Trying to ignore the mess

I will cleanse them of their sins against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion (Jeremiah 33:8).

If there’s anything that annoys me about using public restrooms, it’s finding a toilet that hasn’t been flushed. I’ve never been able to understand what’s so hard about taking a moment to press one little lever. But I’m not the only person bothered by this problem—increasingly, public toilets are being equipped with motion sensors that do the work of flushing for us.

This kind of problem is not restricted to restrooms. When someone causes a spill in a grocery store, more often than not they will just leave the mess for an employee to clean up. People throw cigarette butts out of car windows so that they won’t have to deal with emptying an ashtray. Every morning, bar owners have to clean up trash left on their sidewalks by the previous night’s customers.

People don’t like dealing with the messes that they’ve made. It can be unpleasant and embarrassing. Many would rather ignore the mess, hoping that no one will make a connection between them and the problem that they’ve caused. Others just can’t be bothered with attempts at tidying up—after all, cleaning isn’t nearly as much fun as making the mess in the first place.

Too often, this is our attitude towards sin. Every time we disobey God, we make a mess of things. Sometimes we are too embarrassed to take responsibility for our actions; we stick our hands in our pockets, whistling nervously as we edge away, hoping no one will connect that sin to us. Other times we cannot be bothered to try and make things right—who wants to put a damper on the fun by acting responsibly?

But there is nothing that will flush away our smelly mess for us. The heaps of trash we make by our bad behavior only become increasingly disgusting the longer we try to ignore them. And when we finally get desperate enough to try and take care of the garbage ourselves, we quickly find that we don’t have what it takes to do the job properly. Only the janitor has what is needed to restore a sanitary level of cleanliness; we have to admit what we’ve done to Jesus and ask His help to clean things up. Only Jesus can forgive our sins; only Jesus can ensure our spiritual health by cleansing us with His blood, shed on the cross.