Hating even the Garment

Jude 1:23: ‘…hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.’

I always think that civilians wearing camouflage looks rather naff. A deep yearning to join the military cruelly unfulfilled? Or a psychological desire to go unnoticed and ignored? Still, always useful for spying on neighbours, I guess. The particular garment photographed is not just vulgar or distasteful. Displayed at the National Crime Museum in Nottingham, it is a garment worn by one of the Great Train Robbers. Although romanticised by some, this 1963 heist was a violent and brutal theft from the British taxpayer, of which only £400,000 of the £2,631,684 stolen was recovered. 

This jacket may be a marginally interesting museum exhibit, but it also serves as an eloquent reminder that humans are corrupted and wicked. The money which the state might have spent on healthcare, education and welfare was instead used to line the pockets of the criminal fraternity. Theft is a form of enslavement- taking the fruits of others’ labour and giving nothing in return.

Well might these thieves wish to hide and camouflage themselves, though from the righteous glare of heaven’s God they cannot hide- in this life or the next.

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Rev. 6:16