THE SEWAGE POND

THE SEWAGE POND

In 2001, my friend Mark Maulding (president of Grace Life International, www.glionline.org) shared an analogy of a sewage pond to communicate how Jesus did not reach down from heaven to pluck us out of our sinful condition, but how Jesus came directly into our sinful conditions to rescue and redeem us through the cross. That analogy… that courageous and compassionate love really resonated with me. I was truly ministered to as I personalized and expanded this analogy as I wrote the following article. It is so personal, that I have hesitated to share it. However, a particular scene from the Hurricane Katrina tragedy has compelled me to share now. The scene was TV news footage of a dead man floating face down in sewage in a flooded New Orleans street…he was all alone…and all of modern man's best technologies did not prevent this tragedy, nor for a long while could even rescue this man's dead body. This was a faceless man to those who saw the footage. However, he is not faceless to God. Grace is coming face to face with the living resurrected Christ, knowing deep down you were united with Christ in His death and burial in order to know Him now in His resurrection (Romans 6).

I see Jesus standing in a majestic meekness on the side of a sewage pond. Imagine that…the Creator of the universe, the glorious Son of God, standing in such a place. Jesus has a commanding yet compassionate stature. A feeble human parallel is when the king of England removed his royal robes and came in street clothes to inspect the war-torn areas of England…many say the king displayed a glory like never before.

I see Jesus peering at a man floating prostrate, face down in the sewage pond…it is a precious penetrating gaze. Without taking His eyes off of the man, Jesus deliberately and without any hesitation steps into the pond...there is a holy hush among millions of angels who are entranced in heaven above on this unfolding scene of their holy Creator below. The stench in the pond is sickening. The humidity is oppressive. Floating sheens of oil and scum wick to the simple robe clothing on Jesus. A vast cloud of mosquitoes take incessant prey on His flesh. Jesus feels the muck of the sludge on the bottom of the pond. Yet…He never flinches. His gaze is perfectly fixed on the man in the pond.

As Jesus reaches the man, Jesus is waist-deep in the pond. Jesus gently reaches around the man to turn him face up. He secures the man in a cradle-like hold, with the man’s head resting on the inside of His left arm. With tears in His eyes and a simple yet passionate smile, Jesus takes His right hand to tenderly wipe some of the sludge off of the man’s cheeks, and says under His breath, “Oh, how I love you!” His eyes are still fixed on the man, piercing Him with a love I have never witnessed…and…and now I can make out the man’s face…It’s me! Oh my goodness, I just cannot fathom such love! I can't take in anymore of this scene…but…but I know that I must.

Although my eyes are dead closed, Jesus eyes are fully open and His simple smile is fixed on me. And He repeats over and over, with a simple, yet profound passion, “Oh, how I love you, oh, how I love you, oh, how I love you.” Pure tear drops from His eyes gently patter onto my dirty face.

I realize now that the sewage pond is a picture of all my sins. How filthy! How full, yet how lifeless! But Jesus seems nevermore majestic as His pure life intersects the sewage pond…where Hope meets despair…Friend meets foe…Light meets darkness…Life meets death…Savior meets sinner...and where justice and mercy meet grace. It is an awesome picture of the cross. Such amazing love.

Then with His strong, yet gentle, arms, Jesus turns me so that my face is pressed into His bosom, and His left hand supports the back of my head while His right arm and hand embrace and support the rest of my body. It is just like the father’s strong embrace of his anxious child. In this case, I am lifeless in the arms of Jesus. Jesus then gingerly tightens His embrace of me, a tender hug, with periodic gentle pats and rubs on my head. He closes His eyes passionately and again repeats under His breath, ”Oh, how I love you.” He slightly twists His head while His cheek is gently pressed against the crown of my head, expressing the depth of His compassion. His weeping increases, and His whole body trembles in concert with His tears of love for me.

As Jesus continues to embrace me in the serenity of stillness and silence, He closes His eyes for a few minutes, as if to savor His time with me, His love for me, and His plans for me. Then, with tears now streaming down His face, He opens His eyes wide, and looks up to heaven. Oh, what beautiful eyes! They glisten through His overflowing tears. He cries out in a strongly passionate, yet weakly strained, voice: “Father!” I realize now He is on the verge of becoming separated from His Daddy for the first time ever…yet it is also a cry of a deep trust in His Father's purpose.

Then, Jesus slowly and deliberately begins to descend into the sewage pond, His eyes still fixed on heaven above… His loving embrace of me still sure. I now see the nail holes in His wrists that are embracing me as I descend with Him, firmly in His grip.

His tear-filled eyes remain fixed on heaven above, and His arms remain clutched around me. I see a passionate expression on His lips as a precursor to the most victorious words ever spoken…Jesus says with all the love in the world just before He is completely submerged, “It is finished!” And then, instead of taking in a deep breath, He lets out a deep breath, and becomes buried with me under the filthy sewage pond.

Immediately heaven closes and it is dark for several hours. But then heaven re-opens and a glorious light chases out the darkness. The pond has turned blood red! A truly awesome sight. The odors, oil, scum, sludge, diseases, mosquitoes…all of my filth…it's all gone! There is a climate of awe and peace for three days around the pond. Then, another transformation occurs…the blood red pond becomes a strikingly clear and intensely sparkling pond! The glorious light reflects though a fresh cool breeze from praising breaths of angels. The pond begins to overflow without ceasing. I realize this is a picture of rivers of living waters…a picture of Christ's pure eternal life in and through me!

The picture ends here, but somehow I sense that as Jesus beheld me through the cross, and as He continues to behold me in His resurrection, so now I, in grace, behold Him. It is as if I have been viewing the scene of this picture from the heavenly places above, where I am now forever in Christ (Colossians 3:1). As this picture ends, I sense a still, small voice in my heart: “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” I hope you hear this same voice, too. Thank you, God, for Your grace, including the grace to receive it!