God Surprises Us. Matthew 10.5-6

We think we have him all figured out—especially in America. We can size him up and put him in a box, many times on a shelf, but he really will not fit in either. Preachers with various letters and dots behind their names, from elite seminaries, have all the answers about God and who he is …

until they don’t. 

God wasn’t meant to be figured out by human beings. The word inscrutable comes to my mind, but I am not certain it is a word or that it is in Scripture, but out it comes from the recesses of my mind—turns out it was totally legit. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”1

Yeah, we think we have God figured out, don’t we? But we are so wrong. So many of us

‘have settled for a God “on call,” a God available for crises and fiascos,

who does a bit of juggling with weather patterns and parking stalls

but who otherwise remains unobtrusive as a chambermaid,

tidying things up while you’re at brunch,

leaving a crisp sash of tissue around the lid of the toilet bowl

to let you know all is in order.

The problem, obviously, is that this god—so kind, so shy, so tame—

has nothing whatsoever to do with the God of the Bible.

This god resembles not even remotely the God whose Spirit

broods and dances,

the God who topples entire empires, sometimes overnight,

the God who reveals himself in the Christ who looks

big men in the eye and says, “Follow me,” and then walks away,

not waiting for a reply.

The God who calls us off borderland.’2

Why am I talking about a God who surprises us? Because it surprises us that Jesus told the Twelve not to go to the Gentiles, but to confine their work to the Jewish people. “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.3 Why does that surprise me? Why would the Messiah walk right past a lost Gentile and not tell him about the great love of God? Because God had a bigger, better plan, and it was a’comin down the road. In fact, it/he was already in school getting ready.

God’s plan for the Gentiles was Saul of Tarsus, supreme Jew of Jews, trained in Jerusalem by the biggest and the best of rabbis, Gamaliel. What a pedigree had Saul, a Roman citizen to boot! But then God surprised him, and introduced himself to Saul when he was traveling down the road. God interrupted Saul’s life to change him, to save him, and to send him to the Gentiles. Wait! Didn’t I just say Paul was a Jew among Jews? Yes, but God’s plan was to radically introduce him to the one who had died on the Cross for him, freeing him from all of the laws he was daily trying to uphold, and also to alter his penchant to see anyone who professed the name of Jesus eliminated!

The Twelve who were sent out were not to go to the Jews, because this Saul, whose Greek name was Paul was God’s plan for the Gentiles. As Luke recorded, the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.4 And Paul himself recognized his calling. He said, “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ…”5

There’s something about all of this that I just love. The logical thing would have been for the apostles/the sent ones to go to their nearby villages and regions to tell them of God’s blessing and provision in Jesus, Son of God. No way! The gospel message came to the Gentiles a bit later from Saul/Paul of Tarsus. God’s plan was for him to become the first missionary—a one man band—to take the Gospel out initially on his own; oh, how God’s message, how God’s method of doing things can so radically alter the world! God surprises us. He does it all the time. Don’t you just love that about our radical God?

Christine

www.pastorwoman.com

1 – Romans 11.33, ESV

2 - Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild

3 - Matthew 10.5-6

4 – Acts 9.15

5 – Ephesians 3.8