Big Cleaning

“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Psalm 51:2

A major end of year ritual for many Japanese is “ōsōji” (大掃除), which means “big cleaning.” It involves a thorough cleaning of one’s residence, a practice that has obvious practical benefits and has quasi spiritual origins. In ancient times, according to Shinto beliefs, it was considered important to purify one’s home of clutter and dust in order to welcome the kami or local gods with the coming of a new year. This annual ablution represents a hopeful beginning for the next year with the removal of any accumulated dirt and negative energy remaining from the previous year. During our early years in Japan, it was customary to observe neighbors cleaning their windows, beating the dust out of carpets draped over laundry poles and dragging tatami mats and futons outside to air in the sun. Although hidden from view, we surmised that many of these same neighbors were also dutifully scrubbing the inside of their houses from top to bottom.

The traditional practice of ōsōji has declined somewhat in recent years, but the term has expanded to include other “big cleaning” activities. For example, it is quite common for schools to promote periodic ōsōjis to give the school and school grounds a solid cleaning, deploying students and teachers for a substantial portion of the labor. Everyone is expected to pitch in and help. Neighborhoods routinely host fall and spring ōsōji events to clean up local parks and public areas. On these designated days, an army of residents assemble at the appointed time to pull weeds, trim bushes, pick up trash, rake leaves, sweep sidewalks and take on any menial task that helps beautify their immediate area. This activity also serves to promote a sense of community and provides an opportunity to build positive relationships with one’s neighbors. Businesses and churches also schedule such cooperative cleaning days as an unstated responsibility for all those whose lives center upon those respective facilities.

The Japanese have a high value on hygiene and cleanliness that encourages them to generally embrace the tradition of ōsōji and its various manifestations. However, probably only a few of the participants are aware of the ancient spiritual aspects that once shaped this now common practice. We ourselves implemented the custom of ōsōji at our organizational headquarters and at the churches where we served. Besides the obvious objective of improving and cleaning one’s immediate environment, we came to equally appreciate the esprit de corps it often fostered.

The concept of “big cleaning” has very important spiritual overtones throughout Scripture, in both prescribed ceremonial practices and the state of one’s heart before a holy, sinless God. Such cleaning frequently includes the nuance of purification, where the primary objective is not just physical, but spiritual in nature. Even a cursory reading of the Old Testament reveals that although there are many physical purification rites expected of God’s people, the ultimate objective of these ceremonies was to nurture a pure heart for God that produced a holy pattern in one’s life.

But here is where a huge dilemma presents itself. No one is clean and there is no available ceremony through which one could become truly clean. The author of Proverbs (20:9) drives this point home when he declares, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?’” The obvious answer to this question is “no one.” This means that all those rituals were not instituted as a means to an end, but rather, to reveal our critical need for a “big cleaning” of our hearts that only Jesus could provide. – the ultimate ōsōji.