The Dirty Ones

Have you ever felt dirty?

Like after working out in the garden on a 90 degree day? Mud caked onto you knees and hands. Dirt crammed into your fingernails. Sweat drenching your body. Hair sticking to your face and neck.

 

Imagine that feeling.

 

Now, internalize it.

 

That feeling is real. Many people we see and meet, though they look clean and kept, are filthy and covered with grime on the inside. Guilt haunts them. They struggle to paste on the artificial smile. Painful memories rush through their minds. Every day they struggle with the past.

They are dirty.

 

They want hope and freedom. So, they step into the church. Perhaps, just perhaps there truly is freedom in Christ. Maybe, it's true that there is forgiveness. And there is the slightest glimmer of hope, that there will be acceptance.

But everyone inside the church is so clean. Their lives so perfect. They've never done anything compared to the crimes that these souls have committed. They've never messed up that bad. Of course there is freedom, forgiveness and acceptance for them. Why wouldn't there be?

 

And the destitute souls flee, for the fear that someone will see how dirty they are.

They run because if the clean people saw the dirt and grime, they would shudder with disgust and turn away. The scars are too deep and the filth too thick to hide.

There is no acceptance at the cross, they decide.

And they never return.

 

The woman caught in the act of adultery was dirty.

She was brought before Jesus after being caught in the act.

But, Jesus loved her.

He did not condemn her. He did tell her to go and sin no more, but He did not condemn her. He freed her from her accusers, forgave her of her sins, and accepted her.

He cleansed her.

 That's what Jesus does to dirty people.

 

Do you want to know the truth?

The truth is, all these clean looking people are just as dirty and filthy as that woman was. Probably even more so. The only reason a single one of them is different is because Jesus did for them what He did for her. These perfect, sinless lives are a farce.

There are NO GOOD PEOPLE!!! None!!!

 

We are all DIRTY, FILTHY, VILE people.

 

Jesus was the one and only clean person.

And the only reason any one of us can be clean, is because God took all of the filth and grime that we had on us, and He put it on His Son that He loved.

Do you get that?

I struggle to understand this kind of love. I ask myself how God could possibly love someone as dirty as I so much that He would put my filth on His wonderful, perfectly clean Son.

 

Those people, you know the ones with all the dirt.

God loves them

 

Do you?