THE NAKED TRUTH!

So [Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.”

John 13:4

Awkward!

I don’t know about you, but this would make me a little uncomfortable. The master is practically naked! Maybe that wasn’t so odd. This was a tight-knit band of brothers who shared everything. But still, Jesus is a bit too exposed for my taste.

Maybe that’s my cultural upbringing speaking. We have strange reactions to nakedness. The fall into sin really messed us up in this area. Our reactions to nakedness are anything but normal. We either gawk or giggle (have you ever seen high schoolers in an art gallery!?). We’re either embarrassed, or exploit others by supporting our sex-crazed media. We either shame others who expose too much of themselves in public or we are feel ashamed because of what we watch in private – sometimes we hypocritically do both.

Why does nakedness still bring shame? It goes back to humanity’s first reaction when we first recognized our nakedness before God. Along with Adam and Eve, we still fashion “fig leaves” to cover ourselves up. We use good works to make up for bad works, public persona to hide our private problems. We give tokens of sacrifice so we don’t look totally selfish. We don’t want to be too exposed before God or others. But fig leaves weren’t enough for our first parents and they’re not enough for us.

Knowing our naked truth, Jesus literally gave up the shirt off His back so He could cover our sin and shame with His righteousness and redemption. He wore nothing but a towel to wash the disciples’ feet. When He was nailed to the cross, He gave up His last scrap of decency, His loin cloth (John 19:23-24), and died completely exposed before the world and God. Our art and movies usually cover up this exposure. But, this is Jesus’ naked truth!

He gave everything He had, even down to His very last garment, so our sin would no longer be visible to God and so that we would not be put to shame. Our private sin is pardoned. The sin of our public cover-up is covered. Jesus went from riches to rags, and even gave up those. Now, how do we respond?

PRAYER

Lord Jesus You exposed me completely to the depth of God’s love. Lead me to give to You and others unashamedly, holding nothing back. I want to use it all and give you my all, so others will be exposed to Your generosity. Amen.

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