Jesus Takes Out the Trash

Last night I got home from a week’s vacation. As I walked in the kitchen, I noticed a stale, sour odor but did not really think too much of it because I figured it was a week’s worth of pent-up Summer air. I could just air out the house plus spray my Febreze Unstoppables that lasts up to six hours (really quite some amazing stuff).

BUT this morning I was putting a few things away and opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink — rotten potatoes! Rotten potatoes have the worst smell; they actually smell like something died.

I gingerly picked up the bag, sealed it in another trash bag and put it in the Trash. BUT not the inside trash, the trash that immediately goes to the Outside trash! I then sprayed chlorox on the spot, aired out the cabinet and kitchen, and sprayed my Febreze Unstoppable six-hour spray. It was NOT enough to air it out—it would only linger and get stronger. It was NOT enough to spray Febreze—that would only mask the source that was going to outlast the six-hours. It was NOT enough to put it in the Trash—it needed to be in the outside trash. You have to be rid of the Source of the Stink!

I am struck with the thought that Jesus takes out the Trash of my life. I take inadequate measures hoping nobody will notice the stink:

1. Air things out: take a vacation, take a break, put some space between. But in the end I come back to the same places, to the same situations, and more glaringly- I am still the same because the Source lies within me.
2. Spray some cover-up: I add a new distraction to my life or schedule. I am hoping my new hobby or addiction will cover the old stink but unfortunately it either mingles with the stench or is inadequate to cover it. 
3. I might even “take out the Trash” – but I leave it in the Inside trash. I might want to take a whiff every now and then. Can you imagine wrestling the garbage man so I could hold onto that Stink just in case I hadn’t gotten enough?? Absurd- but that is exactly what we do with God to hold onto our “Stink” of sin.

Jesus takes out My Trash. If you read the passages, Jesus became the Scapegoat of our Sin and suffered outside the City because He not only took out the Trash—He BECAME Trash (Sin) in my place and then took it out-- Outside. I am humbled by the realization that my best efforts can only mask the Source while it gets steadily worse and ripens to the point of an overpowering stink in my life and character. Jesus is the One who became a stench in my place so that the pleasing Aroma of His Sacrifice would make me a pleasing Aroma as well.

So why you still wrestling the “garbage man” to hold onto your Stink??

Thank you, Jesus, for taking out my Trash.