EMBRACING THE “CINDERELLA” WITHIN
The Cinderella story resonates strongly with most young girls. My daughter loves that genre or story type and enjoys the variations of it like Ella Enchanted or Ever After. For many young girls the fantasy builds to include their wedding day and visions of what their Prince Charming may look like.
With boys…well, not so much. Yeah, telling a boy he has a “Cinderella” within will get you an unpleasant reaction. We used to call guys with dreams of romance “Cinderfella.” Boys are born to be boys with manly dreams. We dream of phone conversations that are over in 30 seconds flat; we dream of killing our own food; we dream of watching sports quietly with a buddy for hours without thinking, “he must be mad at me”; and hey, if another guy shows up at a party in the same outfit, we will probably become life-long buddies. We only know the names of five colors, us guys: blue, red, yellow, green…blue (I said that one already).
I hate to break it to you guys but there really is a Cinderella story within us. It is the story of transformation and of rising up from humble origins. And just to soothe you men, you know that sports often use the Cinderella metaphor for teams that shouldn’t be in the playoffs.
Michael Griffiths once wrote a book with the intriguing title “Cinderella With Amnesia.” The cover shows a picture of Cinderella sitting in rags by the fireplace. She is gazing at a glass slipper in her hand, and her face reveals utter bewilderment. She obviously has no idea what it is or where it came from. Although somewhere out there the prince pursues her as the love of his life, she has completely forgotten. She has no idea who she is, nor the wonderful future she could enjoy. What a tragedy!
This is the story of Israel too, sitting in exile in Babylon forgetting who she is and the grace she possesses. In Isaiah 52 we read of four word pictures that tell a divine Cinderella story, of God’s love for his people. It tells of God’s plan to restore her and to marry her. The Church of Jesus Christ is often referred to as the Bride of Christ in the NT and so this is our story too. But this is no fairytale; this is a drama based on real life events.
1. Put on your wedding clothes
Different types of clothing can change the way you feel about yourself. If you wear jeans and a t-shirt to a formal banquet you will feel quite out-classed. Wear a suit and tie to a hockey game and someone may mistake you for the general manager. What you wear affects how you feel about yourself.
Isaiah commands Jerusalem to awaken after having drunk from the bitter cup of God’s anger. He says, “Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again” (52:1).
Isaiah saw a vision of Zion in the future, a future where exile had dulled them to their spiritual inheritance. Bondage and sin and misery had given them amnesia. So Isaiah awakens them and tells them to put on two kinds of clothing. First he says to clothe themselves with strength, that is, to get ready for action. God is about to do something new and has laid out clothes of strength to put on. Then he says to put on clothes of splendor, clothes that bring to mind royalty and priestly reverence. For Zion had a twofold purpose: to reign as kings over the earth and to act as priests interceding for the world.
Become who you were meant to be Israel, Isaiah says. They had been violated by the Babylonians and made to feel like dirt. You know how that is when your dignity has been torn down, your dreams crushed, and your personal worth seemingly devalued. You have felt it when your sins convinced you that you were unworthy of God’s grace. You knew it when you could do nothing to erase that feeling of shame that came with your sin. Nothing you could do made you feel right before God. We all know we are God’s people but we feel so unrighteous. That is why we wear clothes that are more appropriate for mourning and grieving and slavery.
Isaiah says wake up, snap out of it. “Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive daughter of Zion” (52:2). God’s people had been sitting in the dust like prisoners. Now he tells them to shake it off and sit on the throne as his queen.
After you wake up, what do you do? You put on clothes. But this is no ordinary day. Today you will put on wedding clothes, clothes that the LORD has laid out for you. Get ready for action – get ready to rule and serve. We are kings and priests as Peter said, “…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pe 2:9). That is us he is talking to…the Church. Be what you what you were meant to be.
The new clothes have been laid out so leave the chains of your sin and slavery in the dust. You don’t need to be enslaved anymore. Put on the clothes and sit on the throne – be a child of God, his royal children, his priests. Put off the old self and put on the new.
You are Cinderella. Take off the old rags. Here’s your beautiful gown. Your Prince has been looking for you and you are going to the big dance. You are going to the show.
2. Waiting for your Prince to come
How has this new status been achieved? On what do we rely for assurance that this Cinderella story is true?
The key to this prison cell is in v. 3: “For this is what the LORD says: ‘You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed’” (52:3).
When you sell your home, as I understand it, the house is still yours until the buyer’s deposit is in your bank account. If the buyer never pays up the house is still yours. Isn’t that correct?
The LORD sold Jerusalem to the Babylonians because of Jerusalem’s sin. But money never exchanged hands. No price was asked and none was paid. Therefore Jerusalem still belongs to the LORD. Her captivity is a temporary thing. Since no money was involved in the transaction, money will not be used to buy her back, but something else will.
However captivity has been unpleasant. In v. 4 we hear the LORD saying “my people…were oppressed” and “my people…were mocked.” Babylon laughed at the slave who would be queen; they laughed at their God who seemed unable to save them from this condition.
This does not sit well with the LORD. He says, “…all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that say they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I” (52:5-6).
The LORD acts for two reasons: he cannot tolerate the misery of his people and because his reputation is on the line. To know his name is to know who God is; to know his name is to know what he is about. When the LORD’s people are abused it is a personal affront to the LORD himself. So he will act and show them the power of “I AM.”
