March 2, 2025 

Today's Reading: Luke 9:28-36

Daily Lectionary: Job 33:19-34:9; John 11:1-16

“…His clothing became dazzling white.” (Luke 9:29b)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

In the beginning, there was no need for clothes. Adam and Eve didn’t have them, and nobody seemed to mind. At least, at first. Ever since, there has been a difference between the clothes that we wear for ourselves and the clothes that our Lord provides. Rebekah clothed Jacob in Esau’s clothes. They were worn to deceive– worn in order to sin. Joseph’s brothers would dip his robe in blood in order to deceive their father. Joseph’s clothes would again be taken from him by Potiphar’s wife. She covered her own sinful desires with those clothes in order to deceive. 

When we ourselves dress up our sin, we claim that there’s nothing wrong. That we have no shame at all. It’s all lies. It’s all deception. That sin is still there. We should be shamed by the fact that we sin. We need to be clothed in something else. We need repentance.

Something different happens when God clothes us. The covering that our Lord provides doesn’t deny our sin. It acknowledges that it’s there and that it’s shameful. Yet we don’t hide it ourselves. We don’t lie about it and say it’s good. Instead, our Lord takes our shame and provides His modesty for it. After all, the clothing our Lord provides gives us the honor that rightly belongs to Him.

When Joseph was called out of prison, Pharaoh gave him the clothes he would need to enter the court, covering up the shame of Joseph’s imprisonment with pardon. After Joseph’s brothers finally found out Joseph was in charge of all Egypt, Joseph sent them back with new clothes to their father. Covering up the shame of their years of lies with forgiveness and the promise of deliverance from the famine.

The clothes that Jesus gives are His own. They cover our sin with His forgiveness. This is why the clothing of Jesus is so important. For our sake, Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. From Jesus’ clothes came power to overcome sin, as some went to touch even the hem of His garments. Jesus’ clothes shine brightly forth at the Transfiguration in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus is clothed so that He may properly bear your sin and your shame. And that we may wear His righteousness. And in Baptism, Jesus wraps you in His clothes. He gives them away to you and takes up your clothing instead.

Jesus doesn’t always wear the clothes of the Transfiguration. It’s from here that He goes down to be crucified. What should have been our shame was His alone. He wears the sin of the entire world, including your sin and mine. All of it is taken away from us, and Jesus carries it all, bearing it before the entire world. And we are left washed, cleansed, forgiven, and clothed.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

In Baptism we now put on Christ– Our shame is fully covered With all that He once sacrificed And freely for us suffered. For here the flood of His own blood Now makes us holy, right, and good Before our heavenly Father. (LSB 596:4)

-Rev. Eli Davis, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Grants Pass, OR.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

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