Apr 29

Written by: Michael A. Milton
4/29/2008 3:05 PM

Lilac Evangelism 

On a recent visit to a friend in the graduate school at Kansas State University, I encountered a fragrant surprise. As we walked around the beautiful campus of K-State, we talked about my friend's studies, his relationship with Christ, and his hopes and dreams.

 The soft light of a lazy Sunday afternoon turned to dusk. There was more to see of the campus so we disregarded the approaching darkness and continued our walk across fresh green lawns, up winding pathways, and past spiraling monuments. We passed rows and rows of great limestone and buffalo-brick academic buildings. I was struck by the beauty of the dogwood trees, redbuds, and massive lilac bushes that spread across the older part of the campus. The purple and white colors of K-State were reflected in the white dogwoods, lavender lilacs, and purple redbuds.

As we walked through the Eden-like splendor on that Lord's Day evening, I paused. There was something happening right before, well, right before our noses! The spring air of that Kansas night released an intense, sweet fragrance of the lilacs. We stood, my young friend and I, and breathed in the gift of that moment. We thanked God for what must have been very close to the fragrance of Eden! Now, I know some of you could never imagine in your most generous thoughts that Eden could be found in Manhattan, Kansas (especially those of you from the rival college town of Lawrence, Kansas). But I tell you at the end of that Lord's Day and a long trip that lilac-scented night was Eden to me! 

Later in my hotel room I thought about God's love in Jesus Christ. It is like a sweet fragrance that transforms our lives, and creates even on the untamed, dusty prairie landscape of our lives a taste of Eden.  This is what St. Paul meant when he wrote:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16, ESV)  

Matthew Henry, the old Puritan Presbyterian preacher, wrote of this passage: 

 ”A believer’s triumphs are all in Christ. To Him be the praise and glory of all, while the success of the Gospel is a good reason for a Christian’s joy and rejoicing. In ancient triumphs, abundance of perfumes and sweet odours were used; so the name and salvation of Jesus, as ointment poured out, was a sweet savour diffused in every place. Unto some, the Gospel is a savour of death unto death. They reject it to their ruin. Unto others, the Gospel is a savour of life unto life: as it quickened them at first when they were dead in trespasses and sins, so it makes them more lively, and will end in eternal life.” 

Our lives, so infused with the essence of grace through faith in Jesus Christ, are pressed down, sometimes in the darkness and the cool breezes, and sometimes through affliction. But the darkness and the afflictions in our lives are used by God to release that essence of grace as a sweet fragrance.

For some that breathe it the fragrance is alluring. They want to linger and learn about the essence that has released the fragrance. For in their hearts they want the salvation that Jesus brings. They are tired of barren, treeless landscapes of their life. They want to walk the walk you are walking. They want eternal life. Others, over whom you have no control, despise the fragrance. They are, at least for now, allergic in their souls to the sweetest of Gospel fragrances. One man is damned by very thing that delights another. But we thank God that some are saved. 

And so I am thinking. Thinking of spring. Thinking of lilacs. Thinking of how Christ uses all things to bring about His glory in the world.  

I pray that our students, here at RTS Charlotte, look at the beauty of the spring in our own city, on our own campus, and remember their calling. For we go forth into a world that is full of people longing for Eden. And we are God's sweet aroma to lead them home. 

 

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