Messy Christianity

By

Pastor B.J. Knefley

Christianity is messy. Not sure about that? Look at the people in the New Testament, the people who Jesus called to be his disciples and those that hung out with. In fact, if you looked at many people in both the Old and New Testaments you will find that God consistently choose messy people. Remember Moses? He was a murder and lived in self-exile. When God called him to lead the Israelites, he complained that he wasn’t qualified. When he did lead, he showed anger and great frustration with the people.

In the New Testament there’s Matthew the tax collector, Paul who persecuted the early Christians and witnessed the stoning of Stephen. Women with questionable reputations and even Jesus himself hung out with the most detestable of society. In other words, the people of God are messy. They don’t make good storylines. Even King David who was said to be a man after God’s heart committed adultery, murdered the husband of the woman who he had the affair. God doesn’t look for perfect people, but rather broken ones, and I guess that’s the point isn’t it. God is interested in messy people.

Jesus did have his critics. The Sadducees and Pharisees had their rules and expectations as to how the people of God should look and behave. Messy people weren’t apart of that group. In those days, some of those messy people were stoned to death. I wonder if we’d like to do that with some even today.

Being messy isn’t the problem. If it was, we’d all be in trouble. The Good News is that God loves messy people and He uses them every day no matter who they are or where they are. That should make us all hopeful. No matter what we’ve done, or how far we’ve fallen He’s there to pick us back up. It doesn’t matter how many times or why, His love is constant and never failing. I know that there will be some who will say that God has His limits and that He is the righteous Judge. But the story of the Prodigal Son tells me that he’s still looking for the messy son to come home because he’s still a son. Think about it.