Grave Clothes, week 5

We’re now in week five of our series on grave clothes. Paul gives us a sobering list of what those grave clothes look like in practice: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.Consider that a little gift for all of us — in case anyone was feeling overly judgmental about other people’s sins.When I was growing up, church followed a predictable order. I’d dress up (and get scolded if I skipped the tie), we’d sing hymns like “Bringing in the Sheaves” (still not sure what a sheave is), the pastor would preach, and we’d close with an altar call set to songs like “Just As I Am” or “I Surrender All.” Most weeks, no one actually came forward, but the routine was comforting.Many of us grew up with our own version of that liturgy. Whether it was a traditional Protestant service or a Catholic Mass, you knew what to expect when you walked in. There’s something beautiful about rhythm and tradition — until it stops serving people and starts serving itself.Here’s the uncomfortable truth: When any human system — including the church — stops serving people and starts serving its own structure, it will always choose safety and tradition over sacrifice.Tradition makes a wonderful servant but a terrible master.Let me take you back to first-century Israel. By the time Jesus arrived, the people were desperate for a king like David — someone who would ride in with a sword, overthrow Rome, and restore their independence. Many of the disciples, including Simon the Zealot and Judas, carried that same expectation. They wanted a conqueror.But Jesus kept warning them. Over and over — at least ten times in the Gospels — He prophesied the coming destruction of Jerusalem. In Luke 19, as He approached the city, He wept:

“How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramps against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, you and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

Jesus came to show us a completely different way — a new way to be human. Genesis 1–2 reveals God’s original intention: that we would care for and cultivate the earth. Sin broke that, and ever since, humanity has tried to fix the problem through our own strength.To avoid suffering, we build safety mechanisms. Those mechanisms harden into structures and systems. And those systems, left unchecked, eventually make other people suffer. The only way to break the cycle is sacrifice.Think of Braveheart. Tribal peoples came together for safety, forming nations and kingdoms. Bad leadership turned those structures into tools of oppression. Someone had to sacrifice — even to the point of death — for freedom to have a chance.The same pattern shows up in the church. We start gatherings because people are living apart from God and need community, spiritual health, and safety. Over time, good intentions can calcify into rigid traditions and rules. We protect the structure so fiercely that we sometimes overlook the hurting people right in front of us. Changing that culture always requires someone willing to sacrifice.Israel’s story is the ultimate example. God called Abraham to faith in one God. To keep His people close, He gave them the Law. But over centuries, 613 rules became heavy burdens enforced by the spiritual elite, causing suffering instead of freedom. So God sent His Son — the ultimate sacrifice — to throw off the grave clothes of self-righteousness and bring grace instead.Grace is threatening to the self-righteous and incredibly inviting to everyone else.Jesus is the prototype of the kind of human God always intended. In His death, He showed us that suffering is both the consequence of evil and the antidote to it. He fulfilled God’s intentions through sacrifice.Paul puts it plainly in Galatians. Some were telling new believers they still needed to follow all the old rules — including circumcision — to be truly saved. Paul pushes back: “If I were still preaching that you must be circumcised… why am I still being persecuted?” The gospel isn’t a religion of safety. It’s the royal announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord of the world.Worshiping the safety of empire, denomination, political party, or even “American Christianity” is found wanting. Real salvation calls us out of every false security and into a life of grace, repentance, and faith.That brings us to Romans 12:1-2:

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Paul contrasts two ways of living. One list looks like the grave clothes: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and more.The other list is the fruit that grows when we let God transform our thinking: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.Here’s the challenge: If following Jesus hasn’t cost you anything lately, you might still be wearing grave clothes instead of throwing them off.

When you cling to lust, real love becomes difficult.
When you live in quarreling, peace feels impossible.
When anger rules, patience seems light-years away.
When you chase wild living, self-control stays out of reach.Jesus wasn’t trying to create “goody two-shoes.”

He was creating little Christs — people who live the way He lived. That path always involves sacrifice. It means loving your enemy instead of hating them. It means choosing humility over being right. It means laying down your preferences for the sake of God’s original intention for His creation.Salvation isn’t just about escaping this world and leaving others behind. It’s about following the way of the crucified and risen Jesus — presenting our bodies as living sacrifices.It’s hard. We all mess up. But that’s exactly why grace exists. None of us are perfect, yet God keeps inviting us to walk in new life and resurrection power.So let me ask you: What is following Jesus costing you right now?