2 Corinthians 2:14-17 part 2

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 Part 2
Theme: The Manifestation of the Smell of the Knowledge of Christ


Wouldn’t it be strange if I asked you if you enjoyed the way that the music smelled? I know the band members all smelled good, but what about the music?

Or here’s something even more unusual: what if I asked you if you could see the fragrance of this morning’s worship? Would you say that you saw a sweet smelling aroma or did you see the fragrance of death?

“There are too many mixed metaphors and contradictory sensations in that question.” You might wonder. “What color is the sky in your world pastor Rick?” “What kind of church is this anyway? You can’t see an odor and music does not have a fragrance.” But that is exactly how Paul describes the knowledge of Christ in our text appealing to our baser passions and senses. And Paul was no kaleidoscope eyed pot smoking and peace and free love hippy. What he was describing would not have seemed bizarre or strange to anyone who had ever seen or heard about a Roman Triumph- like the Corinthians for example.

A Roman Triumph was a very special event in the imperial city; it was a war victory parade the likes of which has never been seen by modern eyes. Picture the old Soviet Style mayday parades, or George Bush on the day he stood on that air craft carrier and proclaimed “mission accomplished” and you get an inkling of the Triumph.

Better yet, imagine that the Canucks have just won the Stanley Cup, the BC Lions have just won the Super Bowl (Grey Cup is not big enough for this comparison) Canada has won a 100 hundred gold medals in the 2010 Olympics and the soldiers have just returned from a victory against tyranny in Afghanistan and its all happening in a single parade in downtown Vancouver.

The Triumph was kind of like that, but bigger! The greatest city in the greatest empire that ever existed would come to a halt as the people lined the streets to welcome home the victorious general and his troops from some great victory over one of their enemies. The parade would sometimes last several days.

In the Triumph, the first thing you would see as you lined the streets would be the Roman senators and musicians and trumpeters along with bulls and oxen who would be sacrificed at the altar to Jupiter. Then would come the treasures and booty of rare jewels, linens, gold and silver, as well as exotic animals, sculptures and religious artifacts.; then the captured and humiliated kings and nobles and people of rank as well as the male and female slaves from the conquered nation.

Eventually the entire city would erupt in cheers and chanting that would shake the city as the triumphant general would rode in his chariot pulled by four white stallions. He would be dressed in a gold embroidered robe and a flowered tunic boldly displaying his scepter in his left hand and on his head he wore a Laurel wreath.

Behind him came his victorious legions, Rome’s finest. And all around you would smell the fragrance of incense blended with the smell of animal sacrifices and exotic flora and the other smells of Rome.

(How amazing it is that Paul would allude to a pagan festival to describe an event that one day we will all participate in when Christ returns to rule the earth.)

That’s the picture that Paul has in mind when he says that God leads us in triumph. And that is the aroma he is describing, an aroma so thick that it oozes through the streets; you could see it in the Roman air. It emanated from the triumphal procession and signified different things to different peoples. To the crowds it signified the mandate of heaven that the sun should never set on the Roman Empire. To the general and his returning legions it meant victory, fame, riches and power. And to the captured kings and nobles, that same sweet incense was the aroma of death signifying the certainty of their imminent executions before the cheering Roman masses.

There is some controversy among scholars as to whether Paul saw himself as captured slave about to be slaughtered or whether he saw himself as one the victorious messiah’s Ligoniers. After all, in 1 Corinthians 4:9 Paul describes his ministry this way:
9 …God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake… 11 To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless… We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. (4:9-13).

So much for the prosperity gospel!

Other scholars believe that Paul is here describing the Christian ministry first and foremost as a triumphal procession in which the Christian marches behind Christ in victory before the only audience that matters: God. This is a good argument because, for one thing, in this section Paul is rejoicing in God and giving thanks to him and the tone is one of victory and the security of our eternal hope in Christ in spite of our current temporary afflictions.

Probably the best argument in support of the second position is that the only other place that Triumph occurs is in Colossians 2:15 where it says that Jesus, “disarmed principalities and powers, [and] He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them….”

This is what Christ has done for us, he has disarmed all principalities and powers and triumphed over them.

How did he do it?

He did it when he offered his life on our behalf at the cross so that we set free from our bondage to sin and able to march through this world in victory no matter what Satan throws at us. He has no power over us!

But why did Jesus need to offer his life to save us?

He had to do it because we are dead in trespasses and sin. That’s the odor of death you smell when you hear the gospel unbeliever- its your own soul.
Dead things can’t do anything. But Jesus paid the ultimate infinite price by dying in our place and in exchange he offers us his life so that our dead souls will be raised with him and live free of sin and death and fear and wrath for eternity.

Snnnfff… Can you smell that? It’s the fragrance of Christ. Is it a sweet aroma to you? Or is the fragrance of dead rotting corpses?

The Bible says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God to salvation.

The fragrance is thick this morning, can you see the aroma of the knowledge of God? Breathe in deep. Let it fill your nostrils so that you can even taste it on your tongue. Let it be sweet to your nostrils. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Don’t let this message pass you by this morning without making a choice. What will it be- life or death? May it never be death. Choose this day whom you will serve…

At the sign of triumph,
Satan’s host doth flee;
On, then, Christian soldiers,
On to victory;
Hell’s foundations quiver
At the shout of praise:
Brothers, lift your voices,
Loud your anthems raise!