Fresh Bread
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New Clothes
You have
probably heard Hans Christian
Anderson’s fairytale “The
Emperor’s New Clothes.” It
is the story of two scoundrels
claiming to be gifted tailors who
took advantage of a very vain
emperor. They say they have invented
a method to weave a cloth so light
and fine that it looks invisible to
all who are too stupid to appreciate
its quality.
They
eventually present to the emperor
what they say is a beautiful garment
made of their cloth, which of course
he cannot see. Not wanting to seem
stupid, however, he pretends to
admire its fine workmanship and
beautiful colors. The scoundrels
encourage the emperor to take a ride
through the city to show off his
stunning new garment. He does, and
the people who have heard about the
special material compliment the
emperor on his new clothes because
they do not want to look like fools
either. Finally, an honest little boy
points out the obvious: “Look!
The emperor is naked!”
Just as
there is a connection between sitting
at Jesus’ feet and being in
one’s right mind, there is an
equally strong connection between
sitting at His feet and being
clothed. “’Because you say,
“I am rich, have become wealthy,
and have need of nothing”-and do
not know that you are wretched,
miserable, poor, blind and
naked’” (Revelation 3:17).
We have
already discussed the spiritual
significance of nakedness, but we
might still naturally wonder,
“Where did the demoniac get his
clothes?”
I think
the same One who gave skins to Adam
and Eve also took off His robe to
cover this naked man’s shame.
Just as Elijah cast off his mantle on
the shoulders of Elisha, just as
Jacob gave a royal robe to Joseph,
just as the father covered his
prodigal son’s filthy rags, I
believe that Jesus covered this man
with His own robe.
This
image is a symbol for you and me that
Jesus will cleanse us from our guilt
and shame and cover us with His
righteousness. “We are all like
an unclean thing, and all our
righteousness are as filthy
rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Only when
Jesus gives us His righteousness are
we truly in our right mind.
Like
blind Bartimaeus, we must rise, throw
aside our ragged robes, and come to
Jesus (Mark 10:50). An Old Testament
prophet uses this very image to
picture how God covers our sins:
“He… spoke to those who
stood before Him saying, ‘Take
away the filthy garments from
him.’ And to him He said,
‘See, I have removed your
iniquity from you, and I will clothe
you with rich robes’”
(Zechariah 3:4).
“The whole
multitude of the surrounding region
of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart
from them, for they were seized with
great fear. And He got into the boat
and returned.” –Luke 8:37
Rejecting Jesus
In
1962, the U.S. postal authorities
rejected a special Christmas stamp
because it suggested a Christian
cross. However, the design submitted
simply showed a candle, framed by a
wreath, burning in a window. There
was concern among hypersensitive
critics that people might think the
wood in the windowpanes represented a
cross. How differently from the
attitude of the postal authorities
seventy years earlier. Then they
issued a two-cent stamp that showed
Columbus planting a cross in the New
World. That stamp was issued October
12, 1892, on the four-hundredth
anniversary of the event.
This
story accurately depicts an important
reality: The world will generally
reject the cross and those who bear
it. “The message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God” (1
Corinthians 1:18).
The
cemetery on the dismal shore of
Decapolis represents the doomed
world, which, on the whole, has
rejected Jesus. Like the crowd on the
beach who asked Him to leave, like
the crowd who rejected Jesus at His
trial and cried out for Barabbas,
they preferred a lunatic to the Lord.
This is profound evidence that they
were living under the curse of sin.
So, the Savior sailed away. However,
He did not abandon the people because
of their rejection. He left a
representative to continue to witness
to them and to demonstrate how He
saves.
Did you
notice that it was the ones who had
not experienced Jesus who wanted Him
to leave and that the one who had
felt His power wanted to stay with
Him? People who have experienced
radical redemption will not ask,
“Is church over yet?” Like
Mary Magdalene, they will cling to
Jesus’ feet, and like Jacob,
they will embrace the Lord and say,
“I will not let You go unless
You bless me!”(Genesis 32:26).
The
sobering truth is that when someone
asks Jesus to leave, He will go. He
has manners; He will not force
Himself upon anyone. He knocks and
calls, but He will not violate our
freedom of choice. Charles Spurgeon
made this comment:
When
traveling among the Alps, one sees a
small black cross-planted on a rock
or on the brink of a stream or on the
verge of the highway to mark the spot
where men have met with sudden death
by accident. These are solemn
reminders of our mortality, but they
lead our minds still further. For if
the places where men seal themselves
for the second death could be thus
manifestly indicated, what a scene
this world would present! Here the
memorial of a soul undone by yielding
to a foul temptation, there a
conscience seared by the rejection of
a final warning, and yonder a heart
forever turned into stone by
resisting the last ender appeal of
love.
As the
people of Decapolis began to piece
together the day’s events, not
only of the destruction of the pigs,
but also the deliverance of the
demoniac, they began to sense that
there was One far more awesome, much
more to be feared, than the devils
that once possessed the now lucid
man. I suspect they had dealt with
the demoniac on many occasions by
chaining him or driving him from
their presence, and inexplicably,
they chose to treat Jesus in much the
same way.
It is
ironic that while the demoniac did
not want Jesus to leave the country,
the others in that land did not want
Him to stay. It is one of the few
times that a miracle drove people
away from, rather than closer to
Jesus. It would seem that these
people had no Messianic expectations
and wanted nothing to do with Someone
who had so much awesome power-a power
over which they had no control.
As Cary Grant was
walking along a street, he met a
fellow whose eyes locked onto him
with excitement. The man said,
“Wait a minute, you are…
you are-I know who you are! Do not
ell me…uh, Rock Hud-No, you
are…”
Grant
thought he would help the struggling
fan, so he finished the man’s
sentence: “Cary Grant.”
However,
the excited fellow said, “No,
that’s not it! You
are…”
There
was Cary Grant, identifying himself
with his own name, but the fellow had
someone else in mind.
John
says of Jesus, “He was in the
world, and the world was made through
Him, and the world did not know
Him” (John 1:10). Even when
Jesus identified who He was-the Son
of God-the response was not welcome
recognition, but rather rejection and
crucifixion.
“Behold My hands
and My feet, that it is I
Myself.” – Luke 24:39
“If anyone
desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow Me. For whoever
loses his life for My sake will save
it.” – Luke 9:23,24
Scars That Speak,
Death That Heals
Adoniram
Judson, the renowned missionary to
Burma, endured hardships while
reaching the lost for Christ. For
seven heartbreaking years, he
suffered hunger and privation. During
those years, he was thrown into Ava
Prison and for seventeen months was
incredibly mistreated. As a result,
for the rest of his life, he carried
the ugly marks made by the chains and
shackles that had cruelly bound him.
Undaunted, upon his release, he asked
for permission to enter another
province in which he might resume
preaching the gospel. The godless
ruler indignantly denied his request,
saying, “My people are not fools
enough to listen to anything a
missionary might say, but I
fear they might be impressed by your scars
and turn to your religion!”
I
suspect that even after Jesus
released the demoniac from his
chains, he still bore the scars on
his limbs from the many years of
possession. In one respect, the scars
were a testimony to God’s
grace-just, as the scars of Jesus
will remind us of His sacrificial
love for eternity. The fact that
scars linger is also a sobering
reminder that while God forgives all
our sins, the results of our poor
choices might not be reversed in this
lifetime.
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