Your Jeep’s Too Clean!

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One of the most fantastic vacation days my wife and I ever had was renting a fire-engine red Jeep in Moab, Utah, and driving Shafer Trail. This 4WD dirt road near Canyonlands National Park begins with a breathtaking descent of 1,500 feet in the first mile-and-a-half. Without guardrails. Part of the way through our journey, we stopped at a pull-off to admire some of the jaw-dropping scenery. While we were there, another Jeep pulled up. After exchanging greetings, one person from the other vehicle remarked, “Hey, your Jeep’s too clean!” And compared to theirs, it certainly was. But there was another truth contained in that observation. We weren’t using our Jeep for one of the things it was made for: to get dirty.

During his time on earth, one of Jesus’ criticisms of some of the religious leaders of that day was their hands were too clean. Nowhere is this more evident than the parable of the Good Samaritan. (See Luke 10:30-37.) In that story, two religious folks had the opportunity to help someone who had been attacked, beaten up, and robbed. But they refused to become involved with the injured man and get their hands dirty.

For many years, Oliver Wilbanks served as Associate Pastor of Wieuca Road Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. But during World War II, he was a chaplain. Not too long after D-Day, the unit he was with came into a French village that had been heavily shelled during the fighting. In the town square was a statue of Jesus, which had been damaged. Both of the statue’s arms below the elbows were missing. Suddenly inspired, Chaplain Wilbanks found some cardboard and some string. He created a sign which he hung around the statue’s neck. And on the cardboard, he wrote these words, “You are my hands.”

I have one pair of Jesus’ hands. And God made them to be used to get dirty on His behalf.