one of many free online concordances, or even just Google, and start searching the Scriptures for that concept. Here, I searched for “aroma,” “smell,” and “incense.” Collect the results together, and then ask the Holy Spirit to teach you, and just listen as He works through your mind. Internalize what you hear and learn as the Holy Spirit writes it on your heart. 

That was a short rabbit trail. Getting back on point, the Bible is just overflowing with aromatic symbolism. Certainly, the sweet aroma of prayer to God is a major theme. “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:2). The sweet aroma of generosity is another common theme. (Acts 10:4; Philippians 4:18). But the imagery that caught me the most, perhaps because it is so on point to our body’s One Message focus this year, asks the question “what does Jesus smell like?” 

You might be thinking of some sort of Holy incense. Maybe frankincense or myrrh. Nope. The answer is that Jesus smells like you and me! “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” (2 Cor. 2:15). “Through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.” (vs. 14). Through our lives, when we are empty in our own spirit and filled with Christ’s Spirit (the Holy Spirit), we are spreading the sweet aroma of Christ everywhere we go. We show and share the knowledge of Christ by our lives and by our mouth everywhere we go, and not only is it a pleasing aroma to God, but it impacts the lives of everyone around us, our brothers and sisters and the lost and perishing. 

And herein lies one of the great heartbreaks and joys of our life in Christ. We are, as Paul put it, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” (2 Cor. 6:10). As we spread the aroma of Christ, we become to the unbelieving, “a fragrance from death to death,” and to the believing, “a fragrance from life to life.” (2 Cor. 2:16). Sorrow and joy. Loss and gain. Rejection and fellowship. Parting around us like a river flowing past a rock. Like Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with fragrant oil – some smelled the sweet aroma of love and worship, but Judas smelled the frustrating stink of waste. Paul is not naïve here – he knows this is too much weight to carry. He asks, “Who is sufficient for these things?” I’m not and neither are you, but Paul gives us the answer: “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Cor. 3:5-6). God is our sufficiency. His “Spirit gives life.” (vs. 6). We are not sufficient. When we are the pleasing aroma of Christ, it is not our aroma. It is His aroma in us. On our own, we stink! Let’s empty ourselves, be poor in our spirit, fill up with His Spirit, and spread that sweet, sweet smell of Jesus!