Nail Polish Mess

Psalm 51:3-4,7,9-10

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A few weeks ago, I came home from a meeting to find my son in tears at our home. As I looked down, I saw he had something all over his hands, nail polish. Seemed a bit strange since the only woman in the entire house is my wife, and so I quickly asked what had happened. That’s when he showed me the bathroom floor. Our newly tiled bathroom floor. It was all over the place and he was distraught. He was distraught, not just because of the fact that he had spilled and made an accident. But because he couldn’t get it up. As hard as he washed that floor, the stain only got worse.

Well, he went on to explain what had happened, he got in a fight with his older brother, and he apparently had seen it on the little counter there and pulled it out and tried to wave it in his face, but then spilled all over. He was terrified. He was terrified, thinking that he could clean it all up himself before mom and dad got home, and now it was impossible. He had been working so hard to get rid of that stain. But as hard as he tried, he couldn’t. He was worried what mom and dad would say and what sort of punishment we would give him.

Perhaps that story of my son maybe reminds us in a way of our own sins, maybe we ourselves in a moment of anger or in a moment of weakness or temptation maybe fell into some terrible sin. Maybe we ourselves tried to clean it up, tried to rid ourselves of the guilt of all of it. But as hard as we tried, we only made things worse. We’re afraid, afraid of what we deserve from God.

This is the way it was for King David when it came to his sins of adultery and murder. As David sinned, he saw what he did was wrong and he tried to clean it up, but it only made matters worse. He knew the incredible weight of his guilt. In fact he expresses it in Psalm 51 when he writes this.

For I admit my rebellious acts. My sin is always in front of me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and I have done this evil in your eyes. (Psalm 51:3-4)

The sin was like a stain that he couldn’t get rid of. Always before him. He knew that he had wronged God. Though David knew his guilt, it was also pointed by the prophet of God, where to go to deal with that guilt. As Nathan had pointed him to the Lord. And so David goes on later in that very same sum Psalm say these words.

Remove my sin with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Hide your face from my sins. Erase all my guilty deeds. Create in me a pure heart, O God. Renew an unwavering spirit within me. (Psalm 51:7,9-10)

As much as he was reminded of his guilt, as much as he knew that he couldn’t remove it, he was pointed to the right place, the right person who could. God. He could remove it with hyssop. That’s a reference, really to sacrifice. Through blood, that stain of a sin can be washed away. That sacrifice, of course, is God’s Son, Jesus Christ. One whose blood cleanses us from all sin. We look to Christ, though he [David] himself couldn’t figure out how to deal with his guilt. He knew that God could and God erased it all for the sake of his Son, Jesus.

You know, that evening, my son and I had to rush off to a sports practice. My wife came home. She saw it all. The big stain of the nail polish there, but she quickly set to work with her nail polish remover. What my son couldn’t accomplish with his paper towels and water, she accomplished over the course of a few minutes, getting rid of all of that stain. It was gone. He was quite surprised when we got home as my son saw that floor and he was so distraught over stain was completely removed.

And it’s interesting to think of who was removed by. The very people that he was so afraid of, and he was so worried concerning the punishment for what he had done wrong. Those parents were the ones that could solve the problem. The same is true for our God. We can be so worried over the weight of guilt of something we’ve done wrong, maybe an our past, maybe decades ago. We can be so worried about God’s punishment, but he’s the one, he’s the one that can solve the problem, our sin. He’s the one that can get rid of the stain. So don’t run from him, turn to him. Turn to him and know his forgiveness through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.