“I’ve been asking God for a new story.”
This sounds like a man sitting in the dark after the microphone goes cold, staring at the life he built and wondering what will survive if Jesus walks in and starts opening doors.
Theo Von said he has been asking God for that new story and with it came fear. He is talking like a man who knows Christ does not touch up the edges. He makes the old man die.
Many people stay away from Jesus because they think they must arrive scrubbed and presentable. They imagine Christ standing at the door with a clipboard, waiting for cleaner habits, cleaner thoughts, cleaner histories.
The devil loves that lie because it keeps ruined people from the only One who can save ruined people.
Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He receives the weary and draws near to the guilty. He opens His arms to people who have made a wreck of things.
Theo, here is the good news: God is only interested in broken things. He only saves broken people.
Jesus tells of a Pharisee and a tax collector standing in the temple. The Pharisee comes dressed in his own righteousness. His prayer smells like self-congratulation. He thanks God that he is better than other men.
The tax collector stays far off. He will not lift his eyes to heaven. His hand pounds against his chest as if he can feel the rot in his own heart. Then he says, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Christ tells us which man went home right with God. It was the one who came in pieces.
God does not save the man performing wellness. He saves the man begging for mercy.
A son tears through his inheritance and burns up his father’s gifts in a far country and wakes at last in a field of hunger, staring at pigs and wishing for their food. By the time he starts home, rebellion clings to him like the smell of the trough. He has no clean speech to offer. He has only need.
Then Christ gives us one of the loveliest pictures in all the Bible. “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran” (Luke 15:20). Ran. The father did not wait on the porch with folded arms. He ran into the road. He embraced the boy while the mud of the far country was still on him.
Theo is talking like a man who knows that if Christ saves him, Christ will claim him. The podcast, the persona, the old comforts, the old escapes, all of it begins to shake when Christ steps near.
People often think the scariest part of coming to Jesus is judgment. For many, the scarier part is surrender. They know that if Christ heals them, He will not leave the old idols sitting where they are.
You do not have to untangle your whole soul before you come. You do not have to wash your own heart before you come. You come because you are shattered.
The woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears did not come cleaned up. The dying thief did not come cleaned up. Zacchaeus did not come cleaned up. The prodigal did not come cleaned up. The tax collector in the temple did not come cleaned up. They came with guilt, stink, shame, fear, and desperate need. Christ received them.
That is why the cross stands at the center of the world.
Broken people are welcomed because Someone was broken for them. Isaiah says of Christ, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
The Son of God stepped into the place of sinners. He bore wrath for the filthy and carried judgment for the ashamed. He took the full blow of holy justice so that guilty men and women could come home kissed by mercy.
A ruined past does not meet disgust in Jesus. It meets scarred hands. A trembling sinner does not meet a locked gate. He meets a living Savior.
Maybe that is where Theo Von is right now. Somewhere near the edge of John 5, hearing Christ ask, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
Maybe he is learning what every sinner must learn. Jesus does not ask for a polished life. He asks for the truth. He lays claim to the sin that owns you and the fear that stalks you.
You have waited because you thought Jesus wanted a better version of you. He wants you. The real you. The guilty you. The exhausted you. The split-hearted you. The you that cannot fix what is broken and cannot silence what accuses you in the dark. Bring that person to Christ.
Empty hands are enough. A crushed chest, pigpen rags, hot tears and a trembling heart are enough.
Just come.
The gospel is for people who have run out of excuses and who have finally stopped pretending. The gospel is for broken people because Jesus was broken for broken people. If you will come to Him, He will receive you, forgive you, cleanse you and give you more than a new chapter. In Christ, God gives a sinner a new heart, a new name, a new standing, and yes, a new story.
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If you wait to be clean before you come to Christ, then you’ll never come at all.
Beautiful, truly beautiful. What love does the Father have for those who humble themselves before Him so He can make them whole. Beautiful message.