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Good smells, bad smells

TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
in Kerygmania
So this morning the all-age talk was about John 12 and Mary pouring the perfume on Jesus's feet. The wonderful, intense smell of the perfume was emphasised and its significance as an anoiniting of Jesus's body for burial.

I was thinking about the link between this passage and the one immediately preceding it - the raising of Lazarus in John 11. Here of course smell is also emphasised, in this case poor Martha anticipating "a bad odour" on the opening of her brother's tomb.

So is the difference in smell emphasised for a reason? The bad odour of death and decay associated with natural death versus the sweet smell of Jesus's sacrifice?

Thoughts?

Comments

  • jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
    Is Nard officially a burial perfume?

    To some extent a lot flows naturally. Perfume you are going to comment on the smell, and it's use in burial is because decaying flesh smells bad for some reason.

    If it's Mary of Mary and Martha then the burial connection is even stronger.
    But I think last year we found that Mary Magdalena was (also) on the trip.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    TBH I think the Bible is somewhat ambiguous as to the identity of the anointer (or was Jesus anointed more than once?). John's Gospel definitely says that it was Lazarus' sister Mary; in yesterday's sermon I suggested that Mary might have purchased the nard in order to anoint Lazarus' bod; I never thought of the smell factor, so thanks for that.
  • TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
    That's an interesting idea @Baptist Trainfan - it would add meaning to the gift - Mary no longer needs the perfume for Lazarus so she gives it to Jesus instead...

    Yes John's Gospel is very definite about this and goes out of its way at the start of chapter 11 to say "This Mary is the same one that poured the perfume on Jesus's feet"...
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    TurquoiseTastic wrote: »
    That's an interesting idea @Baptist Trainfan - it would add meaning to the gift - Mary no longer needs the perfume for Lazarus so she gives it to Jesus instead...
    I claim no originality for the thought!

  • jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
    Presumably the oil for Lazarus directly would already have been used on him?

    But I could well believe there was leftovers, or some for outside the tomb, or some sent late, or recovered from the non-corpse.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    A novel “I Came to Love You Late” suggested the three siblings had each of them been given hard for their eventual barrier in much the same way that some parents purchase life insurance for their children now. Lazarus used hours, Mary gave her to Jesus, and Martha’s, I think, was finally sold to finance missionary travel after Pentecost.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    Given ‘nard’ I assume, rather than ‘hard’.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    Sorry, eyes dilated.
  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    You know I've had my share.
  • Merry VoleMerry Vole Shipmate
    Depending on the temperature and humidity in the cave tomb I'm doubtful there would have been a 'bad odour ' after just 4 days. I'm wondering if Martha was, understandably, expressing to Jesus her doubt that his intention to raise Lazarus was really viable, as it were.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    According to this website there’s a discernible odour within 24-48 hours of death, becoming really bad within 4-10 days of death. The rock-cut tombs from that era that I’ve seen in Jerusalem are not particularly deep, so not greatly cooler than the external air temperature. In my recollection even deeper tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt could be quite muggy.

    (Goodness knows what this looks like in my search history!)
  • Gill HGill H Shipmate
    As long as it’s nard, not lard…

    (See also the carol, “Haste, haste to bring him lard…”)
  • jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
    Merry Vole wrote: »
    Depending on the temperature and humidity in the cave tomb I'm doubtful there would have been a 'bad odour ' after just 4 days. I'm wondering if Martha was, understandably, expressing to Jesus her doubt that his intention to raise Lazarus was really viable, as it were.

    Even if there was an odor, I'm sure Martha would have wanted to run into it for her brother if she believed it would help.
    So despite the earlier declaration, at this point, Martha must have had some reasonable doubts as to the outcome. Wherever the smell was on the fabricated/valid scale
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    I suspect the whole experience was such a wild ride that she didn't know quite WHERE she stood from one moment to the other. I mean, she reaches the shining heights of her faith declaration in conversation with Jesus, but immediately they talk about moving the stone, her practical side jumps up and says "Oh, but the smell..."

    And smell IS a real problem very quickly after death, particularly in a warm climate. Ask anyone who's ever left chicken or beef sitting out too long.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    To be honest, I think her shining height declaration is rather different than a full assent to what we, the readers, know that Jesus is going to do.

    When he says “do you believe this?“, her reply is somewhat equivocal. “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God, the one coming into the world.”

    My own reading of this is that she does not fully understand what Jesus is proposing to do, but expresses trust in him personally.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    Definitely the personal trust--

    but there's also the "even now I know that God will do whatever you ask him to do," which is in my eyes anyway, a pretty broad hint that Jesus ought to ask for Lazarus' resurrection! I mean, what else? I assume the family had heard of the other people he raised....

    But then, I could be wrong.
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