Mark 9 Who does your laundry?

And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Mark 9:2-3

It amazes me how I can read the scriptures over and over and not catch things like washerwomen getting mentioned in the Bible! We have all read the story of the transfiguration, and I have talked about it before in this blog from a different gospel. But Mark, well, my guess is he was a servant that did laundry. Who else would use the description given above? Was he the guy who tried to get every last bit of dirt out of the hem of a garment? Did he use lemon juice to whiten soiled linen? I have seldom seen a truly white sheep...there is a tinge of ecru going on there...just saying. To get a truly white garment was something special in those days, and of course, every little stain or spot shows up. Those things were a lot of maintenance...you can't let them get really dirty or the soils will never come out.

Or he hauled them off to the wet-cleaners. Someone else had the dirty job of cleaning, and he knew just how hard of a job it was to get things really white. It took an expert.

And then he hears the story of the transfiguration from Peter, James, or John. How shining and white His clothes were. Not an earthly white, but a heavenly white, so white, so pure, that no human could dare to achieve it. This Jesus was from another place, or at the least, was touched at that moment by another realm not of this world.

These clothes were just a help in revealing to the 3 apostles that Jesus was not of this world. He had existed before in the other realm, and was talking there in front of them with 2 men who were now living in that realm, Moses and Elijah. This was what He was really supposed to look like. But He gave that all up to come down here and become like us, plain and ordinary, so that He could die the substitutionary death for us. But the 3 apostles got a brief glimpse of who he really was an were speakless (until one of them spoke a little nonsense). That ended it. When Peter brought Jesus back down to earth, so to speak, the revelation ended. But the memory lingered. Who was this Guy? This one in unearthly white shining clothes? We have seen images on tv of glowing figures so often that we fail to understand how truly stunning it would be to see it in real life.

But His white clothes aren't the only heavenly thing we can't clean up on earth.

There is this ugly thing we try to call sin, but in this day and age is it just called a lifestyle choice. There is violation of the very rules of God. There is sin. Dark. Ugly. Staining. Ground-in. It has penetrated the fabric of our being to the point where no stain remover, no bleach, to lemon juice or soda or chemical treatment can remove it. It is a permanent part of the fabric of our lives and we are forced to live with it. And no earthly man can remove it. No man can forgive it. No scrubbing and penance and groveling can make it go away.

And then Jesus came. And He showed us that this world is not our home and that these stained garments can only become heavenly white when washed in the blood. How does blood take out stains, you ask? I don't know. I just know that that is how things work in God's laundromat. We are scrubbed spotless by the blood of the lamb. And they aren't just white, they are shiny white. Glorified white. Heavenly bright white. Those who appeared in them on earth did not stay on earth. They used their white clothes to communicate where they were from and to where they were returning. But they didn't stay. This world is not the place for shiny white clothes. But heaven is. And we are offered them when we get there. In the meantime we are like Jesus...undercover holy! We have those garments waiting for us, but while here, we look like others so we can relate to others. Remember when Moses glowed for a few days? It freaked people out. They couldn't relate to him, ask him to dinner, or even look at him without fearing. Jesus would have had the same effect if he would have come in his shining splendor. No one would have dared draw near. I think even Peter would have drawn the line there. But Jesus came to relate, to draw close, and at times, for our benefit, show us a glimpse of His glory. And hopefully we can do the same.

So, who does your laundry?