Analogy: New Towels, Bleeding and Lint

 Okay. This one is not complicated, and is pretty similar to the last one (dog poo).

We decided it was time for new bath towels. We bought light and dark gray to match the color scheme of our home interior (and the colors are pretty). You know what you have to do with some new materials like towels, right? Wash them separately in case of bleeding. I did. That is, I washed these new towels together, the light and dark gray, but separate from any other clothing or towels.

I might have accidentally led you to expect that the colors bled from dark towel to light. Nope. The colors had been set before sale. However, that would have provided a similar analogy to the one I did notice.

Lint.

The towels are new, so we'll have a period of shedding off the excess fuzzy material. So, now we have light gray lint on the dark towels and dark lint on the light. It reminds me of how we offset the font color and the background, but - hey - I might have a future post there!

The way things work normally in this broken world the corruption (in this case, the opposite color lint) is unavoidable. Put a dark towel in with a light one and you will have cross-contamination. Like I said, the concern or potential problem was bleeding.

Jesus was and is the supernatural anomaly. The Father put the Son - pure white - in the wash with the whole of corrupt humanity - every kind of dark. However, rather than being contaminated Jesus began to bring a reversal we'd only expect from bleach. The curious begin to accumulate white lint as the gospel prods and provokes. Some believe and follow, at which point there is more than accumulation - there is transformation. The dark towel becomes pure white (see Rm 4:22-24), though still exposed to other dark towels (Jn 1:5 with Php 2:15), and though there is intermittent dark fuzz to peel away with the lint roller (see 1 Jn 1:9).

What Jesus does is not only uniquely supernatural. It is also ironic. The very thing it took to wash away and whiten all our corruption was a particular kind of bleeding:

Hebrews 9:11–14 (CSB)

11 But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

This washing by Jesus gives us boldness and belonging:

Hebrews 10:19–25 (CSB)

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)—21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

It also gives us a mission for others. What Jesus does for us Christians in the spiritual "wash" he keeps doing through our witness. As the Church proclaims Christ, he continues to wash others. We are not called to withdraw from the company of dirty laundry. We ARE called to be careful (Jude 23b) but not to isolate. Rather, we are called to a sort of gospel mingling where others are influenced by Jesus through us (vv. 22-23a). As we "keep ourselves in the love of God" (v.21) we are agents in the washer, even as the gospel works its holy agitation and then rinsing.

So, understand, Christian, that you are a towel washed white by the bleach-blood of our supernatural Savior. You will still accumulate some of that old lint. Trying to isolate from the world won't stop that, for you are still stuck with the old fibers within yourself. The answer for that lint is John's lint-roller of confession and renewal. No, Christ keeps us in with the wash for how ever many cycles he has determined. Be a cleansing agent, spreading the gospel with every contact. Christ in you will permeate some other soul by exposure, and he will reverse the natural contamination for them too.

Titus 3:4–8 (CSB)

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.