Second Sunday after Pentecost, June 22nd,
A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer
and Hill City, South Dakota
Dressed for Life, Clothed in Christ
What are you wearing today? Did you spend a lot of time deciding and preparing what to put on to come to church? Or did you grab the first clean outfit you saw? Are you happy with the way you look in your clothes?
Popular sayings about clothing abound. In the 16th century Erasmus of Rotterdam coined the Latin phrase: “Vestis virum facit,” which gives us the saying “the clothes make the man.” Similarly, ZZ Top taught us that “every girl’s crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man.” And there’s the mantra of wedding planners everywhere: “It’s all about the dress.” Clothes matter. In the Year of Our + Lord 2025 the decline of formality in Western culture means flip-flops, shorts, spandex and sweat pants are now worn almost everywhere. But still, most people are concerned with the message their clothes communicate, even if that message is: “I’m too cool to worry about fashion.”
Read your Bible with your ear tuned to textiles, and you’ll realize proper clothing is a big deal to God, too. Outside the Garden, after the Fall, the LORD Himself became the first true clothing designer, and also began the chain of sacrifices that would lead to the once-for-all sacrifice of Calvary. Adam and Eve’s pitiful attempt to make coverings out of leaves would not suffice. Unnamed animals gave their lives, as God made clothing to cover the shame and nakedness of the now sinful man and woman. From that dark day forward, proper clothing has been a primary need for all of us.
In the Law of Moses we hear much about clothes, including some commands that are strange to us, such as the prohibition against mixing linen and wool. And of course, the LORD specifically warned against men dressing to try to look like women, and women dressing to look like men. (Deuteronomy 22:5-11) You are who God made you to be, which is a gift, even in this fallen world. The grateful creature dresses the part God has given him or her.
Aaron and the priests who followed him in service in the LORD’s Tabernacle and Temple were covered in rich, complicated and endlessly symbolic clothing, to cover their bodies in such a way to enable them to properly serve in the LORD’s house. (Exodus 39) This priestly clothing was a foreshadowing of the robes of righteousness that God would provide to all His people. (Isaiah 61) Clothing matters to God, but ultimately the rules about physical clothing point us to a greater reality. As Jesus said, Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! (Luke 12:27-28) The God who provides us with the clothing we need today has richer garb in mind for us.
And yet, in this life, proper clothing is essential. Indeed, taking away the gift of being able to properly clothe oneself is high on the list of the tortures the Legion of demons inflicted on the man from Gerasene. As much as current society idealizes nudity and near-nudity, in the real world, nakedness is a problem. Ever since Adam’s sin filled the world with thorns and sharp-edged rocks, it hasn’t been great to try to navigate life with too much exposed skin. The sun which gives life can also burn and blister us. When winter defeats the warmth of the sun, exposed skin is threatened by frostbite and worse.
On a sandy beach, or pool-side, or in the climate-control of a cowboy bar or a nightclub , we can get away with being out-and-about with most of our skin exposed. Sort of. But setting aside the spiritual issues of wearing too little, what if you can’t get out of the sun, or you need to work, to search for food, run away from danger, or just weed-whack the yard? To do these things with little or no clothes invites a lot of pain. Sun burn, poison ivy, scrapes, cuts and bug bites, not to mention cat-calls, taunts and worse threats from evil people: being caught out in the world with insufficient clothing is a problem.
And so we pity the demon-possessed man, living naked, amongst the tombs outside Gerasene. Perhaps in his more peaceful moments, kind-hearted neighbors, who were also no doubt tired of seeing his nakedness, brought him something to wear. But then the Legion overpowered him again, and the man tore his clothes to shreds. Naked and tormented, living among the dead, it seems the Gerasene Demoniac’s life offers us a little picture of Hell.
We wear clothes because our skin is easily wounded, and for the sake of modesty. To deny the importance of clothing is to deny the reality of this fallen world. All people have ample reason to dress properly. And, as Christians, we have access to deeper wisdom, which shapes the way we clothe ourselves. For we know that sin and the trouble it brings are real, and that clothing is a gift from God to help mitigate their effects. But we also know that we have been redeemed by God, our souls and our bodies are precious to Him. In our Baptisms we have “put on” Christ, literally, “clothed ourselves in Him.” So also, in Christ we have the promise that someday we will be re-made, body and soul. We will spend eternity rejoicing over the reunion of our souls and our bodies, made perfect in heaven. The promise of this future glory also shapes the way we dress today.
How do Christians dress? What kinds of clothing do we avoid as Christians? Well, by faith in Jesus, our minds are renewed, and so, as with the rest of our lives, we seek to reflect His Way in the way we dress. We might wear a Cross, a Baptismal shell, or a Luther Rose pin as a decoration that confesses the Gospel.
We avoid dressing in ways that make statements contrary to Christ and His teaching. Intentionally taking on the appearance of evil? Displaying the symbols of false religions or old fashioned paganism? No, not for us. A Christian’s clothing does not celebrate death or violence. If we choose to have words on our clothes, we consider what those words communicate. And Christians, male and female, avoid dressing in sexually provocative ways.
