Love Can Be Messy

December 16, 2024

A Sunday School teacher was reading the story of Jesus’ birth, and she stopped reading to see if they were getting the story. She asked what we call the three wise men. A five-year-old quickly responded, “The three maggots.”

The teacher pointed out it was Magi, not maggots, and then asked what gifts they gave the baby Jesus. The same boy responded, “Gold, Frankenstein, and Smurfs.” I’m not sure this boy is understanding the message of Christmas.

John 3:16 has often been described as the summary of the gospel message. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This verse reveals that God has a plan to save the world, but it is a very messy plan.

Have you ever wondered why God chose a stable in Bethlehem? It does fulfill scriptures written hundreds of years before, but that means God planned on sending His son to a little town in the middle of nowhere, to be born in a stable, to a couple with no power, where His first bed was a cow’s feed trough. It may not seem like the right place for the King of Kings to be born. Jesus was no ordinary king, but instead was the king of servants, as described in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, seven hundred years before his birth.

Being a servant is messy. It just starts with sleeping in a manger, but it would also include hanging out with poor, crippled, struggling people. He would try to teach His disciples about being servants, even washing their feet, but they struggled to understand, or didn’t want to understand because it was so messy (John 13:1-17).

When he went to the big city, Jerusalem, is when things really got messy. He was betrayed, denied, abandoned, tortured, humiliated, and hung on a cross between two nameless criminals to drown pitifully of his own fluids, as those fluids slowly filled his lungs. The God of the universe would do all this for us.

Are you beginning to see what love is? I John 3:16 tells us that God is love. Paul says of love in the Hymn of Love, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Corinthians 13:4-8).

That is all messy stuff, but when we share such love with others, it seems like we take some of the mess away. When you receive such love doesn’t it seem that some of the mess is also taken away?

When we think about our own lives, we must admit that life can get pretty messy at times. When we look at it this way, we could say that Christmas is the answer to life’s most important questions. Am I alone? Is there a God, and does He actually care about me? Is life supposed to be a constant battle where I fend for myself, beaten about by the winds of fate, or does God have a plan for my life? How do I approach God? Will God answer my prayers?

That first Christmas, God sent the answer to all the most important questions we ask about life. God answered, “Yes, you do matter, and I am with you always.” God will answer all our questions because He loves us, which is made clear through John 3:16.

God also asks us a few questions. The answers are very important for us to fully understand God’s love which is perfect, steadfast, and eternal! Will you let God ask you, “Do you love me? What examples can you give that you love God? Will you make a sacrifice for me? What examples can you give that you will make a sacrifice for God? Will you enter into the messy lives of others for God? Will you find all the answers to all your most haunting questions through God?” Will you? What questions haunt you? Where can you go to faithfully find God’s answers?