Our sense of smell can be one of the most powerful of all our senses. The sense of smell can the most powerful of all our senses. It can generate good feelings like chocolate chip cookies or fresh bread baking. When we were living in Tyler I loved to walk in the mall at Christmas time. There was a kiosk that sold all kinds of seasonal scent things, candles and such. I loved a cinnamon fragrance they always seemed to have out when I walked by. It always made me feel like Christmas time.
There is also the negative side of scent. It can generate old memories, bad memories. Just the thought of how something smelled can also generate some humorous memories.
A few years before I went into the ministry we had bought Cindy a new car. We were working a lot with Cub Scouts in those days and I was looking for a place to for our pack to have a family campout. One day Cindy, the boys and I as well as an old friend drove up to Bastrop State Park in Cindy’s new car. We looked around a bit and I decided it was too far for what I was looking for. We then took a scenic route home that had us in San Antonio for dinner. That was all the good part of the day. When we finished eating we were going to head back to Houston on Interstate 10. We hadn’t been driving long, after the big meal we had eaten, Cindy and the boys in the back seat, my friend and I in the front, when everyone but me was asleep. It was good that I wasn’t asleep as I was driving.
Up the road a ways I could see something laying in the road. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I knew it was a dead animal. Traffic was such I couldn’t get over to go around it so I made a quick decision that I would straddle the animal and go over the top of it. That was a huge mistake. Even right before we went over the top of the animal I couldn’t tell what it was. It was dark. But, when we were right on top of it, virtually sitting on top of it, it quickly became apparent we were going over a skunk.
The smell was horrible, and that puts it mildly. I don’t think I have ever smelled anything so bad in my life. The smell was so bad, it woke everyone up. They didn’t go back to sleep the rest of the trip home. It was bad and it was all through Cindy’s brand new car!
We tried all kinds of things. We would leave it sitting outside with the windows down hoping the fresh air and sunshine would help. It may have, but not much. I don’t even remember all the stuff we tried to get rid of the smell. I do remember what finally worked, a box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, opened, under each seat and the ashtray filled with the stuff. This was before Fabreeze, I have no idea if that would work or not and it was back in the days all cars still came with ashtrays. Cindy and I neither one smoked so it wasn’t a big deal. When the good folks at Arm and Hammer tell you their baking soda gets rid of odors, you can take it from Cindy and I both. They speak the truth.
The smell of a dead skunk is legendary. There has even been a song about it by Loudon Wainwright III titled “Dead Skunk.”
Crossin’ the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are!
You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!
Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose!
Roll up yer window and hold yer nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory
You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!
Yeah you got yer dead cat and you got yer dead dog
On a moonlight night you got yer dead toad frog
Got yer dead rabbit and yer dead raccoon
The blood and the guts they're gonna make you swoon!
You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!
C'mon stink!
You got it!
It's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle!
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven!
All over the road, Technicolor man!
Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle.
There is little I can imagine that might smell worse than a dead skunk. The song does speak the truth. You can take it from this voice of experience and if you don’t want to believe me, perhaps you would believe Cindy. She did, after all, have to put up with the smell far more than me. It was her car.
If there is anything I can imagine that would be worse than a dead skunk it would probably be a dead, decaying human body. I can’t recall having ever smelled one but I have talked to people who have. Apparently it is not a pleasant experience. I can only imagine.
Such was Martha’s concern in our lesson this morning. Jesus and the disciples were away from Judea when Mary and Martha send him word that their brother Lazarus is ill. Jesus says it isn’t anything fatal but something that will glorify God, so he sits and waits. Two days later it is time to move so he tells the disciples, “Let’s move on to Judea.” That has a bit of a scare for the twelve because they are very well aware that the Jews want to kill Jesus. Jesus brushes off these concerns in a fairly cryptic fashion.
When they arrive at the home of Mary and Martha Jesus is quickly confronted. “Lord, if you had been here my brother wouldn’t have died.” We could spend some time right here talking about how, when things go bad, when they get difficult, we are quick to blame God for the bad, but we will save that for another time. Martha does show some faith here, however, as she says, “But I know whatever you ask God will grant.”
