Snakeskin

Our family has a pet snake, Houdini; and I always find her fascinating to watch. One of the most fascinating things she does is shed her old skin every few months. You can tell that her skin starts looking dull rather than the beautiful shine it normally has. She works very hard to slough off the old skin that no longer feels like home.

Ancient people viewed snakes as symbols of renewal, resurrection, new life, and health. The cult of Asclepius—where we get the caduceus in our modern healthcare symbolism —depicted the healer accompanied by intertwining serpents. Something about the snake renewing itself by taking off its old skin inspired people also seeking wholeness and a fresh start.

This metaphor of taking off an old self and putting on a new one—like a snake shedding its outgrown skin for well-fitting skin—comes up frequently in the New Testament. Ephesians 4:22, 24 says, “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts…and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Being a new creation is only part of the equation—new life is also about letting the old identity die.

And this is where my snake Houdini becomes even more interesting to me. You see, if her old skin comes off in a whole intact piece and remains there in her habitat, she will oddly try to get back inside it after she has sloughed it off! How could she want out of it so desperately that she rubs herself against all the rocks in her habitat for days, but then try so hard to put her old, dull skin back on again? After reading about this serpentine habit, I discovered that she attempts to get back in her old skin because it smells familiar. For all living creatures, smell triggers many actions with very little thought or reasoning required.

I thought about how this habit is true for us, that we return to our old selves or habits even if they no longer fit us or serve what we care about. So, what is the NewTestament prescription for breaking the cycle of putting on the old self? Paul writes: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal 3:27). Don’t just put on a new self; put on Jesus.

This sounds a little bit like wearing a costume or pretending to be somebody else. We might think that such behavior is unauthentic or fraudulent, but I want to suggest that it’s okay. In some sense, we have to practice being Jesus(which is why we call it a Christian “practice,” right?). We have to intentionally practice being who and what Jesus is until that identity becomes normal and we feel at home in this new “skin.”

Luckily, the Bible offers us a lot of suggestions for making this work! Back in Deuteronomy 6, the advice for such practice was to build it into your everyday life: “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷ Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix themas an emblem on your forehead, ⁹ and write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.”

In the New Testament, Jesus gives us more everyday cues to remind us of the practice of being like him. Whenever we eat a meal with others, we are reminded of the bread and the cup that nourish us. Whenever we wash dishes or take a shower, we are brought back to our baptism which washes us and brings us into a new life. These scripts to practice—along with their accompanying costumes—are already part of our days. The only decision for us to make is to pay attention. And the more attention we pay to practicing Jesus’s own goodness, the more natural it becomes—like a second skin.