MORE CLOTHING IMAGERY
Every other person who will someday walk through the Pearly Gates will do so as “in Him.” In a purely legal sense, the entire human race is “in Him,” but no one could be happy entering heaven in that purely legal sense, for he would be miserable there, feeling totally out of place. He would run for the nearest exit. It’s in an experiential sense that we can want to be “in Christ.” Only then could we be happy there. But how does one experience this “oneness” “in Christ”? Jesus tells us, “Abide in Me . . .” (Jn. 15:4). He put us “in Himself” by virtue of His identity with us, His sacrifice. Now stay where I put you, He says. I put you in the Father’s hand, He says, and “no man is able to pluck [you] out of My Father’s hand” (Jn. 10:29). But be warned: the Calvinist idea of “once saved always saved” is a distortion of the truth. “No man” can pluck you out of that Hand, but you can jump out on your own! “Esau” enjoys the possession of a priceless “birthright,” but at any time he can sell it for “a mess of pottage.” You identify with Christ by entering in to His experiences all the way through His life, even up to His cross. And in that final point of identity your soul is welded to His soul as by a white hot flame of shared experience. “I am crucified with Christ,” says Paul; and “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ” (Gal. 2:20; 6:14). Christ’s point of self-humiliation becomes yours. You kneel with Him in Gethsemane; you join His prayer, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt”; you yield your arms to be nailed to the bars “with Him”; you endure the taunts and abuse of the leaders and the people “in Him”; you cry tears with Him, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” You are no longer a thoughtless child, for you are sentient now, you taste the bitter cup He drank “with Him.” On His cross, He died the death of the sinner; He died as an AIDS victim, a cancer victim; He is on Death Row; “as He hangs on the cross, bleeding, battered, powerless and forsaken, the last thing He looks like is God. Indeed, He scarcely looks human. He looks like nothing but a hell-bound, hell-deserving derelict,” says one thoughtful writer. He is “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). You join the royal family by identifying with Him there.
Thus Jesus defined it as the clearest demonstration of what the word faith means: “Go in peace,” He said; “thy faith hath saved thee” (vs. 50). Thus Jesus nailed down for all time to come a clear definition of faith: it is a heart-appreciation of what He has done for us in saving us from hell itself. When faith is so understood, it can do nothing else than “work” (Gal. 5:6).
Many are indifferent either to the suffering in the world or the suffering in the heart of God. If it is difficult for us to grasp that kind of identity with Him, that would indicate that we are immature, childish, the little flower girl at the wedding rather than the mature person the Bride is to become (see Rev. 19:6-9). In order to learn to identify with Christ, begin identifying with Him as He hangs on His cross. Read about it in Psalm 22 and Psalm 69. To read those two chapters with even a beginning of understanding stretches your spiritual muscles. Then “graduate” to identify with Christ in His high priestly ministry today in the Most Holy Apartment; sense His concern for the multitudes of people on this planet and His yearning for His church to cooperate with Him in ministry for them. Sense His disappointment; enter in to His message in Revelation 3:14-21, not to criticize His church, but to sense how He feels. When you finish a thoughtful study of the Book of Revelation, you will cry out with John, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (22:20). Instead of praying self-centered prayers, you will begin praying prayers for Christ to receive His reward.
It’s useless talking about following Christ unless we too, in principle, take up that same cross on which self is “crucified with Him” (Lk. 9:23; Rom. 6:6). (4) For self to be “crucified with Christ” appears terribly difficult for us, unless we understand how His “yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light,” as He says (Mt. 11:30). The answer: we identify with Christ; He is our new “Adam,” the new Head of our human race; not by works of obedience but by faith we “comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the agape of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that [we] might be filled with all the fullness of God,” that is, prepare for translation at His second coming (Eph. 3:18, 19). (5) Faith therefore is re-defined as “heart-work,” to borrow someone else’s definition, a heart appreciation of what it cost the Son of God to save us. The true definition of “faith” therefore is what Mary Magdalene experienced when the Lord cast seven devils out of her and she washed His feet with tears. He said to her: “Go in peace,” “thy faith hath saved thee” (Lk. 7:50). In other words, “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” not with the cold, calculating head only that figures that 2+2=4 (Rom. 10:10). “We love, because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).
