By David Faust
My junior high and high school English teachers were sticklers on grammar. They required students to diagram sentences, write essays, and expand our vocabulary. Back then I preferred playing basketball over diagramming nouns, verbs, and prepositions. I had no idea that years later, writing would play a significant part in my ministry.
It turns out, my teachers were right, even when I didn’t appreciate what they were trying to teach me.
Jesus’ original disciples learned a similar lesson. At times his parables baffled them, his actions bewildered them, and his requirements troubled them. “The first shall be last”—how does that make sense? “Pick up your cross and follow me”—really? When Jesus announced he was going to die and rise again, Peter tried to talk him out of it, earning a stiff rebuke from the Master.
He Is Always Right
Despite his followers’ misgivings, Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with precise instructions about how to prepare for the Passover. In the crowded city they would notice and follow a man carrying a jar of water (a task usually done by women in those days). The water courier would lead them to a house with a large upstairs room, furnished and ready for the Passover meal. Following Jesus’ instructions, the disciples “found things just as Jesus had told them” (Mark 14:16, New International Version, emphasis added).
Jesus was several steps ahead of his disciples. They didn’t know what was coming, but he had made advance arrangements they knew nothing about.
The Lord is always several steps ahead of us, too. Have you noticed that things eventually turn out just as Jesus has told us? In the long run, he is always right.
He’s right about money management, inter-personal relationships, sexual ethics, and marriage. He’s right about sin, judgment, heaven, and hell. He’s right about everything, even if at first we don’t understand.
He Knows What He’s Doing
He knows where the fish are.
Jesus taught this lesson more than once. Peter was an experienced fisherman who grew up near the Sea of Galilee. If there was one area where Peter felt competent—one part of his life where he might reasonably conclude, “I don’t need the Lord’s help, because I’m already good at this”—it was fishing. But in the early days of their friendship (Luke 5:1-11) and again after the resurrection (John 21:1-14), Jesus surprised Peter by telling him where to find fish when the fisherman’s own skill fell short.
He knows where the dangers are.
At times it’s hard to distinguish a sheep from a wolf, a trustworthy teacher from a liar. On the path to green pastures and quiet waters, we need the Good Shepherd’s protective rod and staff.
He knows where the answers are.
In school, did you ever have a textbook that contained quizzes or test questions, and the answers were in the back of the book? If you work crossword puzzles and some clues leave you clueless, you can find the answers in the back.
When hard questions arise, wouldn’t it be great if you could look in the back of the book and find the answers? Many of life’s mysteries are directly addressed in the Bible. But as Job and other biblical characters discovered, some answers are hard to find, even in the back of the Book. For some questions, we must simply trust that the answers are in the Teacher’s head.
One summer day, Louisa Stead, her husband George, and their daughter Lily enjoyed a picnic on the beach by Long Island Sound. Suddenly they heard a boy crying for help as he struggled against the tide offshore. George dove into the water to help, but tragically, both he and the boy drowned while Louisa and Lily watched helplessly from the shore. One writer explains, “Their world shattered before their eyes; despair threatened to engulf them both after experiencing the terrible loss of their husband and father.” In the dark moments afterward, while in the throes of profound grief, Louisa Stead poured out her heart to the Lord in the lyrics of a hymn that eventually became famous. She wrote:
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Unquenchable Faith.
Amen