YGT: What's more Disgusting than a Wet Willy?

In Mark 7, Jesus Christ shows that he wasn't very concerned with keeping himself clean.  At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus' disciples don't wash their hands.  He scolds the Pharisees for being consumed with the cleanliness of their hands over their hearts.  At the end of the chapter, Jesus dirties his hands by healing a man who was deaf and mute.

This man needed a miracle.  Jesus obliged by sticking his fingers in the man's ear - possibly the first (un)wet willy in recorded history!  What's worse than a wet willy? Well, what if the person who put their fingers in your ear then put their finger on your tongue?!?!? That's precisely what Jesus did.

33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 

 (Pardon me while I take a shot of Peptol Bismol) Jesus, that's nasty!  Why does Jesus defile himself and this man (touching the tongue of another person)?  Why wasn't this a pristine healing where Jesus just touched him on the forehead or spoke a divine word?  

Jesus may have been establishing a pattern with this healing.  This isn't the first time Jesus uses the disgusting to heal us.   Jesus spits on a man's eyes in the next chapter, an act that immediately defiled people in biblical times.  Later, after a brutal beating and being spit on himself, Jesus used his mangled body to save our souls.  God knew this would make us queasy, but He chose this death anyway.  

What can we take away from this?  Jesus is at work in the disgusting moments.  Jesus didn't reveal Himself in sterile conditions.  Instead, he comes in the spit-up of the baby, the earwax of the elderly, and the bed pan of the hospitalized.  For every person who finds themselves ministering to a drunken friend or sweating uncontrollably in a foreign land or recovering from another wet willy, be encouraged.  Christ is with you.  

Lord, forgive us for our sterility.  Remind us that you came from a clean heaven to a dirty earth.  Your journey was a beautiful and disgusting one.  Lord, please strengthen every missionary, nurse, and caretaker.  They are shining symbols of Your glory.  We're grateful You got disgusting to come and get us.  In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, Amen.

Convicted,

j.a.g.