Engage the Mess: Looking Beyond the Mess

As a kid, my brother and I were often asked to clean that pigpen of a room of ours by our mom, as she so often described our bedroom! My brother and I immediately responded by shoving everything we could under our bunk bed or in the closet, out of sight, out of mind, or so we thought! I don’t recall that ever working out very well for us. Things sometimes look good on the outside, as in our case, a clean bedroom, but inside the closet or under the bunk bed was a different story.

In the New Testament, many people came to Jesus, and they were messy. Their lives bore the consequence of sin, lifestyle choices, or a packaged religiosity that made them feel spiritually superior to others. At times, Jesus ignored the outward mess and looked beyond the mess. He looked under the bunk bed! He knew that the mess was often the veneer of deeper issues, and He addressed those issues.

One of my favourite passages in the Gospel is the encounter between the prodigal son and his father upon returning home. The father was waiting; he had waited a long time, and finally, in the distance, he could see the faint outline of his son. The figure grew clearer the closer he came. The father felt compassion, ran, embraced, and kissed his long-lost son. Remembering where he had come from, taking care of pigs, and living on the street, he welcomed him home as a son (Luke 15:20). His son probably smelled worse than he looked, but none of that mattered, we’ll deal with that later. The father immediately embraces the son as his son!

The son was a mess, he tried to explain and began his rehearsed statement of no longer being worthy to be a son, but the father wrapped him in the best robe, put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet, symbols of sonship, of belonging, and being loved unconditionally. The Gospels don’t give us any further look into what other conversations took place. There was a lot to unpack. Remember the older brother? There was a cleaning up that was needed, at the very least, a bath because pigs stink and that stink rubs off on you!

In dealing with each of us, Jesus sometimes will ignore the outward mess of our lives momentarily for something better – our heart. He deals with the heart, and the outward mess becomes secondary. We may be tempted to look at the outer mess with those God brings into our life, their sin, their lifestyle, their issues! However, let us learn to look beyond the mess and see the heart first. We are all wounded, downtrodden, suffering, and in need of forgiveness and restoration that only the Gospel can bring. We live in a messy world, and the complexities of life often leave people wallowing in their mess. In an encounter at a well Jesus found one of those people. The Samaritan woman's life was complicated and tied to her "messiness." Yet, her encounter with Jesus left her transformed, but more than that, her transformation led to many coming to know Jesus; “They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

Looking beyond the mess!

Rev. Bill Allan
AGC President