The Saviour knew of this woman far in advance of their encounter in the midst of the throng. He made Himself available to her if not overtly, yet coming within her vicinity. “He came near where she was” (DA 343). She felt this was her opportune moment to connect with the “Great Physician”.
Mark 5:25 “And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years.”
5:26 “And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.”
The “good news” about Jesus had reached her ears and she had listened attentively. Earlier “she came to the seaside where He was teaching” (DA 347).
5:27 “When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment.” She knew Him to be the Saviour of the world, but she wanted to make a personal connection with Him in a way that only the present circumstances would permit.
5:28 “For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.” For her to touch His clothes was an act of identifying with Christ. It was not some sort of superstitious connection with garments that magically healed her. For her this touch meant a heart-union with the Saviour that would effect wholeness not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. Her life was draining away. She was staring death in the face. Her state of mind was depressed. Indeed, she was motivated out of personal need, but her restoration to wholeness could only be effected through identification with Christ.
5:29 “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.” Instantaneously the hemorraghe ceased. The slow inexorable march of death had been staunched—stopped in its tracks. Death had been reversed by the Saviour’s life-giving virtue.
5:30 “And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?”
5:31 “And His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?”
“A nominal faith in Christ, which accepts Him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth” (DA 347). All the people around Jesus wanted to be associated with Him. They believed Him to be “the Saviour of the world”. They wanted a personal assurance of salvation. Indeed, they did have a one-sided connection with the Vine. They were receiving their temporal life-blood or sap, if you please, as branches, from Him. All the blessings of life such as food, air, water, health, filial relations, community, security came to them as a very effective gift from Christ. However, there was no grateful acknowledgment on their part, nor any recognition whatsoever, that He was their Benefactor. Such is “a nominal faith in Christ”. “It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him.”
5:32 “And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing.”
5:33 “But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth.”
Her faith was no craven fear motivated by a self-centered insecurity. Genuine faith does manifest a healthy “fear” which is motivated by agape. It was gratitude arising from a diseased and rebellious heart that had now been fully reconciled to the Saviour. Her personal humiliation of a blood-flow was no longer concealed. There was “no guile” on her lips. She spoke the truth about her own case. Her confession of the truth regarding her own case was in agreement with God’s assessment. She manifested true repentance and a changed life. “Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power” (DA 347).
5:34 “And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”
He said to Mary: “Go in peace,” “thy faith hath saved thee” (Lk. 7:50). In other words, “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” not with the cold, calculating head only that figures that 2+2=4 (Rom. 10:10). “We love, because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). When Jesus said to the woman, “Go in peace” He removed her sins and restored her alienated heart to God which alone brings the peace. This is what is meant by his words to Mary, “And He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven” (Luke 4:48). Anyone who true recognizes his sins are forgiven knows that peace with God has come. Hostilities have ceased. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:10).
John 13:3 “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God;”
13:4 “He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself.”
The custom of the East is for a servant who performs this function is to lay aside all his garments which are above his tunic, or body-coat. He lays aside all his looser robes which might impede his ease or freedom, in order to serve the disciples. The common people of the East wear a loose shirt, large trowsers, long jacket, and a girdle round the loins. Others add a waistcoat and a flowing robe, under the girdle. Over all is a losse mantle (the coat of Scripture) with short but wide sleeves, and open in the front, though capable of being wrapped round with the arms in cold weather. It is very inconvenient to work in the wide under garment, and hence the peasants and servants do not adopt it. But in taking it off, the girdle must be first removed. Our Saviour then girded himself with a towel, and after washing his disciples’ feet, took off the towel and wiped them with it. He girded Himself with the towel. We know from the classical writers that the servant whose duty it was to attend to the washings of his master or his master’s guests, girded himself with a long piece of linen cloth, the end or both ends of which being left hanging loose, supplied the towel with which being left hanging loose, supplied the towel with which the hands were wiped after being washed. The towel around the waist was a proper and essential part of the equipment of the servant who discharged this office.
13:5 “After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.”
