Filthy Rags and Fine Linen
Someone again shook their finger in my general direction today and told me how our deeds were like “filthy rags” (in defense of sola fide). And yet again, I am reminded of why Luther hated Revelation. (And Hebrews, and James)
Revelation 19:7-8 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment. (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.)
How many times have you heard that our deeds are like “fine linen”? Catholics believe that Sacred Scripture is a unity. It is true that when we are apart from God, our good deeds are like filthy rags. Read the ’filthy rags’ remark in the context of Isaiah 64.
Isaiah 64-4-6 Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; We have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind. There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.
These are not deeds offered to God by people who call on His name or by people who are mindful of God. Well no wonder they are like filthy rags! But when we are mindful of Our Lord’s ways and we call upon His Name our deeds are not only like fine linen, they are the dress code for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb!
And let us not forget Our Lord’s warning about being improperly dressed for the Wedding Feast.
Matthew 22:11-14 “But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
