Hey,Good Lookin’ I
By Rebekah Curtis
n ancient times, I went on a work trip to Haiti with my church’s youth group.There was a cultural dress code for girls: long skirts, covered shoulders, and for our beach day, bikinis were out.The girls griped and complained. Who wanted to wear an old lady one-piece? The guy next to me mumbled,“That’s what you should all be wearing anyway.”
H I G H E R
T H I N G S __ 8
“Excuse me?“ I demanded. He sighed.“What if somebody told you that you weren’t supposed to eat any chocolate for ten years? And then they marched all this chocolate in front of you all the time. Is that going to make it easier or harder for you not to want something you’re not supposed to have?” Ouch. I knew he was thinking of our recent trip to a water park. In dressing for the guys’ attention, we girls had selfishly made it difficult—very difficult— for them to lead a sexually pure and decent life. Wait a minute though. Aren’t we free in the Gospel? You don’t go to a church where women have to wear long skirts and long hair. It was for freedom that Christ set us free, so who says you can’t wear whatever you want? Martin Luther explains, “This is that Christian liberty, our faith, the effect of which is not that we should be careless or lead a bad life, but that no one should need the law or works for justification and salvation.” Jesus died to forgive you and release you from sin and death.You are free in Christ from the impossible task of saving yourself through the Law.You don’t need to wear a chador, a mantilla, or your great-grandma’s housecoat to earn your heavenly mansion. Jesus was free of sin and death. After all, He is God. But God is love, and love does not seek its own (I Corinthians 13:5) but the beloved. Great news: you are the beloved. Jesus, seeing your sin and need for forgiveness, surrendered His freedom, humbled Himself, became nothing, and died for you (Philippians 2:7–8) because He loved you.This, says Martin Luther, shows us how Christian love works. “Though [the Christian] is thus free from all works, yet he ought to empty himself of this liberty, take on him the form of a servant . . . and in every way act towards his neighbor as he sees that God through
Christ has acted and is acting towards him. All this he should do freely, and with regard to nothing but the good pleasure of God.” Just as Jesus surrendered His freedom from death for our good, so do Christians exercise freedom humbly for the good of our baptized brothers and sisters.
