Word of Salvation – August 2024

 

There’s More Than Meets The Eye

 

Sermon by Harry Burggraaf B.D. on 2Kings 6:17 & Luke 24:31

Scripture Reading: 2Kings 6:9-23; Matthew 6:22-24; Luke 24:13, 28-32

Singing:        Stand up and bless the Lord (BoW.171)
                        Morning by morning (BoW.421)
                        My faith looks up to Thee (BoW.190)
                        Be Thou my vision (BoW.436)

 

There's a well-known saying, 'Life is more than meets the eye.'

We've all been in situations where that was true; where the way that a thing seems or looks isn't really the truth, or is only part of the picture, or there's another side of the story.

The school where I work is next to a bush reserve and every now and again we have problems with some students going off into the bush to have a smoke.  One day two students were caught coming back from the reserve, climbing through the school fence.  'OK you two, what have you been up to?  Show me the packet of cigarettes.'  'What do you mean sir?  We saw an emu and followed it into the bushes.'  'Oh yes, tell me another one; I didn't come down in the last shower you know.'  Sure enough, as it turned out, there was an emu in the bush.  Things weren't as they seemed to be.

When you go to Europe you come upon these huge cathedrals, but they can be very drab from the outside.  Years of neglect and the pollution of smog and grime make them dirty and unattractive and look run-down.  Then you go inside, and wow, it's a different world.  The sun is shining through the stained glass windows and it’s an explosion of light and colour – deep purple, rich green, splashes of blue, explosions of yellow – a kaleidoscope of incomparable beauty.  There's more than meets the eye.

This morning I'd like to use the two stories we read from the Bible to show that when it comes to faith there's more to things than meets the eye

A man who sees defeat (2Kings 6)

The year is 850BC – or thereabouts.  Israel is divided into two nations.  The northern Kingdom is ruled by Joram, the eldest son of Ahab; the southern kingdom by Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat.  There is an uneasy peace between them because they have a common enemy, the Syrians in the north, led by BenHadad, king of Aram.

Joram is a chip of the old block.  Like his father Ahab and his mum Jezebel he hasn't much space for the old time religion of the covenant God of Israel.  He had got rid of some of the worst excesses of idolatry, but he also wanted to keep his options open with a few other gods around the place.  Who knows when you might need to call on Baal or some other deity from the surrounding nations?

But in one way he is different from his dad.  He's got a working relationship with Elisha, the prophet who succeeded Elijah who had given his mum and dad such a hard time.  As a young boy he could still remember that humiliating affair of Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel and Elijah's terrible curse on his mother that she would literally go to the dogs.

But for some reason he got on OK with Elisha.  In fact Elisha was a bit like his CIA – his intelligence service.  Elisha used his prophetic insights to keep the king informed of BenHadad's every move.  This got right up BenHadad's nose.  In fact so accurately did Elisha know his movements that BenHadad thought he had a mole, a spy in his ranks.  'They even seem to know what I say to my wife in the bedroom', he shouts at his servants.

His servants, afraid that they might lose their heads, do some snooping around and tell the king that his problem is Elisha, the prophet of Israel.

To cut a long story short BenHadad decides to get rid of Elisha and with an army traps him in the little hill town of Dothan.

This is the part of the story I want to highlight.  Elisha's servant gets up in the morning and sees this army – horses, chariots, archers, soldiers – and he says to his boss, 'We're done for; it's curtains for us!'

Vs.15 'Oh my Lord, what shall we do?'

And then you get these remarkable words of Elisha: 'Don't be afraid, those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'  'What?  Are you mad?  Have you taken leave of your senses Elisha?  There's two of us, and as far as I can see there's a few thousand of them.'

Elisha's servant probably should have known better.  For those of you who know the book of Kings, why should he have known better?

Well it depends on how long he had been around Elisha, but look at the context of this story.  Had he forgotten Mt Carmel?  The odds there weren't all that good, and God had given Elijah victory over the Baal priests.  And what about all the miracles he had experienced with his boss?

*  Ch.2: Elisha purifies the town water supply with a pinch of salt.

*  Ch.3: Elisha creates a lake to provide an optical illusion of blood to frighten the Moabites.

*  Ch.4: Elisha provides for a widow by multiplying a little bit of oil till it fills all the jars in the house, in the neighbourhood, in the town.

*  Ch.4: A mother’s son is restored to life.

*  Ch 5: A commander of Syria, Naaman, is healed of his leprosy.

*  Ch.6: A borrowed axe head which falls into the river floats.

Outside of the Gospels there is no part of the Bible – of salvation history – which is so rich in miracles.

And each of those miracles is a message to Israel: God has it under control; don't worry God is in charge.  He's powerful.  You can leave it to God.

And yet the servant is afraid of a few men with bows and arrows and a chariot or two?  Did all those miracles do nothing for him?

So then you get that wonderful, delightful, powerful prayer of Elisha's.  'Lord open his eyes so he may see'.  Give him eyes of faith.  Show him your might.  Let him see there's more than meets the eye.

And the Lord opened his eyes and, wow!  Is this the real story?  Is this how it actually is?

He sees hills full of horses, chariots everywhere, firepower beyond measure.  All the resources and ingenuity and provision of the King of heaven and earth; surrounding them; protecting them; saving them.

People say that 'seeing is believing'.  It isn't true you know.  It certainly isn't the whole truth.  'Believing is seeing!'

We read in Matthew that 'the eye is the lamp of the body; if the eye is good the whole body will be full of life.'  But if your eyes are bad, if your vision is defective or distorted, it will affect the whole of your life.

