Christmas 2 B
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
All Dressed Up
01/05/02
Yes, they’re still here – the manger, the advent candles, the decorations and the trees. Signs of Christmas, so hastily put up, in many cases so slow to be put away. For a couple of months now our homes, our businesses, our churches; yes, even our very bodies have been decked out in Christmas apparel. In some cases, knowing that it will be a long time before we see another, that dress up continues even today (flash those Christmas Day socks and tie).
Dressing up for Christmas, or any other occasion for that matter, kind takes where we want to be. It transports us back to where we wish we were again. Which makes it all the more important that we do it right. Or at least it becomes important for us.
I think that’s where phrases like “I haven’t a thing to wear” come from. It’s not that we’ve any real lack of clothing, even good clothing. A quick survey of most of our closets would reveal a vast assortment of garments that could cloth a dozen people or more in most places throughout the world. No, it isn’t that we haven’t a thing to wear, really. The trouble is we feel as if what we do have is somehow sub par, unfit or inadequate for the occasion.
That may or may not be true of you in a fashion sense. I’ve seen some fine looking outfits today. It’s clear that you or your parents or somebody put a lot of thought into what you’re wear to God’s house today and that’s great. But in another sense we’d all have reason to wonder about what we’ve worn to church today. And I’m not talking about our clothes. I’m talking about our spiritual condition before God. And from God’s Word we hear that it would be very accurate for us to say that before Him, we haven’t a thing to wear.
In fact, that’s exactly what Adam whispered to Eve when he heard the sound of God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. He was feeling rather naked in the sight of God, a feeling that still comes over us when God’s word comes like a doubled edged sword to divide both bone and marrow; that is when the Word cuts deep behind all of our excuses and justifications and shows us for what we really are. We’re exposed before the eyes of God and what he sees isn’t pretty.
It’s pictured in the prophetic account of Zechariah 3. There the high priest, Joshua, is envisioned dressed in filthy rags. It’s meant as a picture, not just of his sins before God, but of the sins of all God’s people that he represents. It’s a picture of all humanity as we stand before the Almighty. It’s an image that reminds us all that when it comes to our God we really haven’t a thing to wear. No, as Isaiah reminds us just a few chapters later, “even our righteous deeds, the best of our works, the most prestigious accomplishments we’ve attained in our Christian walk; are like filthy rags before God.” The best of our deeds, the greatest that this world and our lives have to offer is still unable to adequately dress us up and make us presentable before God.
Which ought to make it clear. Not just anything will do. Not just any place will have what you need.
In America today that’s just what we’re used to doing. A week ago, shops were full of people not entirely satisfied with what they received. The style didn’t suit them. The quality didn’t measure up. The size wasn’t quite right. Some items were merely exchanged for a size a bit smaller or tad bit bigger. For some the entire purchase was scrapped. Money was refunded and used for something else. Outfits were matched and re-matched till the look was right for them, till they felt comfortable with what they had.
It’s a good shopping strategy, I suppose, when it comes to clothes. “Just run to the mall and get what you want, what you think you need, what you feel you can’t live without.” But how does that strategy work when it comes to our standing before God.
If a person understand that God is whoever or whatever a person makes him out to be, then this strategy will sound just fine. They’ll look around for whatever suits them or feels good for the moment. And many do. They shop for gods like they were on a shopping trip to a mall of spirituality where every option is suitable for someone. They only job is to find the one that is suitable for them. Or if they’re really diligent they might just make up something of their own. That which is appropriate, that which is suitable, is a matter of personal taste rather than some absolute standard.
Jesus dealt with such religious shoppers in his day too. Who can forget the Parable of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22. As Jesus tells the story, the King looks out at all of his guests and notices a single man who was there, but dressed unlike any of the others who had come. He was missing wedding clothes. He had clothes, but not the appropriate attire. “Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes.” The man of speechless. And then receiving no answer the king said to his servants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him outside. Into the darkness with him where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Parables are word pictures of what it’s like in the kingdom of God. And the picture is clear. Not every religious garb that we’re offered is sufficient. No robe of righteousness that we have fashioned ourselves can ever hope to cover every spot and stain that sin has brought upon us. But there is one that does, a robe that is sufficient in every way, the robe provided by our Lord Himself, woven in His love, with His own blood, sweat and tears.
That’s what’s described in our text today, a robe that our Lord is offering. It’s a robe unblemished with human sin, having been fashioned after Christ’s perfect life that was lived in our place. It’s a robe embellished with the life of love and works of charity that Jesus carried out in his lifetime. It’s the right stuff and the right fit too. It’s a robe that’s been made to cover the filth of a world’s sin and shame; that’s been designed to resist the wrinkles that want to warp and pervert; that’s been made to make a statement of who’s we are and from whence we have come. When God is your tailor you get full coverage and a headband that displays your new position – “child of God.”
It’s the right stuff, that’s the right fit at the right price. It’s a gift. Again and again we hear it said, “He clothes me… He’s arrayed me. It is the Lord that makes righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”
So don’t be shy about showing it off. Listen to the first few verses of this chapter again. “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives…” He has sent me to “provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,” to make of them “a garment of praise instead of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.” My friends, we are that crown of beauty in God’s hand, that garment of praise. We are those oaks of righteousness that are meant to be a display. God’s purpose in Christ is fulfilled, not just in our redemption through faith in Jesus and His cross; but in our being and living as God’s redeemed in this life. It’s fulfilled in full when Christ’s life lives in us, when His love shows through us for all to see. So show it off. It’s a game of “dress up” that goes on and on and on, long after our earthly decorations are put away.
Chances are that’s already happened in some on our homes today. And following worship this morning all the decorations that have filled this sanctuary with light and colors vast arrayed will be boxed up for another year. Our ribbons and bows will be placed in an attic. Our holiday socks and ties stashed for another day. But the real clothes of Christmas need not. Oh, my friends I pray that we would see that the real clothes of Christmas need not be put away; but placed on display. My prayer is that we would continue to let Jesus Christ be our tailor, the one who daily mends our tears and patches our souls in the hearing of His Word and the receiving of His sacrament; the one who gives us to demonstrate His life-giving love to others in a type of fashion show that goes on to the very end.
