“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” -Jesus, John 10.11-14
Jesus came to earth to smell…
He brushed up against mankind and took our odour upon himself.
Much like a shepherd really. Shephards would spend a lot of time with their sheep, even sleeping in the pen or near to the sheep. We are told that the shepherds who first announced Jesus’ birth were ‘keeping watch over their flock by night’ (Luke 2.8). The amount of time shepherds spent with their sheep would lead to them having, I am sure, a distinctive smell.
This smell could probably have been picked up from a few paces away. [I don’t have to live on a farm to know that farm animals are not the most pleasantly scented beings in the world]. And this is what Jesus takes upon himself when he arrives in his sheep pen.
Because people smell. We each have our own unique reek.
This is presented through our actions, our words, our foibles, and what we see as our triumphs. And, trust me, we stink.
Jesus pressed himself into people’s lives. He rubbed shoulders with them and saw their actions, their words, their foibles, and what they saw as their triumphs…
And he loved them despite it all.
He took our odour/s upon himself and took it all to the cross. The smell filled his nostrils. He breathed in deeply as he committed his spirit. It wasn’t that the smell was too much, it was just that the shepherd knew what the smell meant:
- It meant that people hurt – more inside than out.
- It meant that people are in desperate need.
- It meant that people do not understand.
- It meant that people are people and cannot express themselves in any other way than through their actions, their words, their foibles, and what they see as their triumphs.
We are called to imitate Christ. We are called to love our neighbour as ourselves.
It is hard when their stench fills our nostrils. It is hard when we get so close and their smell starts to rub off on us. It is hard when our smell and their smell collides and causes a fetid reek that makes our stomachs turn and our gag reflex kick in.
But we are called to smell. We are called to understand that others smell. We are called to put those smells aside for the sake of the Gospel; rub shoulders with all and introduce every foul-smelling sheep to the Good Shepherd who willingly takes all of our smells away.
If we do not allow others to see that we smell too if we put on the impression that we are covered in roses and that they are the only ones that stink, we create a distance and it is precisely that distance that Jesus came to bridge.
Holy Spirit is working on our smell. He is helping us every day to overcome it so that it comes across as a perfume that fills every place we enter. We smell better today than we did before we surrendered ourselves to Christ.
We can use stories of our former (and current) malodorousness and how we are overcoming it and the help God is giving us in it. Because he comes IN THE ODOUR. BECAUSE OF THE ODOUR. And only he can take the odour away.
Father, thank you that you meet me in the sheep-pen of my life. Thank you, Jesus, that you lead me away from that and take me to a better pen and clean me and help me to get the odour of living here on earth, off me. Please help me to never feel better than. Help me to feel a closeness to those suffering from their odour and help me to show them the only one who can take their stench away. You are the only one. Holy Spirit, give us boldness to take your perfume and distribute it liberally everywhere we go. For Jesus’ sake, So be it.