December 2021
Sometimes a bit of advice is all we need when we mostly know
what we’re doing. However, when we’re really
stuck, mere advice is the last thing we need.
“You should have removed the widget first.”
“Yes, I can see that, but it’s too late because now I’ve broken the whole thing!”
“You need to take a firm control of this situation.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do all along!
Do you think I messed this up deliberately?”
When we’re really making a mess of something then we don’t
just need someone to tell us what to do, we need someone to get down into the
mess we’ve made, to come alongside us to help us, or perhaps to fix the problem
for us.
That’s what Jesus was doing when he came to us. We had God’s instructions, but we didn’t and
couldn’t keep them. We already had a
good idea what wise living would look like, but we were incapable of breaking
out of our foolishness. We knew what
kind of behaviour threatened the peace of our family, village and nation but we had no power to change.
And so Jesus, God’s eternal Son, came to us in our
mess. If you don’t accept that Jesus is
God’s Son let me gently ask whether you have read one of the Gospel eye-witness
accounts recently? How else do you account
for Jesus’ extraordinary life and the unparalleled influence he has across the
world?
Jesus did not come to show us up (though it’s true that our
self-absorbed ways don’t look good
against his selflessness). Jesus did not
come merely to instruct us (although there would be much to learn from him if
we were able to take it in). Jesus
became one of us – he shared in our
weakness, he submitted himself to the treachery of his own people and the
cruelty of Roman execution – to save us from a messy end.
He joined us in our mess, not to tell us to sort it out but
to generously do that for us. Now he
calls us to simply trust him as he invites us to join his mess-free family with
Jesus as our brother, his Father as our father and his Spirit to live in us.
That’s Christmas Joy!
Graham Burrows
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