I’m not suggesting we need to go around in
gunny sacks, nor that Christians shouldn’t seek to look good. Young women of all ages will continue to be
beautiful, and young men will continue to be handsome. Putting beautiful clothes on the wonderful
bodies God has given us is good and right, within reason. But Christian wisdom puts limits on the way
we display our God-given beauty to the world.
For we know that the beauty of the human body is closely tied to
sexuality, and sexuality is a gift that God has given for one man and one woman
to celebrate within marriage.
If our clothes, worn by men or women, are too form-fitting, or if we expose too much of our bodies, we are taking something that is meant to be private, and making it public. Christians are wise to protect the privacy of the things God has given to be shared in the one-flesh relationship of man and wife. Christians rightly dress for the public with their spouses in mind, either the person whom they have already married, or the husband or wife you don’t know yet.
This guidance is helpful for those married now, or for those who will be married someday. And, at a deeper level, it is also wisdom for every Christian, even for those who God never calls into the vocation of marriage. All of us can and should shape all our choices, including our clothing choices, thinking of our heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. We dress as Christians because we are redeemed, wise, and free, all because of the surprising clothing choices that our Bridegroom made, with us in mind.
God’s Son made His first surprise clothing choice when He dressed Himself in human flesh. The eternal Son laid aside the glory of heaven, and dressed Himself to be our Brother. He was the “new wine, found in the cluster” that Isaiah spoke of. Our Old Testament reading started with the LORD’s frustration and anger at His people Israel, who continually failed to fulfill their call to be God’s faithful people.
Still, as Isaiah concluded this morning, despite her idolatries, God never abandoned or destroyed all of Israel. The LORD spared Israel, despite her habit of putting on the shabby outfits of whatever idols her neighbors worshiped. God spared Israel because of the “new wine, found in the cluster.” This is Isaiah’s poetic way of referring to God’s irrevocable choice to take the human nature of the Savior from the descendants of Abraham. The Nation of Israel had been adorned as a Bride by the LORD, favored beyond all nations, chosen to be the people from whom God would take on human flesh, as He fulfilled His promise to crush the serpent’s head. Not even Israel’s serial unfaithfulness could prevent the LORD from fulfilling this Promise.
After He took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary, God’s Son, Jesus continually suffered in His body. Born in a barn, His first outfit was swaddling clothes, and He had a feed trough for a crib. Jesus exposed His body to the elements, as He fled with Joseph and Mary to Egypt, to escape the murderous jealousy of Herod. Growing up as a builder’s son likely meant Jesus knew what it was to work in dirty, sweaty clothes.
As He began His ministry, Jesus exposed Himself to the temptations of Satan, and then lived as a wandering preacher, with no home in which to rest His head. He touched lepers and had intimate conversations to save prostitutes. He stripped down like a servant boy to wash His disciples gnarly feet, on the night when He was betrayed.
He exposed His divine skin to torture, and was dressed in royal robes so the Roman soldiers could mock Him. Finally, He was stripped naked, His clothes becoming booty for His executioners. He was crucified, His uncovered body nailed to a tree, for us, and for all mankind. Hanging on the Cross, He was exposed to the sun, to the world, to more mocking and shame. Then He was exposed to the darkness, and to the unimaginable fury of God the Father’s wrath against human sin.
He did all this, so that you could be clothed in His righteousness, in your Baptism. His naked suffering takes away your shame. His innocent death takes away your sin and guilt. The shameful and unjust way He was treated results in your honor, as God through Jesus claims you as His beloved child, by the washing of water with the Word. His new life, in which sin, death and hell have been defeated, is His gift to you. The story of shame turned into glory, the life Christ lived for you, this becomes the shape of your new life, the clothing of your new, redeemed reality. It is also the subject of the best gift you can give to anyone: to help them hear of the clothing choices Jesus made, and to put them on in Holy Baptism.
All that Jesus has done for you and all sinners is foreshadowed in the freeing of the demon-possessed man from Gerasene. After the expulsion of the Legion of demons, we find him clothed and in his right mind, eager to follow and serve Jesus, who had defeated all his demons. Our problem with sin and the devil and his demons may not seem as dramatic as that of the man from Gerasene. But we are no more capable of defeating the devil on our own. And so, in mercy and love, what Jesus did for him, He does for all sinners who hear and are rescued by His powerful Word of forgiveness.
Consider the new life we see in the man from Gerasene, after Jesus rescued him. He stays close to Jesus. He gladly accepts the gift of good clothes, both for covering his body, and also the gift of being clothed, covered, justified, by the Righteousness of Christ Jesus. Denied his desire to follow Jesus in His ministry, he goes home and follows his Lord’s instruction, telling the whole city what Jesus had done for him.
Jesus has eternally new clothes for us. His infinite righteousness, won at Calvary, and revealed at the Resurrection, has been shared with us, through the miracle of Holy Baptism.
You are clothed in Christ. Your life is hidden and safe with God, because you are His heir, you are in His will, and His inheritance lasts forever. You and all who trust in Christ will spend eternity in the perfect white robes of paradise. Rejoice in your beautiful garments, today, and forever and ever.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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