Squeaky Clean

Have you ever just felt dirty and disgusting? I know growing up on a farm there were plenty of times when I felt dirty and disgusting. Probably the worst was baling straw in the July heat. It was generally my responsibility to stack the bales in the loft of the barn where temperatures soared to above 120 degrees at points. Dust never settled and we’d bale between 2000 and 2500 bales in two or three days. After each day, not only was I exhausted and 15 pounds lighter, but I felt like everything, from my hair to my feet was just dirty, not only that, my lungs, inside of my mouth, inside of my nose and ears were filled with dust and dirt. I would take a shower, but I still felt dirty for days afterward. I itched from all of the tiny cuts I sustained on my arms, I couldn’t breathe quite right from all of the dust I inhaled, and no matter how often I cleaned my ears or blew my nose, there was still more junk waiting to come out.

Now perhaps you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the dirtiness that comes with baling straw in July’s 90 degree heat, but there is a dirtiness of another kind, that I’m certain you have not avoided and cannot avoid. It is the filthiness of your own self. It is the disgusting feeling of guilt you receive after you have sinned. It is the unavoidable stain of who you are as a human being.

You can read the words of the Lord to his people of Judah, from the prophet Isaiah, after they had rebelled against their Lord.

Reference: Isaiah 1:10-18

How often do we become like the people of Judah, rebelling against our Lord with sins of every kind. Becoming dirtier and dirtier. Isaiah even writes that the people of Judah’s hands are full of blood. It is difficult to become much dirtier than that.

The Lord pleads with the people for them to wash themselves, and to stop doing evil.
For our illustration today. I’m going to ask you to read a section from C.S. Lewis’s “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” This story is part of the Chronicles of Narnia.
For a little bit of context. The main character speaking in this section is named Eustace. He is the cousin of Edmond, Lucy, Susan and Peter, who you hopefully remember from previous stories. Eustace is a nasty little boy who has done nothing but be a whining brat ever since he arrived in Narnia. Due to his brattiness and greediness, he has since been turned into a dragon and there is a bracelet wrapped around his arm or front leg that is causing him considerable pain. In the section, Eustace is recounting how he was turned back into a boy.

Voyage of Dawn Treader Reading (exactly what portion will be available shortly)

So not only was Eustace dirty with his wretched personality as a boy, he was so wretched it turned him into a dragon, filled with scales and smoke filled nostrils and all sorts of other things that are gross by our standards.
At this point, Eustace had realized that he was being quite nasty and wants nothing more than to not feel so dirty from being nasty to everybody. He also is quite concerned with relieving the pain in his arm that has become so excruciating.
But notice what happens. Eustace tries to do what Aslan, the great lion says, but he can’t, he can’t cleanse himself at all. He rips his dirty disgusting skin off, but it grows right back, as hard and terrible as ever.
It is at this point, that Eustace perhaps should have brought his Bible to Narnia, so he could pray Psalm 130.

Reference: Psalm 130

Eustace had fallen, just as all humanity into the depths of sin and he cannot get out on his own. Aslan, the great Lion let’s Eustace know what happens. Aslan rips off the scales of Eustace to the very depth of his being and throws him into the water and Eustace comes out a completely different creature. More refreshed, thankful, and pleasant than he has ever been because Aslan did for Eustace, what Eustace could not do himself and that is be fully cleansed.

In our lives we also cannot be fully cleansed by ourselves. We cannot just decide one day to be washed in such a way that we will never again be dirty. We are drawn to the filthiness of sin and cannot escape it alone, but Christ acts on our behalf and dies for our sin, and we are only made truly clean by his blood.

Thanks to Christ’s saving act of death and resurrection we are cleansed. We have been given the gift of baptism to drown our wretched human natures within and put in their place Christ himself, sinless and perfect. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Our sinful clothes are thrown away and we live with Christ.
So even when we feel the dirtiness of sin, we can remember that we have been washed clean by the blood of Christ himself.
It is impossible to become any cleaner than that. Amen.

Delivered November 9, 2007