The Fragrance of Worship

Have you ever smelled a high-quality perfume?  

I’ve had and worn many different colognes over the years, but only just recently learned that there is a difference between cologne and perfume.  It’s not that one is masculine and one is feminine, but rather it is a designation of quality.  There are other designations as well, but the point is that the word “cologne” refers to a lower-grade fragrance while “perfume” refers to a higher-grade fragrance. 

A few years back I was gifted a sample assortment of high-end men’s perfumes, and since then I’ve purchased a full bottle of the one I liked the best.  Now I have this one perfume as well as one older cologne (that I can’t bring myself to throw away).  I used to be fine with the old cologne – several sprays of that and I was good to go.  It’s not a bad scent – probably still about 10 times nicer than Axe body spray.  But ever since I’ve experienced the higher quality perfume, the cologne just seems too harsh and cheap.

The first time I tried the new perfume, I tried two sprays… and was completely over-powered!  Come to find out that it takes much less of the better quality fragrances to accomplish the optimal accent.  And not only that, but one spray in the morning will last me the entire day, and still smell good in the evening, where my old cologne seemed to last only a few hours.  

I was pulling a shirt out of the closet a couple of weeks back, and realized that I must’ve gotten some of the perfume on the shirt, because it still carried the fragrance even weeks later.  I couldn’t even imagine how much more significant that might have been if I had poured out the entire jar!

And that brings me to Luke 7:36-50, with the “sinful” woman who brings a costly alabaster vial of perfume and anoints Jesus’ head and feet with it.  Mark’s account mentions that she broke the vial and poured out the entire contents.  John’s account records that the entire house was filled with the fragrance.  John’s account goes on to comment that this quantity of this particular perfume was worth roughly a year’s wages.  In modern terms, think of this as costing roughly $50,000.  (I didn’t spend that much for my perfume, in case you were wondering).

Now this was of course a beautiful and extravagant act of worship, as we’ve all read and heard.  But perhaps what we haven’t thought about before is: how long did this fragrance of worship last?  A day?  Several days?  Perhaps a week?  Maybe even several weeks?

Imagine walking through the supermarket wearing the residual fragrance of worship.

Imagine coffee breaks at the office while reeking of worship.

There’s an old tribal word that we’ve adopted into our western culture in recent years called “Ethos.”  While there are several definitions for the word, one of the ones that I like is simply: “The fragrance of a life.”  I suppose you could substitute “life” with “lifestyle” as well.

What is the fragrance of your life?  What is your ethos?

Would that we may be a people who’s ethos is the pure and lasting fragrance of worship – worshipping our Creator, and walking more closely with Him (Jesus) each day.