In the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey, Jr., Holmes walks into a room and does a very Hollywood kind of thing. We see dead animals, but thankfully, we cannot smell them. The actors then assist us by commenting on the smell. It goes something like this:

“What is that stench?” Asks the physician, Dr. Watson.

“Morbidity,” responds Holmes the detective. 

In a real-life situation, we might well expect the conversation to happen in the reverse, if it happened at all. Real-life crime-scene detectives and doctors see and smell enough that commentary is unnecessary. However, we, the film-goers, require assistance filling in the details the film alone cannot supply. 

This was not necessary in the story of Lazarus. Lazarus had been dead for four days. As Martha helpfully declares, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” 

Jesus didn’t let the smell of death or the decaying corpse stop what he would do next. Remember that the next time you ponder your own death. 

Fast-forward a bit. Lazarus is alive. He’s all wrapped up. Jesus instructs those standing there to unwrap him and let him go. What do you think happened next?

There was likely a manly embrace and a whole lot of hugging going on. 

A car trunk is opened revealing a dead man in the Bosch television series. One of the characters quickly covers his nose and mouth with a handkerchief. He remarks that “all smells are particulate. That is one-hundred percent dead guy.” He does not want any dead guy getting up his nose or in his mouth. 

I am terribly sorry to write these words this way, knowing some of you read these notes over breakfast.

However, Jesus embraced what had been a one-hundred percent dead guy moments before. His sister was right. There was a stench. 

Fast-forward again one chapter. Now Mary’s act has new context and meaning. What had been heartbreaking and foul had become wonderful and good. Death was removed. The stench was covered. Jesus’ coming death would remind everyone within range how the stench of death was covered by something more beautiful and eternal. The smell of death was replaced by the scent of heaven. 

Embrace Jesus like Lazarus. Experience the transfer of heaven’s freshness as it covers, cleanses, and replaces the foul breath of death’s temporary estate.

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I will inhale heaven.

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Our Father, thank you for replacing the stench of death with the perfume of heaven. Fill this dying world with your resurrecting beauty. Amen.