The MESSiah and the Mess

After more than four decades of full-time ministry, my husband and I can testify to
this truth: ministry can be messy. No doubt about it. But seeing the precious ways
Jesus moves in the hearts and lives of people makes it worth it all.
As a child, I came from a home that desperately needed the church. Thankfully,
my grandparents loved Jesus and stepped in to fill that role whenever they could.
They made sure my two older brothers and I were at church every time the doors
were open. For that, I am eternally grateful.

Years later, after Paul and I accepted the call to serve the congregation of the
Gospel Lighthouse, an older couple visited the church. As we talked, they began
connecting the dots and realized we knew some of the same people. Eventually,
they admitted that many years earlier they had heard about the urgent needs in
my childhood family—but had chosen not to get involved because it was “too
messy.”

The Bible is full of examples showing how we should—and shouldn’t—respond
when we see a need. As we enter this new year, let’s choose to respond in the
right way. Let’s be for Jesus what we once needed someone to be for us.

1. Cain: When Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:1-9) He
was really saying, “Am I responsible for my brother?” Clearly, this was not
the right response.

2. Jonah: When Jonah fled God’s call to go to Nineveh, he was saying, “I
don’t want to get involved with those people.” (Jonah 1:1-3) Wrong again.

3. The Good Samaritan: When the priest and the Levite passed by the
wounded man on the road to Jericho, they chose not to get involved. You
can almost hear their excuses—too busy, too important, too burdened.
(Luke 10:30-37) But the Good Samaritan responded the right way. He
acted.

4. The Christmas story: When Jesus stepped into the mess of humanity, it
cost Him His life. He could have refused to get involved with us. Instead,
He became Emmanuel—God with us. (Matthew 1:23) Where would we be
without His beautiful, sacrificial response?

Christian involvement costs us time, money, effort—even blood, sweat, and
tears. Christian leadership is “bleed”-ership. There’s no way around it. But as
believers, we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus—light and salt in this
broken world.

Even at Calvary, as Jesus hung on the cross, He was still seeing and meeting
needs while He was dying. He thought of His mother and who would care for her:
“Woman, here is your son.” He thought of the thief beside Him: “Today you will be
with Me in paradise.” He thought of the soldiers: “Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.” And He looked ahead in time and thought of us.

Let’s be more like Jesus—and experience the blessing of being involved in
others’ lives, no matter how messy or costly it may be. The truth is simple: I’m a
mess. You’re a mess. We’re all a mess. That’s why God sent the MESSiah.

Sybil Leonard Armes captured it beautifully in this timeless poem:

We cannot stay on the mountain
While hearts in the lowlands bleed;
Always there rises before us
The valley’s bitter need.

Some have no heights to remember;
Out of their bondage they sigh.
How shall we stay on the mountain,
Deaf to the valley’s cry?
​
We cannot stay on the mountain,
Who have seen the lonely town;
The cry of the valley has lifted--
Let us arise and go down.