“It Never Looks Like We Expect”

Sunday, November 21, 2021

And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.” (2 Kings 5.10-11)

This man possessed some degree of faith in the power of God to heal, and even trusted that Elisha was able to convey that healing to him and cure him of a miserable affliction, leprosy.  But he formed his own expectations about how it would look, and when he encountered reality, he was underwhelmed, disappointed, and offended.  Securely situated almost 3,000 years later and in a very different culture (to say nothing of modern medicine), we’re inclined to give a mental “tsk, tsk” to Naaman and say he just should have done as Elisha told him.  But we have the benefit of hindsight, while Naaman was wrapped up in the moment.

Naaman is far from being alone in building misguided expectations and going astray as a result.  Consider the widely held expectation that the Messiah would be a political ruler, establishing a literal throne in Jerusalem, in order to cast off the yoke of Rome and lead the Jewish nation to its rightful position as master of all the earth.  In this case, the expectations were even built on promises given through Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and many others of the Old Testament prophets.  But what did Jesus say, when publicly questioned about the kingdom of God?

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17.20-21)

Despite having been told the kingdom would not look as they expected; despite having seen on one occasion that Jesus deliberately evaded those who “were about to come and take him by force to make him king” (Jn 6.14), after his death and resurrection the disciples asked “‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” (Ac 1.6).  We’d expect these people to be among the least likely to insist everything conform to their preconceived vision.  They’d learned so much from Jesus, and he’d even directly addressed this topic with them before.  But they’re just like Naaman.

It’s a good thing we’re so much wiser than the Apostles!  Surely we would never make this mistake…would we?  We might roll our eyes at the childish expectations of people we read about in the Bible, who developed some kind of vision of what God was going to do, only to be blown away by the reality.  But we’re no better, ourselves.  Speaking of the exact time of the impending judgment, Jesus said, “‘concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only’” (Mt 24.36).  Yet how many hours have been wasted as we argue over all the apocalyptic details?  People who profess to completely trust Jesus write books, make movies, bicker incessantly, and break fellowship with their brothers to start new movements, based on the notion that they can figure out when Jesus will return, as if God had left a trail of bread crumbs in the more figurative prophecies of the Bible.  If we trusted Jesus, we’d give up on that, and focus on living lives of godliness.

It’s not just our expectations of how and when the end of the world will appear; people both today and throughout history since the beginning of the church have been trying to fit God’s plan for our salvation into their own expectations of what’s right, what’s good, what’s just, what’s possible, what’s appropriate, and what’s beautiful.  Certainly God is all of these things, and it’s reasonable to conclude that his plan from before the foundation of the world reflects his character.  But we must remember that our flawed, human perception of all these virtues, while it is implanted by God in our nature, can only take us so far, and that his revealed word supersedes the law written on our hearts and the testimony of our conscience (Ro 2.15).  Simply put, what you think makes for an appropriate standard of eternal reward or condemnation, is of no concern or merit before God.  He doesn’t care.  He doesn’t have to consult us.  He doesn’t have to fulfill our expectations.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” (1 Corinthians 1.18-19)

The smartest people in the world are fools, in comparison to God.  Many of those who profess to be wise find fault with God’s plan, and call it—as well as those who put their faith in God—folly.  They generally won’t use that term, but that’s what they mean when they say it’s backward, anti-Science, ignorant, uneducated, bigoted, harmful, and a never-ending list of less savory insults.  God’s plan just doesn’t make sense to them.  “Christ crucified” is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1Co 1.23).  “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (v27).  It doesn’t match their vision.  Not only does the message of the cross fail to glorify the world’s wise, but it’s too simple, and too humble for their liking.  But our expectations make no difference to God.  It’s not as if his instructions are all that challenging.  It’s the same as with Naaman:

But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5.13)

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