Dirt Under Divine Fingernails--March 21, 2023

Dirt Under Divine Fingernails--March 21, 2023

"When [Jesus] had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' [which means Sent].  Then he went and washed and came back able to see..." [John 9:6-7]

Jesus chose mud.

Just sit with that thought for a moment.  Of all the possible means and methods he might have used to help the man in front of him, Jesus chose to make mud and get his hands dirty.  And, not to put too fine a point on it, but mud made from his own spit and the soil of the dirt road.  Jesus chose that.  For whatever else that fact means, it says that Jesus is not above that kind of messy, grubby kind of work if it is in the service of loving another person and revealing the character of God.

That's the connection I think I have overlooked in all the times I've read this story before over the years: it's that Jesus' choice to heal this man in literally the earthiest way possible is also meant to show us the beating heart of God.  Just before this passage, in the verses we looked at yesterday, Jesus told his disciples, "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day."  And then the very next thing he does is to stick his hands in the mud he's made on the ground with his own saliva as his way of healing this man.  What Jesus does is meant to be a picture of God's own kind of love and power--that is to say, it's not just Jesus who is willing to get dirt under his fingernails: God is.

Think about it: Jesus has the power and authority to heal by just speaking the word.  He could have silently willed for the man's eyes to work, or he could have even just laid hands on the man.  He does all sorts of things all the time when he heals people--sometimes, to the hear the Gospels tell it, he doesn't even have to be in the same building or part of town as the person he's healing.  But here, Jesus chooses something earthy, something humble, something messy--not because the mud is magic, but because Jesus has come not only to heal, but to help all of us to see what God is like.  And as Jesus shows us, God's way of being among us is in earthiness, lowliness, and humility.  Jesus doesn't have to make spit-mud because that's the only way to give this man his sight; he shows us that the very Creator of the Cosmos and Ruler of the Universe is willing to enter into the mess with us.  Jesus gives us a living picture of the God whose love doesn't blush at the thought of spit or soil or mud-caked hands.

And I think that's worth paying attention to, because we are so used to lesser "loves" that won't come close.  We are used to the celebrity or politician photo op, where a Big Name stays at the soup kitchen or the disaster response shelter long enough to get a picture taken.  We are used to people who throw money at problems but never darken the door of the actual programs or agencies they supposedly support.  We are all too familiar with how easy it is to offer electronic well-wishes or social media "thoughts-and-prayers" that stay safely on a screen but never lead us actually to connect with the people we say we care about.  And here Jesus makes a point of saying, "That's NOT how God's love works."

God's love, as Jesus shows it to us, is more like the willingness of parents not only to take pictures of their cute babies in fresh onesies, but also to change diapers.  It's more like the willingness of a good friend to sit at your side while your nose is running and your tears are streaming down your face, no matter how unbecoming or unsanitized it seems.  It's more like the snap action of a stranger to perform rescue breathing or chest compressions on someone who has collapsed and needs CPR until the ambulance can come.  In these moments, genuine love isn't ashamed to be in the midst of our messy humanity--and Jesus shows us that this is what God's love is like, too.  Jesus doesn't just drop a couple of shekels in the man's begging bowl and say "Good luck," and he doesn't choose a no-contact way of healing the man, either.  Jesus chose mud... so that we would know that God isn't afraid of the mud, either.

What could it look like for us to show that kind of love in our actions and presence today?  If we, like Jesus and his first disciples, have been sent to "work the works of him who sent" Jesus [that is, God], then how might we love in that same kind of un-haughty, unpretentious way that is willing to get into the mud if necessary for the sake of our neighbor?  When we are tempted to keep other people [especially folks who are different from us in some way] at arm's length, how might we instead let love lead us close? And how might that also help peel away our own sense of self-importance and climb down from whatever pedestals we've put ourselves on?

Today, we are indeed called to act in ways that reveal the heart of God for the watching world.  And since Jesus has made it clear that God's love isn't too proud to get into the mess among us, we should expect to get dirt under our fingernails, too.

Lord Jesus, lead us to follow where you go and to love humbly like you do, wherever that takes us.