I Can Clean That If You Want

Spot removal.  It can be a real bear sometimes!  We’ve all had it happen.  You wear your best outfit and manage to drop dinner in your lap.  No matter what you try, it seems like you can always see the defect, whether others can or not.  I’m still wearing a nice pair of dress pants that I inadvertently got paint on eight years ago!  I know, why am I wearing clothes that old?  I won’t even tell you how many seasons some of my unseen garments have been through.  But the point is that sometimes, a spot or stain stays no matter how hard we try to eliminate it.

Even Shakespeare wrote famously about that “darned spot” (with apologies to Will) that Lady Macbeth just couldn’t get out – the stain of her sin for her part in a murder plot (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1).  While you may not have sin stains as stubborn or heinous as Lady Macbeth’s, the reminders of your own failures might sometimes steal your sleep as well.  We all have personal stains – let’s just call them past sins to be completely honest – that don’t seem to go away no matter how hard we wish they would.  Oh, I know if you are a believer in Christ, the blood of Jesus has washed them away so no one else should comment on them.  I know even God Himself doesn’t see them.  But I still do.  It doesn’t seem to matter that whatever terrible things I’ve done in the past are forgiven and covered by Christ’s blood, I still struggle with seeing the stain. 

King David had lots of stains that might have kept him awake at night.  His story is just as lurid and ghastly as any Shakespeare tale.  But instead of wandering the halls of his palace lamenting his sin, it seems he discovered a way to get those spots out:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me…Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.       Psalm 51:1-7

If you’ve sought forgiveness like David, there is nothing else you can do.  No matter how dreadful the stain in your life, it doesn’t get any cleaner than when it’s been laundered by the Savior.  Your sin-stains are gone.  Your friends may remember where they were.  Your spouse might recall just how terrible the spot appeared when it was fresh.  You may still be able to visualize exactly what it looked like before it was washed away.  BUT IT IS GONE.   

In John 13, Jesus tried to give us a visual reminder of His ability to clean away sin by washing the feet of His disciples.  It was His very last act of ministry TO them before He died FOR them.  Max Lucado referenced Jesus’ act in these words from his book, Just Like Jesus:

“Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, "I can clean that if you want." And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes away our sin.”

Wow.  The sin-stains are gone.  Is it possible you still see where those marks were because they’ve been replaced by the tear-stains of gratitude?  Those are spots you can live with.

Jacob