“Can you smell that?” asks Scott Spencer’s wife. “No dear,” he replies, not to fret her, but because he genuinely doesn’t smell it. Spencer, author and New Testament scholar, says of today’s passage, John 11:1-45, “It features co-mingled scents of life and death, powerful odors, from the most pleasant to the most putrid.” By the end of the passage, “The spring-like fragrance of fresh life deodorizes the whole scene.” But, in the four days between Lazarus’ death and being raised from the dead, Mary and Martha say to Jesus, “If only you had been here.” Have you ever uttered that phrase?…”If only…?” Spencer offers an alternative way to think. Listen as he prods us to consider the “what now…” of Lazarus’ resurrection and the “what now…” in our lives.
