Your Mess Matters Pt. 1: God Isn't Afraid of Your Mess

(SLIDE 1) Who here is a fan of mud? Either playing in it, or even if you’ve ever gone biking, quading… you get the point. Some of you here probably hate mud for valid reasons. Mud is messy! (SLIDE 2) It gets in your hair, stains your clothes, when it dries it gets all crusty, and the feeling of dirtiness when you’re covered in it. However, there might be a few of you here that love the mud! You love the feeling of the outdoors, being with nature, conquering nature, the feeling of dirtiness gives you that sense of societal rebellion since nature is probably the only place that is someone exceptable to be covered in mud. Now imagine you’re out with a few friends and one of them jumped in a giant mud puddle. I’m talking COVERED from head to toe. What would you do if they immediately wanted to hug you? Depending on what you’re wearing and your view of mud, would you hug them? Or would you run as they chase you, laughing as you’re freaking out? I think most of us would run simply because we’re afraid of their mess and that mess getting all over us.

(SLIDE 3) Today we’re going to read a story about someone who wasn’t covered in mud per se, but someone who covered in a disease that would make everyone run from them. In fact, these people got banished from society because of their messiness. But the beauty of this story, is that we’re going to meet one person who isn’t afraid of their mess. Let me read from one of the biographies of Jesus Christ written by one of His friends named Matthew. In this story, Jesus had just finished up preaching His most famous sermon called the Sermon on the Mount. It picks up here,

Matthew 8:1–4 NIV

(SLIDE 4) When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” (SLIDE 5) Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

This is a very short interaction and in the grand scheme of this story, it feels a bit like a side-story. We can easily bolt past this as “He was nice to the outcasts” and leave it at that. This man had leprosy, a highly infectious skin disease that was so contagious, people who had it were kicked out of the city.

(SLIDE 6) I want you to go back to the COVID days. Remember how scared everyone was about it? COVID was a highly infectious virus that had infected just under 1 billion people. Imagine you’re walking around and someone comes up to you begging for a hug because they’re super depressed. They don’t have a mask, you don’t have one, they’re coughing up a lung and you just KNOW they got the VID. Would you give them a hug? Would you tell them to self-isolate? Would you run the other direction hoping you don’t catch it?

(SLIDE 7)Notice that this culture 2000 years ago aren’t that different from us… Or as least not as much as we’d like to think. Historical context shows the everyone was scared of their messiness. But what did Jesus do? Jesus straight up lays His hand on the man, potentially infecting Himself in the process! If He catches leprosy, He’ll be kicked out of society too! He lays His hand on the man, and the man was healed.

(SLIDE 8) I get that we can just look at this from a miracle standpoint but I think it would be a waste to just leave it there. Remember how I asked you if you would hug someone covered in mud? Remember how I asked you if you would hug someone who was infectious if they needed a hug? What if it wasn’t physical messiness, but rather emotional messiness? Would you be with that person even if it meant that you got dirty?

(SLIDE 9) In this story, we learn a lot about Jesus. He had just preached His famous sermon, and people are wondering if this guy is all talk. Then as He comes across someone who is ‘dirty’, Jesus meets him and embraces his mess, even at the potenital cost of His own cleanliness. This is meant to show that (SLIDE 10) God isn’t afraid of your mess.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I completely understand that if we touch something dirty, a little bit of it gets on us. If we make a toxic friend, their toxicity will slowly ‘dirty’ us. But did you notice the difference between how the world works verses how God works? Did you notice? When messy people are around non-messy people, everyone gets a little messy. Yet when the dirty, messy person goes to Jesus, he comes out clean! Jesus cleans your messiness. And because He can clean it, that means that He isn’t afraid of your mess.

(SLIDE 11) In my last church I was youth pastoring in, there was this girl in my youth ministry. From the ‘perfect church goer’ perspective, she was a mess. She had greened out a few times, experienced sexual assault, self-harmed, ran away from home, and was on suicide watch for a while. She would always wear all black with a hoodie up. I remember just being with her, helping her walk through the day to day, just trying to support her and point her to Jesus. Well slowly, she wouldn’t wear all black anymore, she actually began to show her personality through her clothes, she would show up to youth, church, and get involved with our children’s ministry. Over time she found a solid community, she began to value herself and her life again, and decided that after she graduated high school, she would become a youth leader. She is still serving the Lord… Why? As much as I’d like to pump my own tires and say I did it, I didn’t. In fact, walking with her was painful. My day would always get depressing after spending time with her in those moments. But then because she was always being redirected to God, He met her in her mess. God wasn’t afraid of her mess. She was cleansed, empowered, and got her self-worth back. She was no longer a victim, she was a victor. God turned her mess into a masterpiece. (SLIDE 12) God isn’t afraid of your mess.

All of us have a mess in our lives. If you took a look at my desk in the church office, (SLIDE 13) you would definitely see that it’s a mess. My life is still a mess! My sense of direction is a mess! My taste in music is a mess! The things I like to spend my money on are weird! This economy we’re living in is a mess! So why am I able to smile so much when my life always seems like it’s a mess? It’s simple, I’m able to be so content with my life because the God I follow isn’t afraid of my mess. If He isn’t afraid of my mess, (SLIDE 14) He’s not afraid of yours either.

Maybe you’re here and your life is a mess. Maybe you’ve always kept that mess to yourself because you didn’t want to dirty anyone. Or maybe you tried to reach out to people but they didn’t care because they didn’t want to get infected by your mess. I am so sorry that you’ve felt so alone for so long. I promise you, your mess matters. There are leaders all around you that care about your mess and want to help point you to the only one who can turn your mess into a masterpiece. God isn’t afraid of your mess.