This is the same power that elevates a poor little house maid from the level of scrubbing floors to the status of a queen. We may feel like slaves to sin, trapped in the same destructive patterns that cycle over and over, but we belong to the LORD. Our sin paid no price for us and therefore does not own us. Our God may have paid no money to win us back but he has paid an enormous price. It didn’t cost the LORD any money; it cost the LORD everything. It cost him his Son. What Jesus did for us on the Cross set us free from slavery to sin and gave us the new clothes to wear. This act tells us that we belong to God, not to sin, and is the great evidence that proves our status as kings and priests.
We wait with joy for our Prince to come without fear or hesitation because we belong to him. He has bought us and raised us from peasants to royalty.
3. Try on the Glass Slipper
When Cinderella puts on the glass slipper everyone is astonished that her foot is the only foot that fits. Astonished but convinced – the King’s man has no doubt in his mind that this is the woman the Prince was looking for. I imagine that her dainty foot is covered in dust and soot, grimy with working the floors and hearth. But the shoe fits and it proclaims her new status.
Isaiah uses the picture of a military victory to express the joy of this new status. He wrote, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (52:7).
The picture is of a messenger bounding over the mountains, racing from the battlefield to tell the waiting city that the war is over, the battle is won. Feet, in those days, were always dirty and were a lowly part of the body. But the news is so great that even the runner’s feet are considered beautiful. He announces peace – not just the absence of war but human wholeness. He announces salvation – freedom from oppression. He announces that “Our God Reigns!” – He always did but now the world will see the full expression of his reign.
Historically though, Babylon is conquered by Persia who sends Israel home. Persia is conquered by Greece who is then subdued by the Romans. Israel returned home but always seemed to be under the rule of another power. So Isaiah must have envisioned a greater victory to come over a greater enemy.
The Apostle Paul provides the clue we need to understand what this battle is as he used Isaiah 52:7 to say this: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Ro 10:14-17).
Paul is speaking about both Jew and Gentile and wondering how any of them can hear the good news about Jesus unless someone proclaims him. The good news in the Isaiah passage is that God reigns, having won a great victory. This victory has brought both peace and salvation. The same is true in the NT but the enemy is Satan. God went to war against Satan and won the victory on the Cross. By defeating Satan in this way and raising Jesus from the dead, the Lord establishes his reign. The most telling statement in the NT of this truth is the confession that Jesus is Lord – Our God reigns.
The glass slipper fits the grimy foot of the peasant sinner and proclaims to the world – Jesus is King. Isn’t that something? It is, and it is something to run all over the mountains telling the world about. “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it for their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together…” (52:8-9).
One of the men who caught the joy of the LORD and proclaimed it was a little guy named Billy Bray. He was a Cornish miner. He had one of the most remarkable salvation experiences you ever saw in all of your life. Billy Bray was so happy — he shouted all the time. He bothered people. He had so much joy, just shouting all the time. And somebody said to him one time, “Billy Bray, why don’t you tone down some? You’re just too happy. You’ve got too much joy all the time.” Billy Bray said, “I can’t help it. God saved me and I can’t help it. When I put down one foot it says hallelujah, and when I put down the other foot it says glory to God.”
And they said, “Billy, suppose you’re mistaken? Suppose when you die you find out that you’re not going to Heaven after all, you’re going to Hell.” Old Billy said, “Praise God, I’ve been having a wonderful time in the Lord all through the years. Jesus has been good to me and if I die and go down to Hell, then I’ll be thankful for the joy Jesus brought me in life. I’ll shout all over Hell and they’ll have to send me up to Heaven because they can’t stand that kind of joy down there.”
4. The “Ever after” ending
With the Cinderella story Prince Charming comes and takes his girl away and we assume that they live happily ever after. The story is finished.
Our story does not end that way exactly. Isaiah cries out: “Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the LORD. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (52:11-12).
This image contains all the impact of the original Exodus out of Egypt. The night the Israelites left Egypt, they ate the Passover with their cloaks tucked in their belts, sandals on their feet, staffs in their hands (Ex 12:11). They plundered the Egyptians taking all their gold and valuables. At that moment they were not delivered yet but they were sure they would be and soon.
This same air of keen expectancy is felt in the Isaiah passage. A new Exodus was about to take place. But this time they would leave the gold and valuables behind. This time they would leave Babylon only with the precious articles of God’s temple that the Babylonians had stolen. This time they would leave calmly and without an army pursuing them.
There is no mistaking that this is also a metaphor of the Christian hope. We will leave the bondage of this earth when our Prince returns. All that is material and temporal will be left behind – we will take no unclean thing with us. The only things we will leave with are the spiritual treasures we have attained through Christ. As the Jews had that keen sense of expectancy we also as followers of Christ keenly expect Jesus to return and claim his bride.
John saw this and wrote: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev 21:2). John is speaking of the Church and he says the dwelling of God will be in their midst.
At the end of C. S. Lewis’ book, The Last Battle, on the last page of the last book in The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan speaks to Peter, Edmund and Lucy:
"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." (C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, 228).
That is how we as Christians view this life. It is only the title page of a fantastic story yet to be told. This life is merely preparation for the adventure with Christ that is coming.
I am not asking that we get in touch with our feminine side gentlemen. I am not asking ladies that we fictionalize and romanticize the good news of Jesus Christ. What Isaiah calls us to is a realization of the wonderful transformation that has taken place in all of us through the good news of God. That is something we want to proclaim with joy and shouting.
For Cinderella the story is over. For you and I the story has barely begun. We have so much to look forward to and we can throw off the clothes of sorrow and put on the garments of praise to be the people God has always wanted us to be.
AMEN
