The Simple Act of Setting Aside

 

 

Every year, when I see people’s colorful Easter outfits, I am convinced we are doing our darndest to dress up as Easter eggs.

 

And that’s not a bad thing. A children’s book I’m reading right now says, “Clothes are a story you choose to tell about yourself, a different one every day.” [1] And on Easter we are telling the story of new life through Christ, so why not dress up like Easter eggs!

 

Throughout Scripture clothes tell many stories, and there are three specific things clothes seem to symbolize in Scripture that are worth sharing during this Easter season:

 

1. Clothes were a symbol of safety. Adam and Eve sinned. They looked down and suddenly saw their nakedness and hid from God in shame. So God made them clothes to cover up their nakedness and also their shame. So clothes were a symbol of safety from shame.

2. Clothes were a symbol of status. It might be hard for us to imagine in our advanced Twenty-First Century society, but in Bible times people actually thought others were cool or uncool or professional or poor or wealthy or worldly based on what they wore. Shocking, right?! Priests had priestly garb and Kings had royal clothes and folks like Daniel and Joseph were rewarded with fine robes (and because of inexplicably grace, the Prodigal Son is also given fine clothes as a symbol of restored status). So clothes were a symbol of status.

3. Clothes were a symbol of self. What I mean is that clothes let people know what you were up to. Instead of Facebook or Twitter updates, someone’s attire might tell you about the attitude of the owner. A person in distress would tear their clothes, a mourner would put on uncomfortable sackcloth (aka: potato bags) and cover themselves in ashes. And when the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, Deuteronomy 8:4 says their “clothing did not wear out” – meaning God enabled the people’s clothing to endure just as he faithfully enabled the Israelite people to endure. So clothes said something about the wearer; they were a symbol of self.

 

Clothes played a part in Maundy Thursday too.

 

At YouthWorks we celebrate the event of footwashing every Thursday all summer long. And for over 20 years we’ve had a tradition of reading this familiar passage about how Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. As you read the following, notice the often-missed role of clothing in this passage:

 

JOHN 13:1–5 (NASB)

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

 

Jesus has all power from God and can do anything, and he chooses willingly to do the servant’s job of washing his disciples’ feet. And did you catch what he does with his outer clothing? He lays them aside. It’s interesting that John would capture such a small, seemingly insignificant detail… unless, of course, John understood the culturally and Scripturally relevant metaphors of clothing and wanted to communicate something deeper about what Jesus was doing.

 

Perhaps John was saying…

 

If clothes are a metaphor for safety from shame, Jesus is willingly setting aside his safety and exposing himself to harm – and he can do this, because he has no sin of his own of which to be ashamed.

If clothes are a metaphor for status, Jesus is willingly setting aside the privilege and power equality with God provides.

If clothes are a metaphor for self, Jesus is willingly setting aside self… humbling himself… emptying himself to the role of a servant.

 

Jesus’ clothes – his safety, his status, his self – are set aside as he goes about the business of washing his followers and making them clean.

 

The Greek word for “set aside” in this passage is tithemi – it means “divesting oneself of something that is precious and personally valued.” [2] And John uses this word a number of times to describe Jesus’ actions. One of those instances is in 1 John 3:16 (NIV):

 

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

 

Jesus Christ tithemi-ed his life for us. [3] He set aside. He divested himself of something that was precious and personally valued – his life! – for us.

 

Because John is weaving a larger story with the theme of clothing, in the crucifixion account he adds another small detail in John 19:23–24: The soldiers divide up Jesus’ clothes and gamble away his garment as Jesus hangs naked on the cross.

 

Once again, Jesus’ clothes – his safety, his status, his self – are set aside as he goes about the business of washing his followers and making us clean.

 

This image of Jesus “setting aside” for us – this is how we know what love is. But how will we respond?

 

God saw humanity, he saw us, he saw you and he saw me in need of help – so Jesus set aside his life on our behalf. I wonder this Easter season what person in need God will – or already has – put in your path. And will you set aside your life – your safety, your status, your self – to love another as you yourself have been loved?

 

1 John 3:16 says it so well. The first move is God’s part, and the resulting response is our part.

 

1 JOHN 3:16 (NIV)

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

 

 

 

[1] Catherynne M. Valente and Ana Juan, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland And Cut The Moon In Two (New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2013).

[2] Gary M. Burge, The NIV Application Commentary – The Letters of John: From Biblical Text to Contemporary Life, (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 162.

[3] Apologies to my academic friends for the “Greenglish.” I never was good at verb declension (let alone attempting to describe it to blog readers!).