Title: That Person's Scent
that person's scent
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
2007.8.18
*Can you hear the smell of ripe rice, the sound of the sun fading?
Someone I met recently donated 35 million won and asked me to build a chapel for the poor and pretty people in the Philippines or anywhere.
do you go to church?
Kwon Sa-in's mother said that she had to go on General Mobilization Sunday, so I only went two or three times.
But if you know what the happiest thing is, what's the big deal? What is not a problem, I think it is a very broad and deep word.
Why is this person doing this, the thought that has me captivated.
*
The area around the mountain we commonly call Baekdu Mountain is called [Changbai Mountain] by the Chinese. As those of you who have been there know, no matter how many hours by bus you go, it is a birch forest. A beautiful white birch tree that soars into the sky. So it's really 'long white'. But in that remote forest, there were people hunting bees in the forest where only the birch trees were thick. Where there are no flowers, only trees. Are not you curious? I was curious too. The people there said that the honey there was made by sucking the sap of the birch, not from the flowers. A sweet juice comes from the birch. It is said that not only birch trees, but oak trees, and any other trees, have a sweet sap. It is said that bees can smell the soft, mild smell that is carried by the wind even from 10 li away.
Humans cannot keep up with insects or animals when it comes to smell. It probably wasn't originally. Chinese people say that to become a chef, you have to taste 400 flavors and smell 200 kinds. However, as we usually use our hands and brains and use our words a lot over a long period of time, our sensory ability to smell and hear sounds gradually weakens. Recently, with the development of business civilization, the sensory function is also gradually deteriorating. As a result, we are losing one ‘joy of enjoying smells’.
When you climb the mountain, the smell of forest and resin; when you go to the field, the smell of watermelon grass, mugwort and wild flowers; when you go to the river, the smell of fishy water and rotting meat scales; The smell of the furnace.... Did you not live by smelling such a smell and sometimes breathing deeply in your heart? There was a time when the proportion of living by smell was much higher than the proportion of living with head, hands or feet. In my opinion, in terms of the true nature of life, living by smelling is far more honest than living with your head, hands, or feet. Smell can't decorate or deceive. Where there is a forest, there is the smell of forest, and where there is manure, there is the smell of rotting manure. Smells are just as reliable as the smell.
It is said that an ozone advisory was issued last Friday, saying that the ozone concentration in Chuncheon was 0.017ppm higher than the warning issued standard (0.12ppm). There is no fresh air anywhere. What's the smell like this? Would you like to live by smell? You can smell the strong perfume that people spray on the subway, and the street is all about the pungent smell of burning meat from cooking. The smell of chemical fabrics in the car and the smell of new electronics, furniture and clothes are not pleasing to us. So people have been living in fear of smelling since when. Isn't the [smell] that people lost while living in civilization like this, touching, seeing, eating, and thinking?
I believe that the act of deceiving a fake doctor or academic background, which is a fundamental social problem, is also because people have lost the honesty they should live by [smell]. Doesn't that happen because you don't smell that person, but just look, touch, judge, and judge? We judge people only by documents with their eyes, their hands, their pockets, and their epaulettes. That person's smell is useless. The smell of a farmer, the smell of a fishmonger, the smell of the intestines of the owner of a jajangmyeon restaurant. Isn't this the true face of the most honest person? People who have thrown away the smell ask about their origins and background, the school they graduated from, their family relationships, and where they live. Where in Chuncheon is it unreasonable that children ask ‘which apartment do you live in?’ What kind of work is this? It's raising a strange beast. This way of life is increasingly making humans lonely.
We know one person. He lived in Galilee with tax collectors, sinners, and little ones, and lived a really good life. Many people liked him and flocked to him. Not because he had great fortune or power, nor because he learned from him subtle wisdom, nor because he saw amazing miracles. Because he had a real human scent.
