General Stuff

Into the mess

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Today’s the day after Epiphany, and as we all turn the page on the Christmas season, I want to leave you with a final thought that has the power to transform the new year we’re all embracing. It comes near the end of the majestic introduction of the Gospel of John.

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. (‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT, emphasis mine)‬

Many other translations say that Jesus “took on flesh,” and all of them are beautifully summed up by Eugene Peterson in The Message: “the Word took on flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

He became one of us. Immanuel. God with us.

None of this is new, and even though it is life-altering, it’s become so commonplace for many of us that we give it an acknowledgement somewhere between a polite golf clap and a head nod during a TED talk.

And yet don’t miss this thought about what the God of all creation — no, the God who created all — did when he made his home among us:

He didn’t clean up the mess before he stepped into it.

And he could have.

Jesus didn’t clean up the mess before he stepped into it. Share on X

House-breaking our new puppy, Eden, made me very aware of messes, and I’ve become super vigilant about making sure that I don’t step into one of them. If I’m taking her out at night, I have the flashlight app burning brightly, and I can also routinely be seen shovel in hand, finding and tossing said messes into the woods like it’s an Olympic sport.

I do all of that so that I don’t step into a mess that seems impossible to clean, and I’m not the second member of the trinity. To think that Jesus had the power and authority to clean us up from a distance but chose to step right into the smelly mess should stop us in our tracks.

Why would a king do such a thing? John hints at the reason when he tells us that we’ve seen his glory. The implication is that the glory of God isn’t meant to be observed from the nosebleed section, but from the front row. Up close and personal, or, for most of us, too close and too personal.

We’d rather appear clean, which is possible when we’re seen by someone too far away to be able to spot the stains that we’ve been unable to remove.

But the nearness of Jesus does more than just reveal our messiness; it also puts us close enough to be healed. Not just cleaned up, but made whole.

Have you ever noticed how many times Jesus touched people? He touched a leper (Luke 5:13), a woman with a fever (Mark 1:31), two blind men (Matthew 9:29), and the dead daughter of a synagogue ruler (Matthew 9:25). He could have healed them all without touching them, but he didn’t. Instead, he brought his glory into the gory and changed the story.

Jesus brings his glory into our gory and changes the story. Share on X

The B99 has a few volumes from a collection of liturgies called Every Moment Holy. Each book in the collection underscores the truth that God doesn’t just want to meet us at our best in a worship service, but he also desires to meet us at our average and at our worst.

It turns out that our gory is the perfect backdrop for God’s glory. So don’t try to hide the everyday stuff from the Lord this year. Instead, invite him into it. He’s already moved into the neighborhood, so now, why not invite him in for a meal?

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

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January 7, 2025by Paul Jenkins
Written by Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins is lead pastor of The Gathering, a community church located in beautiful downtown Albemarle, North Carolina. He's the author of God is My Air Traffic Controller and My Name's Not Lou. Paul is passionate about his wife, his 3 children, running, reading, coaching, leading people who are following Jesus, Swedish Fish and the Carolina Panthers.