His essence
I have recently learned of an unusual gift item from rural Minnesota advertised now over the Christmas holidays. Improbably, it is a candle that is said to smell like Jesus. You can set it on an end table in your living room or den and burn it when you are feeling devout. Its creators report that even if you re not religious, the scent gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. It is a blended scent, we are told, involving myrrh, aloe and cassia. They call it, simply, His Essence. (See the story here).
A candle that smells like Jesus?
The concept, certainly, is unusual enough. But what really drew my attention was an apologetic caveat offered by the candle s creators in their write-up for WCCO News. If the buying public is not religious at all, why, they should note that the candle produces just a subtle scent. [We] think it can be shared by all.
A candle that smells like Jesus is provocative enough. But then to presume that the scent would be subtle this adds insult to injury.
It makes marketing sense, I suppose. If you are marketing the scent of the Savior, it is best, probably, to focus on his subtle characteristics, his gentle side, his affinities for children and aloe and cassia. But St. Paul describes the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus in his letter to the Corinthians and let me tell you, there is nothing subtle about it (2 Corinthians 2:14ff.). It is the fragrance of death and of life. It is the fragrance of One who calls us to take up our cross and follow him. It is an aroma of a very special sort, involving sacrifice and mission, love and obedience, humble service and raptured visions of heaven. It is the aroma of the Lord Most High.
The Jesus candle is distributed by a small company in Minnesota. But the true aroma of our Lord Christ is carried by his followers not by scented candles, if you please, but by people like you and me. When you give and pray and go in the name of the Savior, you spread the aroma of Jesus.
We live in a world that is badly in need of it. Let us not be subtle.