My kids are quick studies. They know when bringing their kids to the grandparents, never dress them in good clothes. Play clothes, mismatched odds and ends or soon to be outgrown and already stained, are preferable. Of course I try to be conscientious. I’ll run a load of laundry once the grandkids are in bed if we’ve played water table or mud kitchen. I’ve learned that a shot of Dawn and peroxide gets most everything out, even set in stains. When they’re hard core dirt daubers, it’s straight in for baths, but sometimes I perch them on the edge of the bathroom sink to wash hands and feet at once. Thankfully their little rubber slip on shoes can be washed as well.
Ezra sat munching on the toe of his shoe, jogging his mother’s memory as she, laughing, shared a quote with me. She’d read how we spend the first year of our kids’ lives sterilizing everything in sight only to have them spend the next year putting everything from everywhere into their mouths. Ezra and Timothy have been able to pull their shoes off in the car for awhile so both mommas buckle them in shoeless to deter this, but they still have their toes and they’re not afraid to chew them.
Try as we might, there’s no way to avoid all the germs all the time but we do what we can. We teach them to wash their hands and we bathe them regularly. We carry hand wipes, nose wipes, and diaper wipes in our cars and purses. We’re conscientious about not gathering if anyone’s sick. Thanks to God’s good design, they’re building immunities. There are some things, like permanent marker on skin, that you just can’t erase. Guilt is one of those tricky stains. Even when it’s invisible, it’s hard to ignore and though it fades over time, it never goes away on its own.
My mind ran through so many mental images as I listened to the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew. It was part of my daily reading that I delayed because Amelia and Ezra were sleeping over and, knowing they’ll be awake early, I go to bed shortly after they do. Once they headed home with mom and dad, I sat down with my lunch to listen. Jesus’s arrest in the garden, His mock trial before the high priest, and Peter’s denial happened the previous night. A mob stirred up by the chief priests and elders ushered Jesus to Pilate, Roman governor, and Judas, full of remorse, threw thirty silver pieces into the temple sanctuary and went to his death. Pilate questioned Jesus and tried to release Him, realizing the Jewish leaders handed Jesus over out of envy, but they were insistent.
“Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”
They all said, “Crucify Him!”
And he said, “Why, what evil has He done?”
But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!”
When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.”
And all the people said, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!””
Matthew 27:22-25 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/mat.27.22-25.NASB1995
Pilate tried to wash his hands of blood guilt. His wife’s warning, whether dream or vision, confirmed his suspicions. Jesus was the righteous One. Maybe Pilate was simply avoiding a riot but both he and the Jewish leaders committed the sin of Cain and of Saul. Killing, ordering a killing, or standing by in solidarity all amount to guilt in God’s eyes. You and I are no less guilty. We are all complicit in the death of Christ.
“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
Isaiah 53:5-6 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/isa.53.5-6.NASB1995
“The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed.
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)
The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?”
And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them,
“Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.
If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable.
And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also?
Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?”
(Thus He declared all foods clean.)
And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.””
Mark 7:1-8, 14-23 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/mrk.7.1-23.NASB1995
““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Matthew 23:25-28 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/mat.23.25-28.NASB1995
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”
Matthew 21:43 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.21.43.ESV
“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Matthew 3:10 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.3.10.ESV
“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
Matthew 3:8 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.3.8.ESV
The Jewish accusers were more right than they knew. Jesus’s blood would be on them and their children from that moment forward, just not in the way they assumed. Their guilt remained but Jesus was making a Way, the only Way, to the Father open to them on a Roman cross. When the deed was done, we still see the leaders asking Pilate for a guard for Jesus’s tomb. Persecution broke out after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension and Saul, a Pharisee, testified to leading the charge. It took awhile for them to cool off. I wonder how long it took for their feelings of remorse to set in? They had a conscience. God’s image was formed in them as it is in every human, not just the saved. When Jesus knelt beside the woman caught in adultery to say, “Whoever among you is without sin, cast the first stone,” the oldest among her accusers were the first to hang their heads and walk away. What, then, is the difference?
“Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!”
And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”
Matthew 27:3-5 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/mat.27.3-5.NASB1995
Judas tried to undo what he had done by returning the blood money. He went to his coconspirators wanting an out but they didn’t need him any longer. He only needed to go to the One whom he betrayed. You see, what we believe about Jesus changes everything or it changes nothing.
“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
John 17:3 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/jhn.17.3.NASB1995
Jesus is not like you or me. He is the holy, righteous, exalted Son of the Father, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) While we were still sinners, He died for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. (I Peter 3:18) He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:16-18 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/jhn.3.16-18.NASB1995
When Israel left Egypt, the angel of death passed over, claiming every firstborn of Egypt. Those who were spared in the Hebrew camp had painted lamb’s blood with hyssop on the lentil and doorposts of their houses. This blood sacrifice foreshadowed Christ. Passover commemorated God’s great rescue of His people from slavery in Egypt until Jesus.
“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.
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.
So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again,
He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”
John 13:1, 3-5, 12-15 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/jhn.13.1-15.NASB1995
“To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.
So it is to be.
Amen.”
Revelation 1:5-7 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/rev.1.5-7.NASB1995
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
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