Mud Pie Ministry

Mark 1:32 "That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed."

I think I have watched so many well-meaning Bible movies and as a child seen so many flannel-graph stories that the scene in my mind, as I read Bible stories, is often this sterile picture where Jesus wears that pristine white robe with the blue sash slung across his shoulder and his long curly hair and beard are brushed and shiny.  He looks well rested and peaceful and there is a lovely tree scene in the background (that definitely comes from the flannel graph!)  But this morning, I read Mark 1:32 and banished the peaceful scene from my mind.  Ministry is messy.  Discipleship is messy.  Life is messy.

Have you ever been around sick people?  How about all the sick people in town (Mark 1:33)?  Sick people cough and wheeze, they blow their noses, the really sick ones grown and the feverish ones sweat.  I have been in several hospitals overseas and seen them so full of sick people that patients are lying on mats in the hallways. Even in our own home, when one or two of us get sick, I feel the need to wash the sheets and spray disinfectant everywhere.  Sickness is just gross.  Jesus was surrounded by sick people.

Have you been around demon-possessed people?  While overseas, we have seen "crazy" people and demon-possessed people, and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.  Just the other day we were going to a shop downtown and there was a man lying on the sidewalk in front of the display window.  The few clothes he had on were dirty and torn.  They were so filthy, in fact, that they were the same color as his dirt covered brown skin.  His pants were not pulled up far enough to cover himself decently.  He just lay there on the filth of a trashy ground.  I was uncomfortable when we passed him by to go into the store.  When we left the store he was gone, and I was relieved.  Why?  Was it because I felt bad for him?  Was it because I felt helpless to know what to do?  Did I not want a dirty crazy man to get my life messy?  Jesus was surrounded by crazy demon-possessed people.  I bet most of them were filthy.  All of them in town came to Jesus that night.

Flannel graph cutouts just do not capture the chaos that must have been the scene that night.  I just don't think Jesus' snow white robe and royal blue sash escaped without germs, smudges, maybe even a rip or two, and definitely sweat, both his and others'.  I bet Jesus' shiny curly hair and beard were tangly and filthy at the end of the evening.  Ministry is messy.

I wonder how long into the evening Jesus healed the sick and drove out demons?  Mark doesn't say.  But he does say that before the sun had even risen the next day, Jesus was awake and praying.  Personally, I think I would have taken a day off!  Obviously that would have been the wrong choice.  At any rate, my thought here is that Jesus was not afraid to get dirty.  He touched the sick, He let hurting people surround Him.  His ministry was messy because people are messy.

It's OK not to have a flannel graph ministry.  If we are loving people, then it's probably more of a mud pie ministry.  And if we are trying to follow Christ but our ministry feels more like a mud pie ministry than a flannel graph one, we are blessed, because Christ just so happens to have a mud pie ministry too!