Why did God reveal his glory in a manger of all places? Imagine you visit one of your friends who’s recently had a baby. You walk in and immediately see their newborn baby all swaddled up and laying in a dog food bowl. You would be dumbfounded and may even quickly leave to called the Department of Child Services.
Just as gross as a dog bowl is, it would be even worse conditions inside of a manger, the feeding trough of farm animals. Isn’t this so odd that God would choose a manger in which to be born? Yet it’s not odd when you look at the God of the Bible who wants to be Emmanuel, meaning ‘God with us.’ He is not far off and wants to be down among us. When Jesus washes the dirt and manure off of his disciples feet, Peter protests knowing that the Master should never bend lower than the apprentice/disciple. Jesus firmly corrects Peter telling him that he cannot be his disciple unless he allows him to touch and wash away his mess, and that in turn, he should do the same to others.
Jesus also touches those with leprosy, a dangerous skin disease that could kill a person. The lepers had to life outside of the city abandoned by family and friends, and so when Christ healed them, he not only gave them their health back but also their lives back!
St. Irenaeus, a church father, states that Jesus took on our fallen nature (our existential mess), and he healed it at each stage of human development. From childhood to the messy teenage years to the hardworking adult years to the point of being a dying man, Jesus transformed the human experience forever. By His grace, we can now walk the same path that he has trail-blazed for us 2,000 years ago, but most of us are too afraid to. We are not ready for Jesus to see the mess we have made of our lives.
Hiding Our Mess & Sin Management: Most have a room where we hide all of our junk when guests stop on over. We entertain in the living room, have a great meal in the dining room, but we darken the hallway and lock the door to our ‘junk room’ so our guests do not dream of going in there. We also do this with God. We may reveal 80% to 90% of our hearts to God on a good day, but hide back a part of ourselves in prayer. “God don’t go in that room! That is my messy room.” Yet, God wants to cleanse and renovate every single room and even square inch of the house.
Instead of giving God everything, we can get caught up into detrimental religious experience called “sin management” coined by spiritual writer, Dallas Willard. Instead of looking for a whole new renovated life in Christ, we settle for a joyless existence of just trying to take out the garbage (i.e. get rid of our sins). Though ridding of our life of sin is wonderful and liberating, it does us no good unless we replace sinful living with godly living or ‘Jesus-styled-living.’ Jesus states that if he casts out one evil spirit from, 7 more demons are ready to take its place if we do not fill our lives with the Holy Spirit. How do we do this? Jesus says, “Pick up your cross and follow me daily.” In other words, execute your selfishness everyday, pray to be filled with God’s presence and plans for your life instead, be obedient to his teachings by being fueled by His grace, and most importantly, go into other people’s messes and help them see the radical grace and forgiveness of Christ has for them. After you have spent time with the Lord of lepers, invite others to come and know Jesus who is not afraid of their spiritual illness.
Remember, no matter how deep and dark your heart has become, Christ wants to come into your mess, turn on the lights, and do a master renovation for the world to see!
” They will see the glory of the LORD,
the splendor of our God.
Strengthen the hands that are feeble,
make firm the knees that are weak,
Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”
Today’s Reading Isaiah 35:1-10
Barrel Aged Faith 