Will you go to the ball?
Have you read Cinderella? Surely most people know the plot. A pretty young girls mother dies, the father marries someone else who already has two daughters, then the step-mother and the step-sisters gang up on and bully the young girl, making her do all the dirty jobs around the house. They especially get her to clean out the fireplace and the kitchen range, where the cooled down cinders always dirty her clothes: hence the name Cinderella little cinders!
One day the prince decides he wants to get married (civil partnerships were not available how simple things were in those fairy tales). So he gets his fathers servants to organize a grand ball, the biggest do yet, a splendid dance, the not-to-be-missed social event of the year. Cinderella has to work up to the last minute and, anyway, doesnt have anything clean and/or suitable to wear, whereas the ugly sisters get to go. How unfair it all is. Then
well, I am sure you remember the rest, dont you? She gets to go to the ball in a dazzling gown, and, after a shoe predicament, gets to marry the handsome prince, who turns into a frog when she kisses him
or am I getting things mixed up?
Cinderella may be the most famous rags to riches story ever. Or is it? Well, there is another story that in the long run will probably surpass it, and it involves you and me. To explain it were going to go to a relatively obscure Old Testament book called Zechariah.
The best party ever
Before we get there, lets remember a dominant Biblical idea. It is that God is planning to hold a fantastic party at the end of our time. Its referred to in different ways: a wedding feast, the marriage of the Lamb, a banquet, etc. Whatever it is, its going to be a great time physically and spiritually. That is how being in the eternal presence of the everlasting God is described. In the book of Psalms it says there will be pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). We do get to live happily ever after!
When he writes, Zechariah often describes spiritual realities in terms of the events and personalities of his day. The Jews had been allowed to return from captivity to Jerusalem. Both Zechariah and his contemporary, the prophet Haggai, were encouraging the Jews in the rebuilding of the temple. Zechariah uses imagery that would be familiar to his readers in order to convey a hopeful future of national and personal restoration to God.
In Zechariah chapter three he describes Gods grace as a rags to riches story. It is recounted in the form of a vision that is full of symbolism. Joshua was the high priest. He represented the Jewish people. For us today, Joshua is representative of Christians individually and also of the collective church.
Joshua is before the Angel of the Lord. Satan is there too, and he accuses Joshua continuously, but the Lord rebukes him. This reminds us of how Satan is the accuser of the brethren and of how it is Jesus who rebukes Satan on our behalf.
The problem is that Joshuas clothes are dirty (just like Cinderellas were). Its understandable because Joshua is like something precious that has just been plucked from a burning fire. Scorched and blemished, torn and burnt, what should have been his spotless white garment was reduced to filthy rags. Take them away, says God. Then Zechariah shifts to the spiritual reality, moving up a gear. This is God saying that he has removed Joshuas sins, and that he will provide brand new, rich robes for him to wear. So Joshua is given fresh clothes, and a clean turban. In putting them on he stands anew before God, restored to Gods presence.
The parallel to grace is amazing. God sees humanity – that is you, me and everyone else – as something worth saving from the fires of hell. Jesus has overcome Satan for us. All our righteousness is as filthy rags. There is nothing we can do, just like there was nothing Joshua could do, to be saved. It needed grace, unmerited forgiveness. God forgave his sins although Joshua had done nothing to warrant it. In the same way God forgives our sins. And God gave Joshua new clothes. We too get dressed in fine linen, having put on the righteousness of Jesus.
So ours really is a rags to riches story, isnt it? There are a few differences between our story and Cinderellas: no pumpkins, no fairy godmothers, and theres no condition about the church fitting into its missing slipper. You can only take an analogy so far. We, however, end up partying at the marriage supper of the Lamb because Gods love is unconditional.
So – we do get to go the ball!
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