THE GOSPEL IS MESSY (a poem)

Sometimes we try to make the gospel neat and presentable—as if grace were clean and church-ready. But when you really look at the life of Jesus, nothing about salvation is sterile. From His birth to His death to the sacraments He gave us, the gospel is startlingly physical, tangible, and yes… messy. This poem is my attempt to put words to that holy mess.

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The gospel is messy.
It is not dry or tidy or sanitary.
It drips.
It bleeds.
It spills over.

The gospel begins in fluid—
amniotic water,
blood,
a laboring scream,
the afterbirth of God with us.
Mary holding salvation still slick in her arms.

Jesus spits on dirt
and makes mud.
Spit on eyes.
Spit in ears.
Spit on tongue.
He is not afraid of the unclean.
He puts Himself in our blindness,
our deafness,
our disease.

He weeps at a tomb.
Tears on His face,
sobs in His chest.
The resurrection and the life
with wet cheeks.

Even at the table,
wine runs red
and broken bread leaves crumbs,
and we drink the covenant.

It is messy on the floor,
where the Son of God kneels
with a towel around His waist.
A bowl of water
made muddy
from the dust of disciples’ feet.
The King of Glory
washing away our dirt.

In Gethsemane
His sweat becomes like drops of blood.
Agony doesn’t stay inside—
it forces its way out.

At the cross
they flog Him
till flesh runs red.
They pierce His side
and water and blood flow together.
The fountain of living water
poured out.

The gospel is messy in the tomb,
where embalming spices
cannot stop what is coming.

It is messy in the baptistry,
where we drown in His death
and rise dripping with His life.

Grace is not dry.
Grace is not neat.
Grace soaks.
Grace saturates.
Grace stains.

You cannot stay dry
and get close to Jesus.
You must wade in,
get splashed,
get washed,
get covered.

get clean.

The gospel is messy.
Let it wash you.

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Scriptures referenced: John 1:14; Mark 7:33; Mark 8:23; John 11:35; Luke 22:44; John 19:34; John 13:1-15; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

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