You Will Have To Take Your Clothes Off
“Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.” -Matt 26:65
I tell you a mystery that is as naked as day: You will need to take your clothes off eventually. You may have heard it said, “You were born naked in this world and you will leave naked.” This is true in the deepest dimensions of our being, yet too many take their clothes off for the wrong reason, as if being intimate with a surface understanding of life is going to satisfy our passion.
We were designed to be naked and unashamed.
Jesus might be the best passion story to understand arriving naked, living naked, and leaving naked. To navigate his humiliation of being nailed naked to a cross can be difficult terrain, but it is one we must traverse should we find our return to Eden. His clothes were taken off for all the wrong reasons, yet he turned that shame into a way back to a paradise within, where we can be naked and unashamed, again. Here is a key, if you will only turn it, to turn shame around, which unlocks the door into vulnerable beauty.
In a confrontation with a suspicious and angry high priest, Jesus gets him to tear his clothes. Jesus initiated a process by which this person could become truly naked, even by using his anger to tear a veil in hopes they would begin to see something deeper, within. Our misguided passions are divinely used as doorways into healing, even if painful. The high priest had no inner authority by which he, unashamedly full of shame, accused Jesus of blasphemy to protect his own deepest fear. Jesus used his fear to rip a layer of his clothes: that is to rip, just a little, his seemingly clothed position of understanding, power, and authority he wore that blinded him from reality. Jesus intends to reach the inner places of seeing and being. These are the naked places clothed with humility, that naked humus of the earth from which we came that was breathed into our original innocence. We only need the outer robes we wear to be removed so our bodies can live naked in the light. Then, we could no longer feel shamefully unashamed when covering up truth, while believing the fact-checking blasphemies of our minds to be real.
R.I.P. those clothes.
Tear them.
Rest in the Peace of nakedness.
Hear Him.
To be naked and unashamed is our underlying longing, even when misguided. That longing and energy is meant to be guided by Mature Elders, Untouched Nature, and Wisdom. That longing is to be realized in order to become naked for all the right reasons. Tear down the outer authority disguising the dead bones within and these bones will live again. Tear down the outer meanings that leave you without substance. Eat your way through his flesh so you can drink the depths of his blood, for the Son of Man has the inner substance we long for.
You’ll have to take your clothes off for one reason or another.
May it be to see what you were meant to be when God meant you:
Naked and Unashamed.
-PH
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash
Reflection Exercise Below The Surface: Look at your clothes hanging in your closet, or in your drawer, or on the floor. You won’t be taking those with you. You can only take that which was naked and clothed in Love.
And remember.
I am not just talking about your physical closet, though that is the place to start.