A Pleasant Aroma
Two weeks ago I unexpectedly helped out a dear friend of mine with one of his assignments for a college assignment, he wanted to film me roasting a batch of green beans on my Presto popcorn popper. I agreed to help him out. My original intent was to save those beans for after I purchased the bullet coffee roaster. In the process of roasting with the Presto, it overheated and stopped a little after the first crack. This was unfortunate the color looked okay but I was not confident that the Brazilian would be any good. Well as time passed our coffee-sipping Saturday sessions with another one of my friends came, we tried out the beans in cupping. His Ethiopian was delicious his popper is newer than mine so he gets a fairly consistent roast which I'm very impressed by. Just smelling my beans prior to the cupping I knew it was going to be a dud.
It was definitely under roasted. Probably be my last roast till late October or early November when we decide to purchase the roaster. The aroma is a key sense in everything. I can't imagine being without (sorry for those who experienced this through the coronavirus) smell. As Stephenson observes "If you've ever held a drink in your mouth while holding a thumb and a finger over your nose, you'll have found that flavor is pretty boring when the nose isn't involved." (The Curious Baristas Guide to Coffee, Stephenson Tristan, p. 65).
Christians oftentimes rather than being a pleasing aroma to God and to the world around them are voices of condemnation to a world that is already condemned. Therefore men are holding their noses around them not wanting anything to do with the God which they follow. A joyless Christian they may see; who complains, a hypocrite, a cultural Christian, a knowledgeless Christian. The question is begged, "Is that person truly Christian?" I'm guilty as a young Christian of being questioned, not only did I question myself but others questioned me. Rather we want to admit or not we all have an influence on others for the better or the worst. I was one for the worst. I live now a regretless life, I don't live in a regretful state, do I have some? Yes, many. Sure I'm not the only one out there. I'm a pile of regrets.
We've all seen the cartoon of the wolf walking by the house when all of sudden a cobbler is set outside wolf walks by smells then he floats over to the window seal transporting him to the delicious pie. People see the joy in others and sadly that joy is accompanied by something else, alcohol, a drug, food, coffee even, sometimes without this partner, they lay in misery. They are co-dependent, I must admit I have a dependence on coffee, will I not be able to function in society without it? No, but it does help me to function better with it. My joy is not wrapped up in something but in someone. This someone is Jesus.
The Apostle Paul had seen and experienced for himself this joy, this aroma of Jesus that has taken over the hearts of man, drawing him or her to Himself. He was thankful for where the Lord had led him even if the place was a little unexpected, Paul had received a vision to go to Macedonia rather than stay in Troas (Acts 16:8-9). This is what Paul is referring to when he says "knowledge of him everywhere". Due to God's direction he, unfortunately, tells the Church in Corinth that he won't be coming to them. Yet he has great concern for their spiritual state.
"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. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." (2 Corinthians 2:14-17)
What do we learn about Jesus? Jesus leads the Christian in a triumphal procession. Paul had great reason to say this, for he was potentially the one who could have in his zeal destroyed Christianity at the onset, therefore Jesus intervened (Acts 9). Paul thus in His encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road was transformed, from death to life. He praises Jesus for His continued work through him "and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him (Jesus) everywhere." Verse 15 "For we are the aroma", "The order in the Greek, "For (it is) of Christ (that) we are a sweet savor unto God." Every Christian is an aroma, and for some a stinky one. For some they will smell the fragrance and turn their faces away, for others Jesus will be most pleasing to him or her, "a fragrance from life to life." Jesus will be their all in all.
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