BLESSING THE MESS

 SIGN UP TO GET OUR DAILY BLOG BY EMAIL, and "JOIN" to "follow" along.  

YOU CAN ALWAYS SHARE, COMMENT, and LEAVE YOUR REACTIONS below.

DAY 98: When our kids were still very young, we went through the process of building a home where we would raise our family though the years.  New construction meant many decisions had to be made as we designed the spaces.  Each decision reflected our individual and family priorities. I wanted to be sure we had ample porch space so that we could enjoy outdoor living as much as indoor living.  My husband insisted on a odd "luxury" that he said he has always dreamed about: a free standing drinking fountain so the kids don't have to waste cups. 

One aspect of the floor plan we both agreed on was placing our master bedroom downstairs and all of the kids rooms upstairs.  Having lived in very tight quarters with a growing family for the first seven years, we had one goal in mind: we didn't want to see the kids' messes anymore. We had spent long enough stepping over their chaos.  Moving it all upstairs might not make it go away, but as far as we were concerned, out of sight was out of mind.  I am happy to report, the plan worked like a charm.  For fifteen years, I have been able to live in denial.  By simply avoiding the messes I have created the illusion that the our home is always a beautiful place.

Today's Bible passage is a vivid reminder that we may all have the propensity to ignore the messes that  threaten to disrupt our preconceived ideas of how things should be - even when it comes to spiritual things..

Luke 13 is primarily a passage that concerns the nation of Israel; how it rejected the Messiah, how it depended on it's own "righteous" standing, and the judgment that awaited if they continued to reject Jesus at their Christ. Tucked in among all of the admonishments Jesus gave to the crowds about these matters, is an incident that occurs while Jesus is in the Synagogue on a Sabbath day. 

  ¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Can you picture how this scene must have looked?  On the holy day of the week, people came to the synagogue to honor and worship God.  The priests would have been there in their beautiful garments.  The people would have come with their beautiful offerings.  The structure itself was a magnificent sight of beauty. And then there was this woman, a disfigured hunchback so out of place among the embellishments of worship all around her, and ignored by leaders and laymen alike - FOR 18 YEARS.  How many times had she come to the synagogue?  Was she there daily? Weekly?  How often did she appear to them as an eye sore to the beauty around her?

She was there on this day; and with all the beauty around Him, it is on her grotesque form that Jesus settles His attention.  He seeks her out and with astounding compassion does more than just speak healing, "he put his hands on her." And with that, He shows there is beauty to be found in the mess as this broken, ignored, once hopeless woman "immediately... straightened up and praised God."  Is there anything more beautiful than genuine worship?

I guess that depends on your priorities: No one else's seemed to be the same as Jesus'.

¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The leader was furious that Jesus had come in and disrupted his beautiful experience. He had successfully managed to ignore this messy person for perhaps years.  Now, here was Jesus, shining a light on the mess in his midst.  Was this really about the breaking the sanctity of the Sabbath or about pulling back the curtain to expose the messy realities some religious people make a practice of ignoring?

 ¹⁵ The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

Was healing really a possibility for this woman on the other "six days for work?"  How many of those days had she been there on acceptable days and received nothing from the "religious" people?  Had they ever even acknowledged her presence - or like my house, did they look the other way in denial?  Forget healing, had they ever even shown  compassion? These men who would break the Sabbath to unbind a donkey, wouldn't cross the room to even acknowledge a woman in bondage.  She was too messy for them! 

While they ignored the mess, Jesus blessed the mess.

Then He confronted the mess they made of their priorities: "should not this woman...be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated. . .

People with problems are messy.  Our lives are so much less complicated when we conveniently look past them.  Reaching out to them bursts the illusion that everything is beautiful... especially when they come into our churches.  We say we are a place that welcomes sinners.  We even put it in front of our buildings on large reader boards.  But how we interact with these "messy" people when they come through the door is the true test.  Do we reach out and "touch" them as Jesus did, or move a few pews away to put some distance between us and their mess.

I interviewed a pastor for my radio show on Easter Sunday who ministers to the messiest kinds of people.  He reflected, "When those people come into the church, it looks ugly.  We say we love the lost, and we say we have a deep passion for them, but when they come with all their problems, their weight, their sin, we get a glimpse, I mean just a glimpse, of what Jesus went through when he carried on His shoulders the weight of the the world and its sin. Powerful."

JESUS CAME FOR MESSY PEOPLE

As long as we live in denial that WE are the messy ones He came for, we will continue to withhold the kind of compassion He has shown to us.

Today, seeing Jesus pursue this woman with all her messy problems, challenges my priorities. Is it more important for my faith to appear beautiful and in order to me and others, or do I believe - like Jesus - that there is beauty to be found in the mess of other people's lives?  I don't want to stand humiliated while Christ touches people I ignore.  I am asking Him for the grace to embrace messy!

Day 98 of 365
Deuteronomy 33
Luke 13:1-21
Psalm 78:65-72
Proverbs 12:25