When he told Peter and Andrew that he would make them fishers of men, they left their nets without hesitation and followed them. When he stayed at Zacchaeus' house, Zacchaeus became a completely new man and offered to give half of his fortune to the poor. Nothing special happened, just meeting him once, how could such a big change happen? Because he had the scent of a true man. Because they have smelled such a fragrance that makes them feel that he is in them, that they are in him (John 14:20). The Samaritan woman who left her water jar while talking with him at the well of the city and ran to the town (John 4:5-29), and no woman who was caught in adultery and nearly killed, but who escaped harm by his wit (John 8) :3-11), it is believed that he smelled the fragrance of a true man.
Paper wrapped in fish smells fishy, and paper wrapped in flowers smells like flowers. Likewise, those who like him, who live with him, and who follow him, have the same fragrance. Paul calls this “the fragrance of Christ.”
“We are the fragrance of Christ before God, both to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).
Because of their appearance, many problems arose within the church. A distinction was made between those who met certain qualifications or conditions and those who did not, and further discrimination and division occurred. For example, it is the distinction between those who have received tongues and those who have not, so-called “spiritual people” who have received the Holy Spirit and those who have not. This distinction was further extended to discrimination between Jews and Gentiles, the haves and the have-nots, the educated and the uneducated, and those of good origin and those who were not. This divided the believers and shook the foundations of the whole community. At the same time, questions and debates began to arise among the believers as to what the ‘qualification of a Christian’ or ‘the evidence of one who has received the Holy Spirit’ is.
In this situation, Paul rebuked those who caused such a scandal, and in order to guide other believers rightly, he said that Christians are “the fragrance of Christ.” If they are true Christians, their Christianness must be manifested at once in their lives, not in their origins or qualifications. If they are truly recipients of the Holy Spirit, their spirituality must be revealed without explanation in their lives, not by asserting any gift of the Holy Spirit or any condition, such as tongues. The zealots of the Corinthian church and the enemies of Paul are those who have everything they need in terms of external qualifications and conditions. But they denounced those who did not have certain qualifications because they had them, and they ignored those who did not meet certain conditions because they had them. In that sense, they do not have the most important qualifications as Christians. This is what Paul is saying to them.
“What kind of Christians are you if you do not smell the fragrance of Christ?”
“But to those who are perishing it is a smell of death that leads to death, and to those who are being saved it is a fragrance of life that leads to life” (2 Corinthians 2:16).
The 'fragrance of Christ' is not fragrant for everyone. Jesus had the fragrance of a true man. For those who followed Jesus, it must have been a scent that, after smelling it, could not be forgotten and loved and longed for until death. But the same thing was not a scent to the Pharisees, but a “smell of death.” They hated the scent of Jesus. So, after meddling and arguing in every case, he did not hesitate to even crucify him. They regarded the scent of true man as a stench, and instead regarded the smell of power and money as a scent. That smell emanated from the Roman governor's palace, from Herod's palace, and from the house of the high priest. After they smelled such money and power, they flocked only there. Just as flies flock to decaying things, as eagles flock to where the carcass is (Matthew 24:28).
No need to think about the old ones. The world is full of people who live by the smell of money or power. There are only two words in our society right now. These are [Politics] and [Stock or Financial Tech]. A person who can smell this smell better than a dog, better than a fly or a bee, is said to be a successful person. In fact, this is not a matter of smell in a strict sense, but a matter of the intuition of the sensitive reason and the determination of daring power. I mean, there's no smell. For these people, what comes from Jesus, who lived without a place to lay his head, who had no worldly power and suffered suffering by the powerful, and who was with the poor and marginalized instead of with the rich and prosperous, is not a scent but a disgusting 'death'. It's probably just a smell. But for a true Christian, isn't it a fragrant 'fragrance of life'? No, the Christian himself is the fragrance.
Who is a real Christian? Aren't you a person whose life exudes the fragrance of Jesus before he even introduces himself? I'm hanging out here these days.