I once saw a girl shame into silence a group of the most filthy-mouthed men you could wish to hear. It was something to do with the sheer innocence of this unspoiled girl. It was a kind of purity that put them to shame.

Previously, I wrote about one of the great facts that’s never given enough weight when people are discussing the Christian faith, and that is the sheer impact of the personal presence of Jesus of Nazareth in ordinary things.

It was His purity, His sinless innocence. Call it what you like, but when you get a great crowd of tough filthy mouthed fishermen out on a lake, these hardboiled men, one of them called Peter, fell down before Him and said, ‘Leave me I feel dirty and unclean when I’m with you*.

Now when people do that they’ve come into the presence of something that the Bible calls ‘holy’. When Roman soldiers were knocked sideways by this simple purity; when rulers of authority were impressed by Him; when even His enemies fell back in amazement at this. You’ve got to admit there’s something pretty unusual about Him.

It’s very disturbing to meet purity, face to face, because then we see ourselves in our true colours. It takes a very bright pure light to show up dirt that we normally don’t even notice, and Jesus had this effect everywhere He went.

What’s more mysterious – He still has it.

Look up John Chapter 3 and see how the light shows up the dirty.