Dirty souls

And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:4-11).

When you were a child, did your folks pester you about staying clean? Did you get yelled at for getting your clothes dirty? Were you nagged about taking a bath or washing your hands? More to the point, did you really care about keeping clean, or was it more fun to be dirty?

Most kids don’t mind getting dirty. To get dirty is part of having fun. Staying clean requires that you hold back and be careful; getting dirty is the result of being reckless and carefree. It’s not that most children enjoy being dirty; it’s just that when you’re having fun, trying to stay clean becomes a distraction. And no one wants to be distracted in the middle of a ball game, or while climbing a tree, or while doing somersaults in the grass. Dirt is what happens when you are living it up.

It isn’t until we get a little older that we start to understand the importance of cleanliness. Dirty clothes get in the way when we are trying to make a good impression, whether it be during an important job interview or on a long-anticipated first date. Going without bathing can result in itchy head lice or burning skin infections. Eating without first washing your hands can lead to serious, maybe even fatal illness. In order to stay healthy and happy and comfortable, cleanliness is an essential part of life.

Of course, knowledge of germs as the cause of infection is a relatively recent discovery. Prior to the advent of modern medicine and indoor plumbing, washing was a rare event for many people. It took a lot of work to haul water up from a well in sufficient quantities for bathing, let alone heating it for use; and during a time when few knew the dangers of bacterial infection, the worst effect of not bathing was body odor, which was often masked by the heavy use of perfume. Unless one lived close to a body of water in a warm climate, bathing was rarely part of the daily routine.

Throughout history, people have not minded being dirty; for most it was a simple reality of daily life. You can’t run a farm without getting dirty. You can’t catch fish for a living without getting slimy. You can’t be a carpenter and escape sawdust. You can’t travel along country roads to sell your merchandise without becoming dusty. To live life is to get dirty.

What is true of the body is even more true of the soul. Throughout our days here on earth, we live with dirty souls. Revealing the unpleasant truth that we would prefer to keep hidden, our Lord says: out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying, slander. These are what make a man `unclean' (Matthew 15:19-20). Our souls are made dirty by our instinctive selfishness and greed; you can see it already in babies, who are slow to speak words like "yes" and "yours", but quickly learn how to say "no" and "mine."

Dirty souls are off-putting. When you go out on a date with someone you really want to impress, you get ready by taking a shower, fixing your hair, and putting on clean clothes. But your attempt to impress also extends to your behavior—you ‘clean up your act.’ You don’t belch during your date; you don’t stare at other members of the opposite sex as they walk by; you are careful about the kinds of jokes you tell, you watch your table manners during the meal, and you make a point of being a good listener. But as you get more comfortable around another person, your act starts to slip; bit by bit, your real self starts to show through. And that real self, that soul smeared with dirt, is quite unattractive. It is that dirty soul, prone to selfishness and being inconsiderate, that results in nearly half of all marriages ending in divorce. It is that dirty soul, which can be so hard for another person to love, that ends friendships with bitter words that are regretted for a lifetime.

Dirty souls are also unhealthy. A dirty body can fall victim to rashes and infestation by lice, which make life miserable. A dirty soul can fall victim to mental health problems, which also make life miserable. A dirt-smeared soul insists on having its own way, with the result that life is an endless battle, often resulting in anger and frustration. When a filthy soul drives away friends and loved ones, you can be left not only lonely, but also filled with shame over your behavior that has ended a cherished relationship. A dirty soul has a hard time trusting in anyone else, even God, with the result that life is little more than worry heaped upon worry; instead of holding out hope for something better, tomorrow is just another opportunity for things to go horribly wrong. A dirty soul burdens life with a host of negative emotions.

Most dangerous of all, dirty souls bring the threat of death. Eating with unwashed hands can result in a deadly bacterial infection. Living with an unwashed soul sets you up for eternal spiritual death. In fact, the Bible describes such people as dead inside even while their bodies are still alive and walking around; Ephesians chapter two says: Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God's anger just like everyone else. When our souls are separated from God, He views us as dead; and if we reach the end of life still separated from God, then the only thing we have to look forward to beyond the grave is eternal death in hell.

Dirty souls are off-putting, unhealthy, and result in death. And yet so many are ignorant of the danger. They are like children who don’t want their fun spoiled by having to be careful what they do or by taking time to wash up. They want the freedom to do whatever they want, regardless of the consequences to come. Now there are some who do wrinkle their noses at how smelly their sin makes them, but since they don’t realize that the stench of sin warns of mortal danger, they just apply perfume to cover up the smell. The perfume they use is the doing of good deeds, as if doing good can cover up the evil that taints their souls. But to them Jesus says, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27). The plain truth is this: the sin that makes our souls dirty repels God and everyone else from us, it fills our lives with problems, and if left unattended, will result in God sending us away forever to the cesspool of hell.

What we need most desperately is washing—baptismal washing. We need to hear and believe what God tells us in Titus chapter three: Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy. We hated others, and they hated us. But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.

Baptism is a washing by the Holy Spirit that gives us new life. It cleanses us from the filth of sin that sickens us. It makes us clean and presentable, so that we can approach God confident of His welcome. Most importantly, it replaces death with life. Paul writes in Romans chapter six, we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.

Where does baptism get its power? The power comes from what Christ has done for we the members of His Church. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 5, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the Jordan River, the Son of God underwent the first of two baptisms; in this first baptism, He joined us in the water of repentance. When that water touches us during our baptisms, our sins are washed away—but those sins had to go somewhere. Where they went was to Jesus. Standing in the baptismal waters, our Master accepted the sins those waters had removed from us; instead of cleansing Him, they covered Him in our filth. Yet in spite of this unholy burden, Jesus never gave in to sin, never gave in to despair or rage or selfishness. He carried the burden of our sins all the way to the cross, all the while never sinning even once. Our Lord went to the cross completely innocent of wrongdoing.

It was while He suffered on that cross that Jesus underwent His second baptism—a baptism of blood that washed away all our sins forever. The Law of God states: it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life (Leviticus 17:11). The only way that sin can be made up for is by the shedding of blood in death. This is the baptism that we all deserved because of our sins—blood shed in death. But Jesus loved us too much to allow us to undergo such a horrible baptism, so He volunteered to take our place on the cross and suffer the agonizing death that was needed to cleanse us from our filth. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might receive the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). This supreme act of sacrifice made by Jesus is what gives baptism its power to save.

Nor is this only a one-time event. Baptism establishes a life-long relationship with Christ, who has promised to always wash away our sins when we come to Him dirty and ashamed. Jesus said, whoever comes to me I will never drive away (John 6:37). John also writes, if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong (1 John 1:9). Baptism is the start of a new way of life—a life dedicated to spiritual cleanliness and grateful devotion to our Savior.

Children don’t understand the importance of being clean—so they have to be taught. Unbelievers don’t understand the importance of being spiritually clean—so they have to be taught. They have to be told that sin makes them unattractive. They have to be told that the reason their lives are filled with misery is because of that sin. They have to be told that the infection brought by sin will result in eternal death if left untreated. Are the souls of your loved ones as precious to you as the health of their bodies? You care enough about the children in your life to lead them to the sink for washing; do you care enough about the unbelievers in your life to lead them to the baptismal font, so that they might be washed by Christ?