"The Cloaks Off Their Backs"
March 2, 2018
And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. (Mark 11:8)
"The red carpet treatment." That's how modern Western cultures describe a royal welcome. The crowd welcoming Jesus had similar ideas. Joyfully Jesus' disciples threw their cloaks over the donkey's back, doing the best they could in place of a saddle. The crowd grabbed their own cloaks and spread them on the road, making a royal carpet for Jesus to ride over. It may have been poor and improvised, but it was also full of joy and love.
I can't help wondering what the women said when their husbands and children came home with extra laundry to do. No, actually, I can imagine it, every word -- but what was their defense? "It was for Jesus," they must have said. "I'm sorry about the extra work and all the dirt. But it was for Jesus, you have to understand."
The women who had been there would already understand. Those who had met Him before -- who had heard Him preach, had been healed and comforted by Him, had been challenged and forgiven and blessed -- they too would understand. Nothing is too good for Jesus. Not our cloaks, not our hearts, not our lives.
After all, Jesus, too, is in the laundry business. But He isn't washing cloaks with boiling water and soap. No, He is washing us -- making us perfectly clean and pure, fit for a king. And He has done it with His own blood.
THE PRAYER: Wash me, Lord Jesus, that I may belong to You. Amen.
