As high school ended, I had high hopes for a fresh start
in college, dropping all of the labels and reputations that had stuck to me
after thirteen years of school. No longer would I be the clumsy, forgetful,
sweaty, weird nerd; I would be…awesome. Unsurprisingly, most of my labels
followed me, and plenty more were tacked on. (Don’t worry, I got a prescription
for “sweaty!”)
And those were just the external labels. The internal
ones - the labels I apply to myself when I see my weaknesses, shortcomings, and
sins that no one else sees – those labels are even harder to change!
Pastor Dirk shared the story of Rahab this week, an
ancestor of Christ (Matthew 1:5). When we first meet her (in Joshua 2) many
labels could have been applied to Rahab - foreigner, outcast - but there’s one
that seems bigger and stickier than the others: prostitute. Everywhere she’s
mentioned in the Bible, Rahab is identified by this label. Maybe Rahab was a
super common name, and prostitution is her distinguishing characteristic (as opposed
to Rahab the athlete, Rahab the short and Rahab the sweaty). Or maybe this is a
hard label to shed.
When I’m faced with my own shameful labels, I tend to
want to hide from them. I hope others don’t notice them; I manage my image to
make it appear as though I only have desirable labels.
Rahab didn’t pretend to be something she wasn’t when the
spies showed up at her door. She knew that God was God over everything, and
that these were His ambassadors, yet she was honest about who she was. Think
how differently the story would have ended for her if Rahab attempted to remove
her label or cover it before these godly men; she could have said, “I can’t
invite you men into my home; my husband/father isn’t here and it isn’t proper.
You’ll have to find somewhere else.” Instead, being Rahab the prostitute
allowed her to be uniquely helpful to the spies; God redeemed her broken and
damaging labels, and relabeled her righteous (James 2:25) and faithful (Hebrews11:31); a daughter in His family. God took what had been broken and evil and redeemed
it for His purposes. She was able to protect the spies, and provide them with information
and a safe exit strategy.
God offers the same label-exchange to us. His offer of
forgiveness and righteousness reaches out to all of us who are in Him. But when
we cover up, when we try to hide all of our brokenness and sin and labels before
Him, we miss His redemption. David describes this issue poetically in Psalm 32.
Verses 3-4 describe what it feels like to hide sin - the mental anguish of acting
fine when we are a mess. Then, in verse 5, he says,
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
David found that in uncovering his sin before God, he
experienced the freedom of forgiveness and healing as God covered his sin. A
common misconception is that Christians are all cleaned up and therefore ready
to face God. Here, we are rightly reminded that we all come to God covered in
sin, and He makes us right. David says, “How joyful is the one whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” (Psalm 32:1, HCSB) When David
stopped pretending to be clean, God covered his sin and removed the label, and he was clean!
In the New Testament, we read that Jesus died for us not
when we were righteous, but while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). He
declares us righteous because of our faith in Jesus, not because we keep the
rules (Romans 3:21-22); He clothes us in Christ and adopts us as sons
(Galatians 3:26-29). When I try to cover my sin myself and act
righteous, I don’t enjoy His forgiveness. If I hide my struggles, I don’t
enjoy His redemption!
He can speak truth over what we uncover.
He can fix the brokenness we confess.
Ruth’s story has a fantastic epilogue; she is ancestor to
King David and to the King of all Kings! I think it’s striking that even in the
New Testament, Rahab is still identified as a prostitute (Hebrews 11:31). Why
does God, in His holy word, draw attention to her former label?
Is it perhaps because He wants us to remember that He can
rewrite even this label? In remembering who Rahab had been, we see God’s
abundant and lavish grace. Even Rahab the prostitute is counted faithful and
righteous!
As the season of Advent reminds us of
Christ’s coming, let’s take some time to dig into our hearts and see what dark
spots need to be illuminated by God’s light. Do we manage our image before God?
Where are we attempting to appear righteous, where are we hiding our sin and
weakness? Let’s bring those things before Him in confession and repentance, and
ask Him to relabel and redeem us.
His labels are more powerful than ours:
We are his loved children, declared righteous (1 John 3:1, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, especially humility and patience.]
No comments:
Post a Comment