Following the feeding of the four thousand, Jesus was tested by the Pharisees who wanted further signs from Him. Jesus spoke about the yeast of the Pharisees, but His disciples were slow to understand that he was no longer talking about literal bread. This prompted Jesus to ask them several challenging questions :‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” (Mark 8:17-19) They could answer the questions about the miracles, but the concluding question indicated that they were still looking at things from a natural perspective only: “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:21)

A life of faith is a constant challenge to see and understand spiritual truths, rather than relying only on what we can see and understand with natural vision. As Is 43:18-19 makes plain, we need to perceive and understand rather than simply see. The disciples needed to see beyond the practical side of Jesus’s miracles to the spiritual truths He wanted to teach. They needed to go beyond the Pharisees’ arrogance and demanding attitude (they constantly asked for signs, as Matt 16:1, John 2:18, John 6:30 indicate.) Asking God for signs is not necessarily wrong (Gideon certainly needed God to confirm His calling to Him and God was gracious enough to do that), but the pervasive attitude of refusing to believe and trust God is one we must avoid at all costs.

We must understand that God looks beyond appearances to the heart and the heart attitude is vital in a life of faith. (1 Sam 16:6-7, Prov 4:23, Jer 17:9) Hard hearts are a stumbling-block to walking with God, so we need to allow the water of His word to soften our hearts. Similarly, we need the anointing of God’s Spirit to remove our spiritual ‘wax’ from our ears so we can hear even His gentle whisper and we need God to open our eyes to see the invisible. Remembering is crucial to this process, but it must be a remembering which acts as a spur to faith, not a remembrance that makes a statue out of God’s past actions. Each act of remembrance should be a prod in the direction of trusting Him for more today.

God wants us to have soft hearts, clear vision and sharp hearing. This may no longer be possible in the natural realm as we age and decay! – but it is possible in the spiritual realm. Paul told the Corinthians, ‘Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.’ (2 Cor 4:16) We may be ‘wasting away’ naturally as we age, but spiritually, renewal and revival are possible at any age. Being spiritually aware and sensitive to God’s Spirit will help us to weather the storms of life and both remember and understand spiritual truths. Then we can become a blessing to others as we speak God’s words to them and offer the words of eternal life to all.

Dave spoke this morning from Luke 23:39-43 about the penitent thief, crucified alongside Jesus. Many consider his salvation an affront since he could do nothing but believe in Jesus, but this incident shows us the mercy and compassion of the Lord and how while there is breath in our bodies, it’s not too late to be saved.

One of the thieves hurled insults at Jesus, but here we see that there can be grace in the unlikeliest of places. Like Saul, who persecuted the church but met with Jesus to become the apostle Paul, God steps in in miraculous ways to soften the other thief’s heart. He confesses his sin and the sinlessness of Christ, recognising that Christ’s death was unjust. His healthy fear of God means he suddenly recognises that he has blasphemed God and violated God’s laws. As he reaches out to Jesus, Jesus promises that he will be with Him in paradise. Forgiveness and restoration are freely offered to him and he is saved.

This incident often offends those who feel that ‘death-bed conversions’ make a mockery of God. The truth is we are all saved by grace through faith, and this is itself God’s gift to us. (Eph 2:8-10) We cannot save ourselves and need the mercy, grace, forgiveness and kindness of God, no matter when we become Christians. Even while dying, Jesus cared about this man’s eternal destiny; He cares so much about our world still. Jude 1:22-23 says, ‘Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear…’ May we speak God’s offer of forgiveness and hope to all we meet.

Over the past two days we have been busy spring cleaning. This has involved tidying, throwing away things we no longer need, cleaning and painting. Our thanks to all who have helped us.

My grandchildren came to visit this weekend, and as always, within seconds of their arrival, my house was turned upside down. Pens, paper, paint, glue and glitter were out. Sitckers and jewels adorned their artwork. Then toys were dug out of toyboxes and everything was scattered. Children bring with them mess and a whirlwind of activity. ‘Messy church’ acknowledges this as we allow creativity into church services, often giving children the opportunity to learn about Jesus in age-appropriate ways that inevitably involve mess!

I don’t much enjoy mess and yet I see that it’s an inevitable and necessary part of life. This doesn’t just apply to children, however. All of life is messy. Birth involves blood and bodily fluids; there will be many accidents and spillages throughout life (the tablecloth never stays very clean when my grandchildren are here, but they’re not the only ones who spill!) Relationships are often complicated; there is the pain and mess of our mistakes and failures which can radically affect our lives.

I find it reassuring that the Bible is so honest about the mess of life. Sin has messed up God’s original plans and we are unable to tidy up after ourselves and repair the damage. The Easter story reminds us that God sent a Saviour to deal with the mess of sin. His death was messy, painful and bloody. Afterwards, there was the mess of having to deal with a dead body over Passover (rather akin to dealing with death when the bureaucracy closes down for a Bank Holiday in this country.) I love how we see the women going to the tomb on that first Easter Sunday because there were still things to sort out and deal with. We often think of death as the end, but in actual fact, death brings with it the chaos of administration and the hectic busyness of sorting out a funeral service and dealing with the minutiate of life for those who are left behind. I can remember sitting in the funeral director’s the morning after my Mum died being shown a catalogue of funeral caskets and flower arrangements and wondering how any of these details mattered! Yet all of these things have to be dealt with; decisions have to be made.

Life is messy, often unpredictable, rarely comfortable and never as neat and tidy as we would like, however organised we are, however good we are at planning. But the truth is we have a God who was prepared to get His hands dirty to save us. He did not watch from afar. He did not leave us to get on with it. Easter is a time when we remember the painful intervention of death into the story, but that is not the end of the story. The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that there can be hope in our messy lives. I imagine the resurrection caused a lot of mess too – imagine the Roman guards having to explain why there was no body in the tomb! Imagine how hard it was for the Pharisee Saul to adapt his theology so that a man who died on a cross could actually be God’s Messiah! Mess is there, everywhere, but as everyone who does messy artwork knows, the process of creativity is messy but wonderful in what it achieves. May we embrace mess instead of trying to flee from it and understand that God is there with us (‘Immanuel’), even in the mess.