Jesus asks to be taken to the burial site. Jesus begins to cry. The onlookers, and there were many, are quick to show their doubts, “He healed many, couldn’t he have saved this one he loved so much?”
When they arrive at Lazarus’ tomb Jesus asks that the stone covering the entrance be moved. Martha is quick to reply, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” That is what the New Revised Standard says. I read from that one because our pew Bibles are New Revised Standard. My preferred translations “The Common English Bible.” I always read in my study from both. I love the way Common English says it. It is so plain anyone can understand it. “Lord, the smell will be awful. He’s been dead four days.” That is where this morning’s sermon title actually came from. “The smell will be awful.”
Still, Jesus was not deterred. The stone is removed. Jesus says a prayer of thanksgiving and then says, “Lazarus come out.” With that, in my mind’s eye, I see this man wrapped in grave clothes, they were something like sheets, come stumbling out, his hands and feet are tied and his faith covered with a cloth. Jesus just says, untie him and let him go. The lesson concludes by telling us many of the onlookers came to believe because of what they saw, but others went and reported what they saw the Pharisees.
As I sat contemplating this story the thought occurred to me, Martha almost missed a miracle because of her fear. She was so afraid of the smell she knew would be coming from the tomb so she tried to discourage Jesus from having the tomb opened. Granted, the smell would be unpleasant. Of that there should be no question. But at the same time, Martha had already acknowledged Jesus’ power. Back in verses 21-22 Martha, after telling Jesus Lazarus had died said, “Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.” Isn’t that an interesting turn of events. Just a few minutes before, she is in essence asking Jesus for a miracle and then she is trying to block the miracle because she is afraid of the smell. If Martha would just hush and get out of the way she would receive a blessing far beyond her meager human imagination. All she had to do was stand back and watch.
That causes me to think, what divine action are we missing because we are afraid of the smell? I do realize that our fear is not always blocked because the smell might be awful. Sometimes we are afraid of something else. Sometimes we just can’t shut our mouths and get out of God’s way. Perhaps we are afraid of the smell or whatever else might be on the other side of the stone waiting on us, if we roll it awayl. Still, what divine action are we missing because we fear the smell, as it were, will be awful?
When Stan Duncan was living in Guatemala back in the ’80s, he spent some time with missionaries up in the Highlands. Over the desk in his room was a framed newspaper photo. It showed a group of young children standing close together with their arms straight out from their sides. He thought about it several times during my stay with them, so he finally asked what it was and why they had it on their wall.
The husband said there was a custom among the indigenous Ixchel Mayan people who were Christians. Whenever they felt bad or sorrowful or in pain, they would put their arms out, imitating Jesus on the cross. That way they felt as if they were bringing Jesus’ suffering into their own. The Jesus who could weep for them and die for them took their own individual sufferings up into his, and they were then no longer alone. They could feel Jesus totally identifying with their pain and, in a magical, cosmic, spiritual way, their pain was lessened.
I said something like, “Wow, what on earth was going on in the picture that all of them at once could be making the gesture of the cross?”
He moved me over closer to the picture and asked, “Do you see that long black shadow on the ground?” Stan said he did. The husband said, “That’s a rifle barrel. There are about 20 others right in back of it. Someone in this town was thought to be a rebel, and the military wanted to make an example of them so others wouldn’t do the same. So just outside of the range of the picture, army troops had lined up. And just after this picture was taken, they fired and killed all the children in the village. They all died. They were buried in that pit you see just in back of them. The children all knew they were going to die, but when they held out their arms, they could feel Jesus identifying with them … and they weren’t afraid.”
To paraphrase Larry the Cable Guy, “I don’t care who you are, that stinks!” The impressive part, the miracle, to me was, in the face of certain death, these children had faith that was such, they were not afraid. They knew the One who gave them life would give them eternal life. That is faith and these children knew it was OK to move the stone. It might smell awful to us, and it does, but for them, they knew what waited on the other side.
What is left for us is, to have that child-like faith. We need to remember Jesus telling the disciples and us, to believe as a little child. When we have that kind of faith we aren’t afraid of what is on the other side. Sure, some might say, “the smell will be awful.” But what we know has nothing to do with a smell. We know, what waits on the other side of the stone is the power of Almighty God. Praise be to God.
