Patching your torn clothes

I am convinced that there are two types of people in this world. The first are those who, when they get a hard-to-remove stain on an item of clothing, throw the item away. The second are those who try every method under the sun to salvage that item of clothing or will choose to wear it despite the stain. 

I tend to be the kind of person not to give up on my clothes—and my wardrobe is certainly a testament to that fact! I have a collection of clothes in a box at the end of my bed which have stains or marks or need fixing in some way . . . most of which are beyond repair. But I haven’t the heart to give up on them just yet. When I really love an item of clothing, I will do everything it takes to repair it before I will concede to throw it away. Some may see this as a problem . . . I prefer to see it as a virtue. 

Perhaps a pair of jeans with a tear in the knee can be cut up into shorts. Perhaps that cardigan with a pulled thread can be fixed up with a crochet hook and some extra thread. Or maybe that shirt with a stain on it can be scrubbed and bleached until it looks like new. You see, just because a nasty stain seems to have “ruined” an item of clothing that doesn’t mean it is completely beyond restoration. A little bit of love and care can restore it to its original condition from the mess it has become. 

The same goes for people. 

The truth is, each of us is stained and torn, with damaged places inside us which need restoration, healing and cleansing. We have all felt pain, cried, done things we regret or questioned our worth. When circumstances come upon us which leave us feeling this way, we may question whether these “stains” have made our lives irreparable. We wonder whether our hearts can ever experience newness of life again after all the damage and mess they have endured. But just as with well-loved clothes, sometimes people just need a good wash and some tender, loving care to remind them of their true worth. 

This is what the Bible refers to when it speaks about the idea of baptism. In the Bible, baptism is the act of being submerged in and lifted out of water, symbolising being washed and made new. It involves being restored to a better-than-brand-new condition through the love of Jesus, who cleanses us from our past. You see, Jesus is the second type of person in this laundry analogy—a clothes hoarder like me; He is willing to try every method under the sun to salvage a person rather than casting them aside to be destroyed. 

There is a story in the Bible that encapsulates this truth beautifully. 

When Jesus was on earth, he made a journey to Samaria, a town that was despised by the rest of Israel. These people had intermarried with other nations and had set up a temple in opposition to the temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans were considered the filth of the earth by the Jews, second only to the occupying Romans. When travelling around Israel, most Jews would go out of their way to avoid Samaria—but Jesus didn’t. He intentionally stopped there to meet a woman by a well. 

We are never given this woman’s name, but it is not difficult to imagine that she had been called a “home wrecker”; “slut”; “whore” or “harlot”. She had had five husbands and was now living with a man she was not married to. She had made poor choices, though they were probably not all her fault. She was an outcast among outcasts, rejected by even the Samaritans. To say her life was complicated would be an understatement. 

This was a woman whose “clothes” had many stains and tears which she ashamedly tried to patch up on her own, but to no avail. The damage done to her reputation through her circumstances and choices was beyond repair. She had no hope of forging any kind of respectable future for herself, and instead clung to the few comforts she had left, making the most of her tainted life. Perhaps all that remained for her, like badly damaged clothes, was to be discarded on the garbage heap of life. 

But Jesus knows that even the nastiest of stains can be lifted with a little bit of tender love and care. In His conversation with this woman, Jesus refused to give up on her—despite her constant deflections, distractions and objections to His kindness. The woman gave Jesus every reason to give up on her—like everyone else had. But Jesus isn’t like everybody else. He saw her value and offered her a new life in Him, washed clean of her past. 

Interestingly, the exchange between Jesus and this woman is the longest recorded conversation anyone had with Jesus in the entire Bible. What made this woman deserving of such a lengthy conversation? She was no-one special. She had done nothing worthy of any praise in her lifetime, nor would she go on to do anything especially remarkable. Her life was a mess, filled with shame, mistakes and heartbreak. But perhaps this lengthy conversation was reflective of the fact that Jesus took His time with this woman, overcoming each of the cultural, psychological and emotional barriers she put up, proving to her that she was not a hopeless case. She was not beyond restoration. That she could, through His love, be made new.

Upon realising Jesus’ relentless love for her, the woman accepted His gift of a new life and received “spotless” clothes, so to speak. She came to the well that day broken, stained and hopeless, but it was a joyful woman who walked away from that well, inwardly cleansed and full of hope.  

Jesus sees our true value as children of God and seeks to do everything to mend our brokenness. He seeks to wash us and make us new. The Bible speaks about this in Ezekiel 36:25-27, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

This is what baptism is all about—it is a symbolic demonstration that through Jesus, the mess of our lives has been washed away, replaced with a future of peace, joy and hope. It is a declaration of our stepping away from a life of shame, burdens and “stains”—and instead stepping into a life made new as a beloved child of God.