Clothing and Cleanliness (Luke 7, 24)

Last year in a Growing Strong course, I was challenged to read through the Bible completely again, and today I finished. I read the whole differently than I have before, reading in much larger chunks to get a better sense of the connectedness of the Word before slowing down to digest it. In the OT, I plowed straight through from beginning to end, but in the NT, I meandered, and I finished not in Revelation as might be expected, but in the book that I am currently teaching, Luke. 

I love that God’s Word is faithful and true just as He is. It all connects and intertwines, and the addition of the Holy Spirit working and His timing (not mine!) in the reading is critical to pull it all together. Today’s ending in Luke connects with tonight’s teaching of Luke which connects with where I began (and where I’ll start again tomorrow).

God’s creation in Genesis was good, and in the beginning clothing was not necessary as there was no shame to be found in the dwelling together of man and wife in the Garden. But then man sinned (through the serpent’s enticement of the woman and her eagerness to share her discovery with her husband) and in their newfound shame, they hastily created coverings for themselves of skimpy fig leaves and hid in the bushes from God. God confronted their sin and there were dire eternal consequences, but He also made coverings for them, clothing them in garments of skin. Something had to die because of their sin in order for their shame to be covered. A sacrifice was required.

Fast forward to Luke 7. Our Bible study ended last week looking at Jesus’ feet being washed and perfumed by the sinful woman in the presence of unbelieving Pharisees. Jesus, in all humility, likewise would wash his own disciples’ feet at the Passover meal, serving them as the lowest of servants would, just before He died on the cross for not only them, but for the sins of all who would believe.

Then, finally, look at today’s reading in Luke 24 beginning at verse 45:

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (NASB)

Jesus helped His disciples remember not only all the Old Testament Scriptures but what He’d said to them as they’d walked alongside Him for three years, as they’d sat at His feet, often in confusion. Jesus planned to send them out but told them to be still for a bit and wait in the city to be “clothed with power from on high.” Jesus, who died for their sins, was about to ascend to His Father in heaven, and the disciples would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to aid them in their commission. They would have no shame because of Jesus’ work on the cross, His death and resurrection, and they would have coverings that were internal and effective rather than external and ineffective. The temporal outward covering of Adam and Eve because of their unrighteousness in the Garden due to their shame would now be an internal clothing, a comforting by the Spirit after the cleansing of the Son. The Father in His mercy clothes His children, hiding their shame in Christ. 

I love reading and studying God’s Word. As I Tim. 3:16-17 reminds us, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” We shouldn’t avoid difficult or seemingly obscure parts of the Scripture because all parts are useful. It is good to know God’s character and nature and see how the old points to the new to come.

Jesus now washes us with His spoken Word when we believe. We are clean because of His work, but we still live in this broken world and we pick up dirt (sin) on our journey, thus the need for daily washing, as Jesus mentioned to His disciples when He washed their feet. We want to continue the journey clean! This stands in contrast to the Pharisees and scribes, who were the keepers of the Word, and they were filthy on the inside while appearing clean on the outside. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs/sepulchers. Jesus’ disciples, however, were clean on the inside because of the Living Word.

My prayer for you is that you will be clothed in the righteousness of God, that you will pick up God’s Word daily, renewing your minds, equipping yourself for the work that God places in your paths as you walk. I pray that you will read eagerly, with joy, discovering daily through the work of the Spirit what God has hidden in His Word for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Be encouraged!