Clothes make a statement and can tell you a little something about the wearer. They serve a purpose. Jesus, who has often been referred to as “God in skin,” had a purpose and that was to “bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37, ESV) and his favorite “outfit” was love. He showed us that humanity was made to love God and to love others — His whole life demonstrated this truth.
What is truth? Pilate asked this question of Jesus as he used his intellectual prowess to attempt to understand or possibly mock Jesus. Truth personified was standing right in front of him, making Himself known as He lived out a new way to rule and reign over the land. This way was completely foreign to Pilate because it was the way of God’s kingdom — a land that is not of this world. This was completely natural because as Paul recorded in the letter to the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Pilate, though human, lacked wisdom that can only come from the Spirit of God. Jesus, the embodiment of wisdom, showed us how to be perfectly human. He bore witness to love by not only holding all things together, but putting them back together through His actions — His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. Jesus made it possible for humanity to once again be the bearers of God’s image unmarred by the wound of sin, but completely whole, healed, and restored. Now that’s a statement that’s worth repeating! So let’s “put on love” and bear witness to Jesus being the way to being whole, healed, and restored! I pray today that the person of the Holy Spirit has prepared your heart to hear love, see love, and accept love from the God who made you human.
Jessica Klootwyk
Group & Women’s Discipleship Director