The last novel I read included a scene that took place in a Civil War hospital. Among the horrific images the author painted of the wounded and the dying, he added a graphic description of a certain doctors surgical practices. His practice included performing amputations on a bed of sand, to better capture and absorb the massive amounts of blood. The nurse character in the story is rightfully mortified by the doctor's carelessness. She is even more taken aback by the doctor's refusal to wash before performing surgery, something we cannot even comprehend these days! We see Medical Drama's where doctors scrub and are gloved, cleaning and remaining clean while they perform a tasks that are messy at best. Psalm 119 asks this question - "How can a young man keep his way pure?" A more direct translation might be "How can a young man keep his way clean?" What this implies is that the scrubbing has already been done. The young man is clean. Yet he is, like any child, inclined to get dirty quickly. When God calls us His children, we recognize that the only way this can happen is if He cleanses us from our sin. In His grace and mercy that cleansing, that scrubbing, that once and for all bath has taken place in our baptism into the blood of Christ. We are made His children, as spotlessly clean as the Lamb who shed His blood for us. While we are clean, we are also children. We're kids who are attracted to the messier parts of life. How can we, God's messy little babies keep clean? The Psalmist answers, by God's Word. The commandments of God, His directions are not meant to DO the scrubbing, they're like the gloves that keep the hands clean in the midst of the mess. God's rules, statutes and testimonies help us through the hard times, to make choices that cause the least amount of mess. This work of the Holy Spirit keeps our hearts pure as we continually turn, listen and follow God's Word as His redeemed children in Christ Jesus.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Washed and Ready
The last novel I read included a scene that took place in a Civil War hospital. Among the horrific images the author painted of the wounded and the dying, he added a graphic description of a certain doctors surgical practices. His practice included performing amputations on a bed of sand, to better capture and absorb the massive amounts of blood. The nurse character in the story is rightfully mortified by the doctor's carelessness. She is even more taken aback by the doctor's refusal to wash before performing surgery, something we cannot even comprehend these days! We see Medical Drama's where doctors scrub and are gloved, cleaning and remaining clean while they perform a tasks that are messy at best. Psalm 119 asks this question - "How can a young man keep his way pure?" A more direct translation might be "How can a young man keep his way clean?" What this implies is that the scrubbing has already been done. The young man is clean. Yet he is, like any child, inclined to get dirty quickly. When God calls us His children, we recognize that the only way this can happen is if He cleanses us from our sin. In His grace and mercy that cleansing, that scrubbing, that once and for all bath has taken place in our baptism into the blood of Christ. We are made His children, as spotlessly clean as the Lamb who shed His blood for us. While we are clean, we are also children. We're kids who are attracted to the messier parts of life. How can we, God's messy little babies keep clean? The Psalmist answers, by God's Word. The commandments of God, His directions are not meant to DO the scrubbing, they're like the gloves that keep the hands clean in the midst of the mess. God's rules, statutes and testimonies help us through the hard times, to make choices that cause the least amount of mess. This work of the Holy Spirit keeps our hearts pure as we continually turn, listen and follow God's Word as His redeemed children in Christ Jesus.
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2 comments:
You say in your blog: “’How can a young man keep his way clean?’ What this implies is that the scrubbing has already been done. The young man is clean.”
Jesus uses similar words in John 13:10: Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
Jesus said the verse in John 13:10 during the Last Supper when He was washing the disciples feet. He is using the act of physical washing to symbolize a spiritual truth. The physical truth was that the disciples were already clean by bathing, only their feet were dirty. But what does this bathing Jesus refer to in a spiritual sense? Jesus apparently leaves this topic as proceeds to talk to the disciples about Judas’ betrayal, a new commandment, Peter’s denial, Jesus as the way/life/truth, the Holy Spirit, and the true vine and vinedresser. In the middle of speaking about the true vine, two chapters later in John 15, He says a single statement about being clean:
John 15:3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Jesus then resumes his discussion about how the branch must abide in the vine. It seems to me that John 15:3 is somewhat out of context and would be better suited to directly follow John 13:10. Of course, Jesus had a reason to delay his final statement on “you are clean” for two chapters. I guess I have two questions:
1) Why did Jesus conclude his John 13:10 discussion much later in John 15:3 with a single, seemingly out of context statement?
2) What "word" is Jesus referring to in John 15:3 that He already had spoke that made the disciples clean?
Deep questions BJH! Always when we're talking about the role of water and the word in Scripture!
You may have heard me say that I believe water to be elemental to God. We can note that in Genesis "God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of god was hovering over the waters." Interesting that the element that we cannot live without drinking and cannot become clean without using is present with God before He creates anything! In the Gospel of John, water for drinking and cleansing is critical in Jesus own Baptism, the miracle at Cana, Nicodemus' "rebirth" narrative, the woman in Samaria, healing at Bethesda, the Feast of Booths statement - (Come and drink!) the blind man at Siloam ,the washing of the disciples feet and finally mixed with the blood at the end of the soldiers spear. Jesus statement isn't out of context in John 15:3 inasmuch as it is inclusive of the same message Jesus has been proclaiming all along. Man is reborn of water and the Spirit. This "baptism" is from God, not man. It is a cleansing of the very living Word of God, over and above the spoken - the Word is Jesus Himself. It is by remaining in Jesus alone, the "baptism into His death" as Paul says, which makes us finally and truly clean. Jesus is pointing to a now not yet reality for the crew. They are made clean in the presence of the living Word, they will be made clean in the water and blood spilled at the cross.
Probably more than you wanted to know!!!
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