A Holy Robe

Our Lord is the Lord who walks among us, but He is also the God who dwells in Heaven, preparing a place for us. It seems that as Christianity continues to develop in a modern world, we are quickly losing touch with the kind of faith-in-flesh that Jesus offered on the same roads we walk and removing God more and more into the heavens, where we will see Him face-to-face on that one fine day. But the more we are willing to exalt God into some far-removed place we cannot reach in this life, the faster we lose touch with His healing power, love, and mercy for today. That is where one short sentence in Isaiah can give us so much hope.

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. The bottom of his robe filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1)

Isaiah rightfully puts the Lord on His throne in the heavens. We do this, too. It’s important that we never lose sight of the eternality of God, that we trust in His promises for tomorrow, and that we keep our hope on that glorious day. But then, look at what Isaiah says: even though the Lord sits on His throne in the heavens, the bottom of His robe fills the temple. The long, flowing robe of grace is right within our reach.

This is important, and to understand how important it is, we have to look for another flowing robe of the Lord in the Scriptures. And indeed, we find it in the story of Jesus and the bleeding woman. Remember her? She had an issue of bleeding for twelve years and had spent all her money on doctors who could not help her. She mustered up all the courage she could and pushed her way, knowingly unclean, through the crowds for the chance to touch Jesus’s robe. She knew that if she touched even the edge of it, she would be cleansed. She did, and she was. And then Jesus, who felt the healing power flow from Him into her, turned around and blessed her.

It is this scene that this passage in Isaiah brings to mind. This is the kind of faith that we need to have. We need to recognize the Lord who sits on the high and lofty throne, but we cannot let ourselves neglect the edge of His robe that flows right into our presence, so near that we could touch it if we would just reach out. We need to develop the kind of faith that pushes through this world, knowingly unclean, for a chance to find healing in that fine linen that flows from the heavens to the earth. We need to have a faith that remembers that even though God waits for us in eternity, He is present with us now and that His promises are not just for tomorrow; they are also for today.

What would it mean for our modern Christianity to reconnect with the Lord that we’ve too-far removed from us? What would it mean to acknowledge again the God who walks among us along with the One who sits on the throne of heaven? What would it mean to bridge the gap between the heavens and the earth by doing everything we can to press through and reach out and know what it means to just touch Him?

Why, it might mean that we find that the Lord who walks among us recognizes our faith, turns around to catch our eye, and blesses us even as He heals us. It might mean that we find that we are not merely cleansed, but washed fully clean. It might mean that we see with fresh eyes the true goodness of God. And it might mean, it just might mean, that we don’t have to spend our whole lives waiting to discover how much He loves us; we know it for certain right now.