How is our eyesight this morning?  Is our faith vision working?  Do we have 20/20 perspective on the life we live?

We all have Dothan experiences.  Life can wrap around us like a fog.  Fear and anxiety and loss of hope can destroy our vision.  We get up in the morning and survey the scene and all we see is trouble; the enemy surrounds.

Fear of loneliness; fear of disapproval and rejection; fear of failure; fear of ridicule; fear of sickness.

It's easy to just see the drab, dirty outside of the cathedral.  The problem is too big.  The enemy is too strong.  The pressure of life is just too much.

We stand on our hill at Dothan and are overwhelmed by the enemy, whatever that is.

There are always two ways of seeing life: the everyday perspective of work, eat, sleep, failure, success, happiness, sadness; and the perspective of the kingdom of God; what God is doing to work out our salvation, our shalom.  It needs eyes of faith to see the second.

The whole of the Old Testament is a record of how the Kingdom of God takes shape and intrudes into people’s lives:

* Moses and the Israelites stand on the shores of the Red sea about to be annihilated by the Egyptians – it takes faith to see God can create a path right through it.

* Abraham and Sarah are a hundred years old – it takes faith to have a baby who becomes the ancestor of a nation.

* Daniel’s friends face the fiery furnace of a tyrant king – it takes faith to walk with an angel into the flames.

Just read Hebrews 11 and notice the refrain: ...by faith, ...by faith, ...by faith...!  How?  People knew there was a reality alongside everyday life.

Ah, but they had miracles.  They had prophets to pray for them.  They had Moses and Joshua and Elisha and other heroes of faith.

But, hang on, we have Jesus!  Jesus, the living presence of the Kingdom of God.

Two people who have lost hope.  (Luke 24)

And that takes us to that other story.  Some nine hundred years later.  Two people were walking home from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  They were desolate.  The bottom had dropped out of their world.  They had lost hope and there is nothing more debilitating than hopelessness.  They had expected the world from Jesus of Nazareth.  He would redeem Israel; a new beginning; a whole new age.  And now he had been crucified.  Dead!  The end!  The enemies of the Messiah were all they could see.  Nothing that the person who walks along with them says can lift their spirits – explanation, argument, persuasion, a Bible study.  All they could see was the outside of the cathedral.  'Oh my Lord, what shall we do?'

Then Jesus shares a meal with them; he prays, he breaks the bread, shares out the food as the invited guest and...!

Their eyes were opened; they recognized him.  Just like the servant of Elisha 900 years earlier they were given a new perspective, new eyes!  Rather than the defeat of the cross they saw the victory of the resurrection.  Right in front of them.  The Kingdom of God in person.  Believing is seeing!

Prayer and ordinary things.

We go through periods of life and experiences when the Kingdom of God – that other world observed by faith – seems very distant and absent.  It would be nice to have a miracle or two; and they sometimes happen.

An anonymous envelope arrives in the mail for the exact amount that someone needs to pay the bills after months of unemployment.  Or a missionary out in the field who hasn't shared their need with anyone; no one could have known.

A doctor is amazed because the cancer that seemed so terminal in a patient is not just in remission, but seems totally gone.  Nothing can explain it.

But God's great once-and-for-all miracle is the death and resurrection of Jesus.  He is always with us.  Jesus is the Kingdom of God in person and he will always be present wherever people acknowledge his rule.

The cross stands right in the centre of our problems, our loss of faith, our loss of hope, when all we seem to see is the enemy.

People going through difficult times often don't need explanations, or preaching, certainly not easy comfort.  They need fresh eyes; eyes to see that Jesus stands in the middle of their lives.

It's interesting isn't it, what Elisha did for his servant.

He didn't rebuke his servant; he didn't reason with him and give all sorts of explanations, he didn't give a theology lesson on the providence of God.  Just a simple prayer: 'Lord open his eyes that he may see.'  See your resources, see your care, see your love, see your Kingdom in this situation, here and now.  And God gives the sight.

And it doesn't take miracles or spectacular effort.  As Jesus shared the meal, as he prayed their eyes were opened.

The Kingdom of God, the presence of Jesus comes in everyday, ordinary ways – a card of encouragement when you're down; a meal left on the doorstep when you're pushed beyond endurance; an offer to take the children when it's all too much; an invitation to come on an outing when a person feels they don't have a friend in the world; an hour a week mentoring a difficult child; consistent, patient prayer.

We can do those things.  I'm sure that in this church you're good at them.

And we need to learn to recognize the presence of Jesus when he does walk alongside.

There's a poignant anecdote (true or apocryphal?!) of a person caught in the great flood in Holland in 1953, in one of the more religiously conservative parts of the country.  The house has a meter of water in it and the Volunteer Rescue team sends a 4 wheel drive to take him out of the house.  'No need!’ says the person, God will take care of me.'  The water rises to ceiling level and the Red Cross sends a boat to take the person to safety.  'No need, God will save me!'  The water rises and this person has to climb onto the roof.  The military send a helicopter as a last rescue effort.  'No, don't worry about me, God will look after me.'

The person drowns.

In heaven he chastises God.  Why didn't you save me from the flood?  And God replies, ‘Who do you think sent the jeep and the boat and the helicopter?’

This morning we are invited once again to open our eyes and see Jesus.

And when you meet someone who sees only the grime and the soot and the dirt and the drabness of the outside of the cathedral, invite them inside.  Invite them inside to experience the colour, the splendour, the light of God's love in Jesus Christ.