You Can't Go Like That

Psalm 51:7

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Did this ever happen to you when you were a child? Your family was getting ready to go somewhere, maybe to church, maybe to a nice restaurant, or an anniversary celebration. Your mom had you put on your best clothes and told you to make sure not to get them dirty. But you got tired of waiting so you decided to get something to eat and spilled all over your best clothes. What did your mom say when she saw your messy clothes? “You can’t go like that. You have to change. Go get cleaned up and put on clean clothes.”

Or maybe you have had a similar discussion with your spouse. It’s time to go somewhere. You grab your coat. Your spouse takes one look at you and says… “What are you wearing? You can’t go looking like that!”

That’s what Nathan said to David, and David says to us. “You can’t go to heaven looking like that! You need to be clean. You need to be cleansed of every spot of sin. You need to be washed so that your clothes are whiter than snow.”

Nathan helped David realize how dirty he was. His lust for Bathsheba all by itself was like a big stain of red Kool Aid. His act of adultery with her was like mud being splashed all over. His murder-for-hire of Uriah was like standing at the business end of a manure spreader. “David, in God’s eyes you are covered with filth, disgusting, revolting to God. You cannot go to heaven while you are still covered with the filth and stench of your sins.”

By God’s grace, David looked in the mirror of God’s law and saw the filth of his sins. By God’s grace, he realized that his sinfulness included more than the sinful thoughts and actions related to his dealings with Bathsheba and Uriah. He realized the power of his sinful nature and admitted that, as a descendant of Adam and Eve he was sinful from conception and birth. He acknowledged that, even if he had not committed those sins of lust, adultery, and murder, he would still be filthy and disgusting in the sight of God. By nature alone, not counting any actual sins, he was already filthy and in need of cleansing if he wanted to go to heaven.

What was true of David is also true of us. Stand in the mirror of God’s law and you will see the filth of your sins. You will see the stains left by lust. You will see that mud spatter left by the hurt you have caused others. You will smell the stench left by all the times you put yourself and your own desires ahead of God and your neighbor, especially those you claim to love the most. But, as you study God’s word, like David, you will also be led to see that, even without those sins, you are filthy by nature. Even without committing any obvious sin, God would still say to you, “you can’t enter heaven like that, you need to be cleansed.” To think otherwise is to be like the man in Jesus’ parable who refused to wear the wedding garment that was provided for him. Failure to see the filth of your sins, including your sinful nature—thinking that what you are wearing by nature is good enough to allow you to stay at the banquet-- will get you thrown out of the wedding banquet of heaven.

Nathan helped David realize that he needed to be cleansed. But how could he be made clean after what he had done? He couldn’t bring Uriah back from the dead. He couldn’t go back in time and avert his eyes when he happened to see Bathsheba bathing. He couldn’t rescind his command to have his servants bring her to him. He could bathe seven times a day for the rest of his life, and he still would be filthy in God’s eyes. He could give every last penny of his fortune to the Priests and Levites for the support of the church, but the filth of his sin would only multiply. How could he be cleansed?

Nathan pointed him in the right direction when he assured him, “God has put away your sin. You aren’t going to die.” And David understood. He understood that there was nothing he could do to cleanse himself. God is the one who had to cleanse him. In verse 2 he prays to God, Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. In our text for tonight, verse 7, he says, Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Or as one commentator translates, “You will cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; You will wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”

David seems to be thinking of the Old Testament ceremony for cleansing. The water of cleansing was sprinkled on the tent where someone died, on the people who touched the dead body, and on lepers who were declared clean, using Hyssop. And Hyssop was used by God’s people to put the blood of the lamb on the door posts of their homes in Egypt so that when God came to destroy all the firstborn, he passed over those homes who had the blood of the lamb on the door posts and spared the firstborn living there.

We know that Jesus is the one pictured by the Passover lamb. As he hung on the cross, suffering for all of our sins, he said he was thirsty. Someone soaked a sponge in sour wine, put the sponge on a Hyssop branch and gave him a drink. This allowed him to cry out in a loud voice, It Is Finished. His mission was accomplished. His blood shed on the cross is payment in full for the sins of the whole world.

What a strange thing it is that the only thing that can wash away the filth of our sin is blood! But God pictured this fact throughout the Old Testament. The writer to the Hebrews explains, When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. And John assures us that the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Jesus’ blood applied to the doorposts of our hearts through faith allows God to pass over us and not destroy us in the judgment.

As the old gospel hymn says, “What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Only God can cleanse us and wash away every spot and stain of sin. Only he can give us the wedding garment, the clean clothes that are whiter than snow, the robe of Jesus’ righteousness that shone brighter than anyone could bleach it on the mount of transfiguration. And the best thing of all is that he gives us the cleansing we need for free.

He gives us the cleansing we need through the New Testament cleansing bath of baptism where, because the water is connected to God’s powerful word, we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, cleansed of sin, and declared dear children of our Heavenly Father.

He gives it to us in the Lord’s Supper where, together with the bread and wine we receive the body and blood of Jesus given and poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins; the blood that purifies us from all sin.

As Paul says, God doesn’t make our cleansing difficult. He doesn’t require us to go up to heaven to get it, or to mine it from the depths of the earth. He gives it to us through the word and Sacraments which are near us, right here in church where we can hear and see them. In our homes where we can read about Nathan and David, about his confession, and hear him point us to the only source of cleansing for our sins—our Gracious Heavenly Father who offered his only perfect Son, Jesus, as the bloody sacrifice of atonement for us.

Like David, we are covered with the filth and stench of sin. But by God’s grace, our sin has been pointed out. We have had someone who cares enough about us tell us, “You can’t go to heaven looking like that.” And even more importantly we have had someone tell us how we can be cleansed. God has to do it, and he has. Through the word and Sacraments, he has cleansed us with hyssop and made us clean. He has washed us and made us whiter than snow. He has cleansed us in the fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins. He has given us the wedding garment of Jesus’ righteousness so that we can be welcomed by him into eternal glory. In Jesus we are cleansed, washed whiter than snow.