By the Rev. Dr. Nathan Hart 鈥�01
Hinga-Boersma Dean of the Chapel
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Dimnent Memorial Chapel Holland, Michigan
Our passage for today is 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. This can be found on page 938 of the pew Bibles.
(Let us pray. Lord, we have opened your word. Please open our hearts and minds for understanding and application. Amen.)
Graduation weekend often includes many embraces. Graduates receive hugs鈥攃ongratulatory hugs鈥攆rom their families and from one another. There are high-fives, hoots and hollers, maybe some sighs of relief, and so often, hugs.
I remember the first church where I served as a pastor after I graduated from seminary many years ago. The church was on the North Shore of Long Island. Long Islanders love to give hugs and those European-style kisses on the cheek. After church services on Sundays, when I greeted the congregation as they were leaving the sanctuary doors, I would receive many hugs and kisses from them. I remember this vividly because another thing about Long Islanders is their love for perfume and cologne. As they embraced me at the sanctuary doors, their aromas would get on me.
Sunday afternoons were interesting. My wife Nancy has a keen sense of smell, and when she would get close to me after church, she would say things like, 鈥淥h, so Allen greeted you today,鈥� or, 鈥淪usan must have given you a double portion of kisses on the check because you reek of her perfume.鈥�
The Bible says that Christians are the aroma of Christ. Graduates, you will be embraced by your loved ones this weekend, but if we at 麻豆视频网站 have done our jobs well, you have also experienced the loving embrace of Jesus at some point over these past four years. I hope that his scent is on you, and will remain on you, as you go out from this place and are spread into the world.
This might actually be the most effective way we can bring hope to the world! Let鈥檚 look more closely at our passage so we can understand our call as hope-bringers.
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.
鈥淐hrist leads us in triumphal procession.鈥� Later today, you, the graduating class of 2025, will line up in triumphal procession at Commencement. During the time and place 2 Corinthians was written, 鈥渢riumphal procession鈥� would have brought to mind Romans soldiers returning from battle, marching triumphantly after winning the battle. That鈥檚 a fitting illustration for your triumphal procession today: You have finished the battle and accomplished the goal of earning your degree. But what the Bible is getting at here is not so much a procession celebrating triumph over a battle that we ourselves have fought and won, but the battle fought and won on our behalf. Jesus our Savior went to war against the enemy of our souls, he went to battle against the power of Sin and the influence of Satan. And he won the battle. When he died on the cross he paid the penalty for our sins, and when he rose from the dead he defeated death itself and the Kingdom of Darkness. The grave could not hold him. Jesus won the victory! Amen?
And so we walk in triumphal procession.
Look again with me at verse 14: Christ leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.
Those Roman soldiers returning from battles probably had a certain scent on them. The scent of violence, sweat, and human might. But the fragrance that comes from knowing Jesus is more like the residue of perfume from a loving embrace, like the ones I used to receive at the church doors in Long Island.
And for all who receive the embrace of Jesus, which is the love of God, his aroma gets on us.
15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God
That鈥檚 interesting. The aroma of Christ鈥� to God. In the Old Testament, there is language about our worship being like incense, the scent of which rises up to heaven and is pleasing in the nostrils of God. Our worship of Jesus is a pleasing aroma to God. But it鈥檚 not only 鈥渢o God.鈥� When the aroma of Christ is on us, it spreads out into the world, too. Graduates, as you leave this place of embrace and head out into the world, people are going to smell Christ on you! They鈥檙e going to experience the effects of your proximity to Jesus:
15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
I love that last phrase, 鈥渨ho is sufficient for these things?鈥� In other words, how are we to understand this concept that the aroma of Christ smells like life to some people, and like death to others?
A story might help illustrate this point.
After I served at the church in Long Island, Nancy and I moved to New York City. There, we had a good friend named Derek. Derek grew up in an upper middle class home but when he moved to the big city, his heart broke for the people he met who were experiencing homelessness. In total solidarity with the poor, he did something radical. He began living on the streets, too. He got into proximity with the most destitute people of the homeless population. The folks who hadn鈥檛 accessed a shower or a haircut or a toothbrush in a long, long time. He heard their stories, he ate in their soup kitchens, he slept in an abandoned factory. He shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them on their turf. And after some time of doing this, he began to smell like they smell. He smelled like the streets of New York City.
I remember this well because Derek would sometimes visit us in our neat and tidy apartment in Manhattan. We would invite Derek for dinner and empty our drawers of socks and warm clothing that he could distribute to his friends on the streets. But whenever Derek was in our home, well, his aroma鈥攖he scent of living on the streets鈥攆illed the space. I would open windows but it would take a couple days after he left for the residue of the smell to dissipate.
At first, I didn鈥檛 like it. But the more I reflected on it, and the more I thought about why Derek smelled as he did, I began to honestly really appreciate the reminder. I learned to love the aroma that Derek brought into our lives. Derek鈥檚 solidarity with the poor and the homeless reminded me of the sweet aroma of the sacrificial love of Jesus. After all, that鈥檚 what Jesus did for us. He moved into our neighborhood. He could have remained in the comfort of the glory of his rightful position on the throne of heaven. But he stepped down, humbled himself and became a servant among us. He was obedient to death, even death on a cross. He probably didn鈥檛 smell very good on the day he died.
The aroma of Christ is not necessarily all perfumy and floral or like an ocean breeze, at least when we first encounter it.
And as you go out from this place into the world and meet people who don鈥檛 yet know Jesus, they might get a whiff of you and not be impressed. They might say, 鈥淥h, you went to a Christian college? Ick.鈥�
Maybe they鈥檝e met 鈥渇ake鈥� Christians who are more interested in worldly victory like a Roman soldier smelling like dominance after fighting the culture wars. But that鈥檚 not us, Hope College.
17 For we are not peddlers of God鈥檚 word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.
Hopefully, you experienced this, you experienced standing in the presence of God. Hopefully, you felt the loving embrace of Jesus during your time at Hope. Hopefully, you witnessed the sacrificial love of God, who became a servant among us, who stood in our place on the cross and who died the death we deserve. Hopefully you encountered the living Christ, the post-resurrection Christ who fought the fight and won the battle for us. And hopefully you now have his scent on you鈥攖he scent of sacrificial love鈥攁s you join the triumphal procession with so many others and become the aroma of Christ to God in this world.
And I want to say one more thing that seems important to communicate. It鈥檚 possible that you鈥檙e sitting here thinking, I didn鈥檛 really feel the warm embrace of the sacrificial love of Jesus during my time at Hope College. I didn鈥檛 take advantage of chapel, or Sunday worship, or spring break immersion trips, or being in a Bible study, or all the other ways we offer of getting into proximity with Jesus. Or maybe you did attend these things but didn鈥檛 meet the Jesus described in the Bible.
Well, here鈥檚 some good news. Jesus doesn鈥檛 only exist at Hope College. He鈥檚 everywhere. He鈥檚 in faraway exotic places like Long Island and Byron Center and Indianapolis and wherever else the triumphal procession will lead you to in the coming days, months, and years. My advice to you is to get into proximity with him. Find a local church and commit to it. Volunteer in a ministry that loves and serves the poor.
I know that you鈥檒l meet Jesus there, that you鈥檒l feel his loving embrace. I know you鈥檒l get his scent on you.
By the end of today, on your graduation gown, you might have a little residue of the perfume or cologne of someone who loves you.
But as you go out into the world, as you march in that triumphal procession of this class and of all the Hope alumni who have gone before you, let your life be the sweet aroma of Christ to God, who 鈥�through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.鈥�
Amen.