Feet-washing is a social custom we never do today. But it was common in ancient times. The people wore sandals, or went barefoot. Feet got dusty, muddy, How could you enjoy a cup of tea in the house of your host or eat at his table if your feet were uncomfortable? So he had a slave ready to wash them for you. Always it was an inferior who washed the feet of a superior. Never the other way around! Careful search reveals that there is absolutely no record in all the literature of antiquity where any superior washed the feet of an inferior, until we come to the story in John 13 where Jesus laid aside all His clothes except His underwear and washed the feet of His disciples. And He was the Son of God!
When Peter refused, He told him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me” (vs. 8). That’s backwards from what we think is appropriate for Him to say! He did not say, “Unless you wash My feet or the feet of others, you have no part with Me.” No; unless you let me, your Superior, wash your feet, you the inferior, you have no fellowship or identity with Me. That has always puzzled me. Why must we let Jesus wash our feet? And what does it do to us when we let Him do it? He said to the disciples that now that they had let Him wash their feet, “ye are clean,” that is, all but Judas.
What was it about His washing their feet that made them “clean”? I’m way over my head in trying to reason this out, but I have an idea: your heart is humbled when the Son of God lowers Himself to the plane of a slave and performs the most menial task for you. Gives you a bed-pan when you’re sick; you can never be the same afterwards, unless you steel your heart like Judas did against the overwhelming sense of wonder and humiliation that floods your selfish human heart. In a few hours the disciples were to watch transfixed as He hung naked on a cross. Please take a good long look, and let the miracle happen.
Matt. 27:27 “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.”
27:28 “And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe.”
Public abuse of prisoners, even adorning one as a king and beating him, occurred on other occasions. Games of mockery included the game of king. The “scarlet” robe is undoubtedly a faded red soldier’s cloak, which Mark (15:17) and John (19:2) apparently independently describe as “purple,” reflecting the color of garments worn by Hellenistic princes, hence the soldiers’ mockery. The soldiers provided Jesus with this “purple”, a scepter (probably from a bamboo cane used for military floggings), and a crown of thorns (probably woven from the branches of an available shrub like acanthus). The crown recalls the garlands worn by Hellenistic vassal princes, since only the highest ruler wore a diadem with white wool. The long thorns may thus have turned outward to imitate contemporary crowns rather than inward to draw blood, and the soldiers probably removed it along with the other mocking regalia before leading him to crucifixion. The reed provides “a mock staff or scepter”.
27:29 “And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand: and they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!”
Good News doesn’t tell you what to do in order to be happy; it tells you what to believe your Savior has already done, that makes you happy. And what has He done? He has saved you from hell itself. And what is hell? Oh yes, it’s terrible fire in the last day; but there’s also a hell on earth. Revelation 16:15 gives a glimpse of it: “Blessed [happy] is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” Do you want some hell right here and now? Let the natural you that you are, with all your natural-born lust and selfishness, be exposed publicly so that your reputation for honesty, decency and fidelity is “shattered,” so that even your family, friends, supporters, work-mates, feel betrayed. And no, you can’t mercifully go to sleep or chase off to some desert island alone—you have to stand naked before the world and endure the excruciating shame.
The Good News? Your Savior has saved you from having to endure that. Why do I say this? (1) Honestly, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). The real test of our character is how could we handle alluring temptation if we were fully exposed to it without a Savior. The little shrub in the calm valley shouldn't snicker when the giant oak on the mountain top goes down in the crushing fury of an awful storm; he should say thankfully, “There but for the grace of God go I.” (2) The “garments” that cover your natural nakedness of soul are not your righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness imputed and imparted to you as a gift given solely by grace and received solely by faith (Rev 19:8). (3) Isaiah 54:17 tells us that we have no righteousness of our own: “their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” (4) If you receive the gift of Christ’s righteousness by faith, that means that your natural sinful heart is melted by a realization of the love that has saved you, the love that led the Son of God to endure the hell that would have been yours. Not only was He “made to be a curse” for you when He died on His cross; He was exposed there naked, so that today you might be “clothed.” Reason enough to sing Hallelujah! And be humble from now on.
