I caught the Great British Bake
off on television the other night – quite by accident you understand. It was the Easter Masterclass with Mary Berry and Paul
Hollywood showing us how we can have a more calorific Easter. It was Paul’s task to bake the ultimate
hot cross buns and I must say they looked quite delicious.
While he was kneading away at his
dough, Paul recalled the days when his father’s bakery turned out thousands of
hot cross buns every Easter.
And he had ways of making sure everyone know they were on the go. He would mix in some bun essence with a
pail of water and then wash the floor of the shop. Everyone who came in was wrapped in the fragrance of the hot
cross buns. Even more craftily, he
placed a capful of bun essence above the extractor fan so that the fragrance would
flow out from the shop to hook unsuspecting passersby.
That’s how to pack them in and
ship out thousands of hot cross buns!
The Apostle Paul writes of
Christians as a fragrance that leads people to knowledge of Christ.
(2 Corinthians 2: 12-17) He
is realistic enough to know that not everyone will be captivated but to many
the Gospel we share and the values we embrace will be ‘the fragrance of
life’. That is what it means to
live the Easter faith. There is
too much in the world that gives off the stench of death, the materialism, the
violence, the injustice. Those who
have been touched by the story of Christ and live by His ways can show a better
way leading to renewal, the fragrance of life that flows from self-sacrifice,
compassion and truth.
Mr Hollywood’s bakery poured out
a fragrance that drew people in to taste and see. An Easter people, pouring out the fragrance of Christ,
brings the hope of life to the world.
