What Kind of Clothes Are You Wearing?
Clothes are an outward indication of who we are or want to be. This is evident in commercials and advertisements. The latest and greatest thing is bombarding us everywhere we look.
How we dress is one of the first things people see. Our clothes show others who we choose to be.
Clothes can be an accurate or inaccurate presentation. At funerals, typically the dead are dressed in their best suit or dress even if while living they never dressed like that.
Granted, at our own funeral, we have no control over how we’ll be dressed.
This week’s Scripture was John 11:32-44. Most of us have heard the story of Lazarus. He was the brother of Mary and Martha and a good friend of Jesus.
Lazarus was sick and his sisters sent word to Jesus because they knew he could heal him. But as the story goes, Jesus was slow in getting to Lazarus. By the time He arrived, Lazarus was dead.
There was some frustration that Jesus hadn’t got there in time to save Lazarus. “He gave sight to the blind. Why couldn’t He have kept Lazarus from dying?”
They went to the grave and Jesus told them to roll the stone away.
But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.”
Jesus told them to have faith.
After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. I know that you always answer my prayers.”
When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” The man who had been dead came out. Jesus told the people to take off Lazarus’ burial clothes.
Jesus makes it possible for each of us to have our burial clothes removed. It’s up to us to accept this offer or not.
Too often we continue to wear our burial clothes…we don’t have to. All we have to do is to accept that Jesus has paid the price for us by dying on the cross and our burial clothes will be gone.
We can also wear clothes for the wrong reasons. They can be worn to present an image to others.
Maybe we’re wearing our Sunday morning, “look at me going to church clothes”. Or maybe it’s our “going out on the town clothes”. Could be that it’s our “look at me I’m better than you” clothes.
There’s nothing wrong with wearing better clothes that present a better image. We just need to be sure we’re wearing them for the right reason and who we’re wearing them for.
What kind of clothes are you wearing and who are you wearing them for?