Napkins and Linen

Good morning Friend.

There is no singular event in the whole of history that has as much impact on the human race forever as that of Resurrection. Resurrection is such a powerful event that it took God the fullest essence of His lethal might to execute. All power in heaven and on earth rendezvous at one spot. Heaven’s full gaze and attention was completely seized by this happening. It’s called RESURRECTION. My Pastor once said, that the message of Resurrection is as potent as the event itself. In fact, the event will hold no power if it wasn’t spoken about. In the build up to Resurrection, we find quite a lot of graphical and spectacular things occur. We see earth quakes, we see darkness, we see the veil in the temple tear in two… And while Jesus remained dead in the belly of the grave, a lot was going on in hell, folks were getting saved, He was leading captivity captive, He was plundering the devil’s stronghold and spoiling him of all his goods. Eventually Jesus paid to the fullest extent the price for justice, but there was a big part yet undone. Jesus could not remain dead, else… We would have only been forgiven of all our sins, but never empowered by the divine life to live above them. In order to give us that eternal power that will get us above the reach of the pull of sin, He needed to be raised from the dead and take us along with Him to heavenly places, far above the beggerly elements of this world.

Now, While all these spectacular activities were going on… While Jesus was busy securing eternal forgiveness and redemption for all mankind and for all time, while He was carrying out eternally consequential procedures… Can you believe that Jesus had enough excellence and attention to detail in Him to remember to wrap the napkin neatly…? The napkin is usually used to wrap the head alone. The same was used for Lazarus… See John 11:44

John 8:6-7 (KJV) Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

Looking at this verses of scripture at a glance, we can learn a few things.. Please follow me closely.

1. God Pays Attention to Details and so Should We: Jesus had more eternally consequential business to deal with, like pouring His blood into the mercy seat of the original Tabernacle in Heaven to secure our redemption forever, commissioning the Apostles for Ministry, but He still had the time to make sure the napkin covering His head during embalming was well wrapped together by itself in a place. Today we see many believers in a bid to be more mindful of things of eternal consequence, tend to neglect other areas they think are insignificant. God isn’t that way! Jesus was raised from the dead and then neatly wrapped his napkin before the leaving the sepulchre in glory. That’s just really beautiful to think about. So I urge you o Man of God… Pay attention to the details of how you look, what you wear, how you present yourself, your communication, your manners… Everything counts! If Jesus paid attention to those seemingly insignificant things, then we must as well. And speaking of significance, we see by revelation how that the act though seems insignificant was a powerful message to the body of Christ.

2. The Head is Perfected and Glorified while the Body is being Perfected and awaits Glory: We notice in these verses that the only thing that was wrapped and neatly placed was the napkin which had covered His head not the linen clothes which wrapped His body. What does this tell us? That Christ, who is the Head of the Church has been glorified forever but waits till we His body makes the enemy our footstool… See Heb 10:12-13. The linen clothes were not wrapped and placed like the napkin was because we (The Body) are still earth bound and have a lot of business to do down here. He was pretty much done with His business on earth and had to “wrap up”. We are joining Him soon, as the last day approaches when He will present us to Himself a glorious Church without spot or blemish or any such thing and we would also take up glorified bodies. It’s gonna be awesome… I sure can wait because I still have business to do here.

3. The Body of Christ is Already Righteous: The material used for embalming His body is Linen. Throughout scriptures, we see that the specified material for priests was the linen which signifies the righteousness of God. The Church will not be Christ’s Bride at the second coming, the Church is already the Bride awaiting consummation. We are already made right with Him. We have no reason to fear His coming, He is coming for us… Glory to God! God is committed to keep us clean by the washing of water by the Word, see Eph 5:26-27.

I hope this blessed you. Glory to God! Have a remarkable week ahead.