Dear Good Shepherd and friends,
I'm often struck by things said in our culture. Often it is something said within the realm of our entertainment/Hollywood industry. One phrase that hits me as interesting and puzzling is the phrase: "Who are you wearing?"
It usually comes out during award season, when actors and actresses walk the red carpet, and all of the photographers and interviewers say something like, "Sandra Bullock! You look amazing! Who are you wearing?"
She's not wearing anybody. She's wearing clothes. Now, I get it, they want to know the name of the one responsible for the clothes on her body. But the language of the question is really strange, I think. It's like the clothes take on their own identity. It's almost like the actor or actress and the clothing designer have lost their personal identity and are now identified by the clothing. She is basically a human advertisement for the clothing made by a human designer. What everyone notices is the clothing. The actor or actress becomes a living mannequin -- that's what the question seems to imply. But it's a mutual thing, too. The clothing is supposed to make the actress or actor shine, and the actor or actress draws attention to the designer. And the question, "Who are you wearing?" pretty clearly reveals that the lines become a bit blurred. Whose identity is on display?
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The apostle Paul writes quite a bit about clothing imagery. In Romans 13:14, the apostle Paul says to "clothe yourselves with Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh." The desires of the flesh he's referring to are actions that bring about destruction and chaos in our lives and in the lives of others, that show we're actually just enslaved to our own selfishness. Putting on Christ is the opposite.
In Galatians 3:27, Paul writes that "all who are baptized have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Clothing ourselves with Christ means no longer living according to human categories of evaluation and judgment and status.
In Colossians 3, Paul writes about clothing ourselves with Christ in terms of "taking off" the other clothes of anger, gossip, hate, and dishonesty, and "putting on" what is more beautiful and striking: compassion, mercy, humility, patience, forgiveness.
At the heart of things, for Paul the clothing imagery is about identity and living. Who are you wearing?
In other words, as we live our lives, who are we trying to "show off"? Is it our own sense of identity and what we want people to see, are we sold to some worldly idea of what we should be, is it the things that temporarily make us feel good, or trying to "fit" into the cultural categories of meaning? Or is it something more stable and attractive?
The "old clothes" of broken humanity inevitably lead to dysfunction where people try to elevate themselves, where certain people think they are better than others, fail to see their own blemishes, and judge others from their perceived place of significance. And we too often judge ourselves according to the old clothes. We live under the anxiety that we will never measure up to someone else's idea of whatever.
Paul tells them it's all false. Their status, their achievements, their sense of "better," and even how they measure it is all an illusion they've been suckered to believe.
We're always in the business of trying to show ourselves to be this or that. Our culture is obsessed with outward appearance and display, and we try hard to manufacture something that will be impressive. So it was in Paul's world. Two-thousand years hasn't changed much.
Instead, Paul tells them (and us) to put on Christ. Putting on Christ allows us to see what we're made to be, not what we're trying so hard to show ourselves to be. This is the more beautiful and good life.
Try this exercise. Imagine that you are wearing clothes that somehow visibly communicate, "I AM WEARING JESUS CHRIST," or "I AM REPRESENTING JESUS CHRIST." Would you do it? Why or why not? My sense is many people, many Christians, would not do it. Too afraid. Too unsure. Maybe too comfortable in mediocrity.
Too often we are content with identifying and "putting on" things that just don't shine. Or things that don't make us look good. Or it's something that has a shine that lasts a millisecond and then it's gone, and then we have to find something else to shine. Always chasing something else to make us look good or feel good. It's exhausting. And then we judge and evaluate others according to the fleeting standards that come and go like fads.
But try Jesus on. Let Jesus be your identity, the thing you see yourself as and what others see. What would be different about your life if this is how you lived? How would you see yourself differently? Sometimes how we see ourselves is the biggest hurdle to overcome.
Just like the mutuality between the actors and actresses and the designer whose clothes they're wearing -- the clothing makes them look good, and they make the designer look good -- so it is with Jesus. "Putting on Jesus Christ" is the way we shine best. Jesus has our best image in mind, because our best image best reflects the God who made us. And when we shine in this world, the hope of Jesus also shines for the benefit of those around us.
Faith means trusting that God has clothed you with Jesus Christ. You are no longer clothed with your failures, your selfishness, or the things that have little significance. It begins here. Remember you are wearing Jesus. God has chosen to have you as God's wearer in the world. You've been selected to display God's goodness. Let that sink in. Let it change you.
Your life is made to reflect something far more magnificent and powerful and striking than the finest clothing and expensive jewelry.
And let me give an important clarification: being clothed with Christ does not mean being "better" or "more religious." It's a constant misconception that seems to significantly derail our collective ability to let God's best shine in our lives. We give in to the shallow mentality, live in fear of seeming like we actually care about how we live and that God matters, or seeming "religious," and as we stoop to the misconception, we ultimately just sell ourselves short of a better life for us and those around us.
Being clothed with Christ means none of those things. It means God has transformed us to be something dazzling, and it means you are not under pressure to be on display. When we're clothed with Christ we lose ourselves, and as we lose ourselves, we can actually drop our need to impress, our need to be praised and recognized, and, yes, the voice that says you need to be perfect or not admit your weaknesses. Like the actors and actresses, putting on Christ transforms us and we actually feel good about who we are.
Putting on Christ means he is your best, he is your strength when you're weak, he is your identity, he is what makes your life attractive to others and this world better.
Lift your head high. Stand tall. Live with confidence. You are wearing Jesus Christ.
In defiant hope,
Pastor Kyle
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