“Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord…”

I sang this hymn on Easter as a child and felt the depth of the words. It depicted the last days and events of Holy Week, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I felt the blueness of the betrayal on a tiny scale that He might have experienced and also the loss of all hope the disciples dealt with. I also sensed the joy of Mary in realizing it was Jesus arisen from the grave in the garden the third day. Thus—“up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph over His foes…”—as the hymn continues. And what a triumph indeed.

We are salt and light in this dark and corrupt world—witnesses of how Jesus transforms lives—the message of Easter. Scripture also admonishes that we are “a scent of death to the dying and a fragrance of life to the living.” The years of the pandemic was a global battle of life and death of biblical proportions! And the struggle continues with war, wonders in the heavens, evil and hatred running outrageously ramped. This metaphor illustrates the urgency of the message in this hour.

The essence of life hidden and abiding in Christ is to bring stark awareness to the life or death sentencing hovering over each soul until he or she chooses the atonement of the Lamb of God.

May my life be so fragrant of life and death that this watching world be brought to the ultimate question of, “What will you do with Jesus?”

“Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a scent of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16).

What will you do with Jesus?