Mark 6:30-44 · Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
Christ and the Magic Cloak
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Sermon
by Lori Wagner
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[Prop: Jewish Tallit with Tzitzit]

The fashion industry has captivated people, both men and women, for centuries. If you look back in your history books, you’ll be amazed at some of the beautiful and stunning costumes that people wore in times past. In fact, in many museums, fashion has become a popular display –Medieval gowns, Knight’s armor, Viking attire, Victorian splendor. We marvel at the handicrafts that people were able to assemble even so many years ago!

Today, we continue to adore fashion. We look read fashion magazines. We watch the runway. We elevate our favorite designers to the level of rock stars and movie moguls, and we laud their creativity.

In fact, we can get so caught up in our own fashion trends that we assume that in Jesus’ time, people just slapped on a robe, and it was a done deal. But that was not the case. Clothing was just as stylish in Jesus’ time (and before that!) as it is today.

Newly discovered dyes allowed makers of linen and lace to create beautiful colors and patterns. Beautiful beads, string, scarves, and gems made for exquisite ornaments. While certainly fishermen may have worn a simpler garb of linen tunic and drawn pants, others adorned themselves with clothes they loved, according to their means. The more color and gems, the more wealth. Cloth makers and seamstresses made a good living in Jesus’ time.

Then, as now, what you wore said a lot about you. The colors of your clothing, the quality of your tunic, if you wore a belt or sash, a bag around your waist or a cloak around your body, sandals on your feet, an apron, or jewelry. Ornaments such as bracelets, anklets, earrings, rings, combs and hairpins, or even oils and perfumes lent character and individuality to the wearer.

If you were a rabbi or priest, your clothing was also different. Priests wore elaborate robes over their linen tunics, covering their body from neck to feet. While more priests wore plain clothing, the high priest’s garb was elaborately embroidered with colored ephod laced with golden threads. Clasps were often laden with onyx stones.

Like others, rabbis generally wore a white or plain linen seamless undergarment and head wrap. However, their robe or cloak, called a tallit, was unique. The tallit was a large squarish cloth made of wool, cotton, or linen. In its four corners were strung the traditional Jewish tzitzit, tassels or fringes if you will made of several strips of thread. The Jewish tallit is traditionally white and blue.

This sacred garb, particularly the tzitzit, or symbolic strings on the edges or hem of the rabbi’s garment were said to have healing powers and to remind us of God’s presence. We might call this kind of garb today, a prayer shawl. The strings, knotted in white and blue (tekhelet, made from purple dye), reminded one of God’s holiness, providence, and authority. They reminded one of God’s commandments and our role as servant. The wearer of the tzitzit literally was clothed in holiness.

What does that mean to you, to be “clothed in holiness?” We find many phrases in scripture that refer to clothing, especially the cloaks of prophets, rabbis, and priests, as holy.  We also hear metaphors in scripture:

Clothe yourselves in righteousness. Be clothed in glory. Clothe yourself in humility. Put on the clothing of holiness. Put on the armor of Christ. Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus. Put on the armor of Light. Clothe yourselves with the presence of the Lord.

These are some of the references to clothing as a metaphor in the scriptures. The relationship between what you wear and who you are is important, but the relationship between the character your “wear” and who you are is all important.

Ever have that experience, where you look at someone, or you are around someone, and you just know that person is a good person? You get a good feeling being around them. You instinctively trust them.

That must have been the way the hemorrhaging woman felt when she reached for Jesus’ hem, his tzitzit, which she felt was surely exuding the power of God. It must have been the way many people felt as Jesus walked by them. Listen again to the scripture today:

“People at once recognized [Jesus as he arrived on the shore from his boat], and they rushed about the whole region, and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak: and all who touched it were healed.”

Jesus exuded the power of God.

Ever bring in that fresh bouquet of flowers from your garden. As long as those flowers are in your home, you can smell their fragrant scent, and you are reminded of their beauty. That’s the way it was when Jesus passed by. Wherever he was, he exuded from his person the pungent fragrance of God’s salvific grace, God’s love, God’s forgiveness, God’s healing power.

For us today, that power of Christ is evident in our prayers, in our rituals, in our sacraments, and in our personal time with God, what John Wesley called our “means of grace.” When we come into our personal space with God, when we feel the Holy Spirit around us and beside us, among us, and within us, we know it. And when we open ourselves up to the presence of God, the presence of Christ, we become filled with that sense of well-being, peace, love, and fullness that reminds us that God is working through us, that Christ is living His resurrection Life within us.

The closer we are to God, the more you can palpably feel the Holy Spirit among us.

You all know what I mean. When you walk into certain places, whether churches or other sacred places, when you come near to certain people, who spend their lives close to God, you can feel God’s presence in that place, with that person.

Likewise, when you walk into a place that is filled with hatred, anger, rebuke, or enviousness, you can feel that too.

Each place, each person, is filled with a spirit. And it’s not always the Holy one!

So what does it mean to be Christian?

It means that you seek to be a place, a culture that is filled with the spirit of Christ. That you exude Christ from your countenance, from your person, from your church, from among you, so that when anyone comes near to you or into this space, they know in their very souls that God is here in this place, that Christ resides in you.

And that’s a powerful witness.

When Jesus sent out his apostles to minister and carry out His mission of the gospel, he instructed them to heal. The Holy Spirit blew amidst them and within them and filled them with Christ’s glory, presence, and power. And they too were able to heal and proclaim Jesus to everyone who approached them.

This is the mission of the church. This is who you are. Today, I invite you to find whatever ways you can not just on Sundays but in every day of the week, to find those ways that bring you close to Christ, that fill you with the Holy Spirit and create in you that sense of well-being, peace, love, and generosity, and carry God with you into the world.

I guarantee you that everyone you meet will see Christ within you. You will draw them to you. And they will meet Jesus for the first time, as they see Him in your eyes and feel Him in your heart.

Go out now and put on the clothing of Christ. Clothe yourselves in His presence and power. And exude in everything you say and do His beautiful and forgiving, loving, and accepting spirit to all you meet today and always.

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., by Lori Wagner