The Priest with Dirty Clothes is a children's book written by R.C. Sproul and illustrated by Justin Gerard about the theological concept of justification. It is based on the passage of scripture in Zechariah 3:1-5. The author attempts to illustrate for children the concept of Christ removing our filthy garments of sin while placing upon us his righteousness garments so that we can be accepted by the Father. The concept is of vital importance and although it is a difficult subject to explain, the visual of outward clothing will help children to understand the "dirt" or sin of the heart that cannot be removed by one's own power.
The story begins with Darby and Campbell who find themselves on a rainy day in Scotland playing in the puddles. Soon they are covered with mud and hurry home to surprise their Mother. She of course is not happy to see her children's filthy clothes and tells them to go clean themselves, while the children are rinsing their Grandfather arrives. He begins to tell them a story about Jonathan, a man who was just about to become a priest. He was so excited to receive his brand new clothing and because he had been told that in a week who would preach for the King and all his household.
The day that Jonathan traveled to the castle there was a great storm and it was raining very hard- his horse stumbled causing Jonathan to fall into a great puddle of mud. Although he had tried to protect his new clothes, they were filthy from the mud. How could he preach for the King now? He continued to hurry to the castle in hope that he would be able to wash himself before he had to preach. Unfortunately, this was not the case because on the moment of arrival the bells began to ring announcing that it was time for him to preach. In shame he walked before the King and all the people in his dirty clothes, only to find the court magician yelling hateful things at him! Telling him that he had no right to stand before the King and all the people in his dirty clothes.
The King was more patient and kind than the magician and listened to the reason why Jonathan had come to the palace in his dirty robes. Yet, he too told Jonathan that he could not stand in front of Him with such dirty clothes, however, he gave Jonathan a second chance to return in a week with his clothes cleaned and then he could preach to the King and to his household.
Jonathan left hopeful and hurried home to clean his clothes. Despite all his effort the clothes were still dirty and stained. He took them to be washed but the cleaner also could not remove the stains! What could Jonathan do? He was running out of options.
This is the same position we find for our filthy hearts, despite our best effort we are unable to clean it. There was one more person that Jonathan would appeal to for help, the Prince. The Prince is also the answer to our own filth problem because as you will see in the story, he was the only one who could help Jonathan's situation. Yet, he didn't clean Jonathan's old garments because he would do something even more necessary and special for Jonathan.
