Signs: Impossible Odds
April 22, 2003One of my earliest movie memories is a scene from the 1978 version of Superman. If I remember right there is some kind of earthquake while Lois Lane is driving her car through the desert and Superman can’t get there in time to save her. What I do remember is Superman orbiting the earth at supersonic speed and reversing the rotation of the earth thus reversing time and saving Lois.
I know that’s not very realistic. Planet Earth is rotating around its axis at 1,000 mph which means the whole planet would have died from whiplash if Superman had reversed the rotation. But it’s a cool concept.
All of us have been in situations where we wish we could turn back time --we do something or say something and the split second we say it or do it we wish we hadn’t said it or done it. We’d love to reverse the rotation of the earth. But we’re stuck in a linear, cause-and-effect, can’t reverse-the-irreversible world. Or are we?
Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death on the cross. But God raised him from the dead , freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Irreversible
Some things in life that are irreversible. You can’t undo what you did. When I was a sophomore in college, I blew out my knee in the last game of our basketball season. I went to the doctor for a diagnosis and he said I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. I asked him how long it’d take to heal. He said, “Never.” I’ll never forget that feeling of finality --the damage was done and there was nothing I could do to change it. I learned a lesson the hard way that day: some things in life are irreversible. You can’t untear a ligament.
For what it’s worth, I’ve also learned from personal experience that you can’t undelete documents, unbake cookies, uncut hair or unrun red lights. Some things in life are irreversible. But the good news of the gospel is that something happened 2,000 years ago that changes everything. On a Sunday morning, three days after Jesus was crucified, God reversed the irreversible.
I love the last phrase in Acts 2:24. It says, “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” It’s the exact opposite of what you would naturally think. It’s counterintuitive. When you die you’re dead--what’s impossible is coming back to life! But Peter pulls a paradigm shift. “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Henry Ford once said, “No one knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.” Henry Ford was right. The resurrection redefines reality. When Jesus rose from the dead all bets were off. If Jesus can overpower death, anything can happen. Part of putting your faith in Christ is allowing Him to redefine what is and what is not possible. And Jeremiah 32:17 says, “ Nothing is too difficult for you.”
Degrees of Difficulty
From a human perspective, there are degrees of difficulty. There are small problems and big problems, small miracles and big miracles. We tend to think of our prayer requests as having different degrees of difficulty. If it’s a big problem or big miracle we’re asking for we tend to use more words. But from God’s perspective, there are no small problems or big problems, small miracles or big miracles for one simple reason: to the infinite all finites are equal.
In John 6, Jesus finds himself in an impossible situation. How do you feed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish? Peter says, “Eight month’s wages won’t buy enough bread for everyone to have a bite.” You can almost see Peter crunching numbers and it doesn’t add up. Then Andrew says, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Andrew is crunching the numbers and it doesn’t add up. Any way you slice it, 5 + 2 = 7.
John 6:11 says, “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat , he said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over.’ They filled 12 baskets of leftovers.”
In God’s calculus , 5 + 2 = 5,000 with 12 baskets of leftovers. They actually end up with more than what they started with after feeding 5,000. Only in God’s economy!
To the infinite all finites are equal. Matthew 19:26 says, “ All things are possible.” Luke 1:37 says, “ Nothing is impossible.” That pretty much covers everything! There is nothing God cannot do.
Impossible Odds
One sign of spiritual growth is the ability to discern the way God works in your life. There are patterns that repeat themselves. Here is a pattern I see in my life and in Scripture: impossible situations are divine opportunities. None of us like being in hopeless or helpless situations, but that is when God does His best work. That is when God’s glory is revealed. In part, because that’s when we learn to really rely on God’s strength and wisdom.
In Judges 7, Gideon is facing impossible odds. He has an army of 32,000 men and they are vastly outnumbered by the Midianites. Judges 6:5 says it was “impossible to count” them. Then the Lord says, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.” If I’m Gideon I’m thinking God misspoke. “You said too many but what you really meant was too few .” But the Lord tells Gideon to dismiss anyone who is afraid . Gideon loses 2/3rds of his army--22,000 soldiers go home! He’s left with 10,000. Then the Lord says in verse 4, “There are still too many men.” So God devises a test. Gideon’s army goes to get a drink of water and God tells him to get rid of the men who drink like a dog and another 9,700 are eliminated. Gideon is left with an “army” of 300 men. And it gets better! God tells them to attack the Midianites with trumpets and jars! The amazing thing is that Israel wins the war!
Why does God do it that way? I’d be inclined to recruit another 32,000--get more people involved. Judges 7:2 reveals why God did it the way He did it. God defeats the Midianites with 300 Israelites instead of 32,000 Israelites so that “Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.” If Gideon had attacked with 32,000 and won I’m pretty sure the Israelites would have thanked God for “lending them a hand.” God would have gotten partial credit. But that’s not what God wants or deserves. God wants and deserves full credit . And when 300 men with trumpets and jars defeat an army that is impossible to count that’s exactly what you get!
One of the most exhilarating feelings in the world is doing something that no one thinks you can do. As a kid I turned everything into a competition. I loved a challenge. We’d be driving in the car and I’d say, “Do you think I can hold my breath for mile?” Or we’d be talking a walk and I’d say, “Do you think I can jump three sidewalk squares.” Or we’d be eating dinner and I’d say, “Do you think I can eat this Ice Cream Sundae in five bites.”
If someone said, “Yes,” it wasn’t worth the effort! What’s the point of doing something that someone thinks you can do? So I’d usually up the ante or raise the stakes until no one thought it was possible, then I’d attempt the impossible. God loves impossible odds ! He loves doing what is humanly impossible. Erwin McManus says that God may actually “leverage all odds against you, just so that you know that it wasn’t your gifts but His power through your gifts that fulfilled His purpose in your life.”
God’s Grammar
A few years ago I heard a message titled God’s Grammar and I’ll never forget one statement. The preacher said, “Never put a comma where God puts a period. And never put a period where God puts a comma.”
In John 11, Jesus got word that his friend Lazarus was sick. And Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.” But Lazarus dies. That statement always troubled me. Was Jesus wrong? But then I realized that I was putting a period where God was putting a comma. The sickness didn’t end in death. Four days later, Lazarus was raised from the dead.
I got an email from an NCCer this week. They gave me permission to share part of their story.
It was one year ago Easter Sunday that I re-proposed to wife! What a long way we have come in one year! God is so Good! And we are so blessed! A special thanks to those who prayed and supported us through the darkest journey of our lives—a journey to the grave and back! Praise God He’s still raising the dead!
Don’t put a period where God puts a comma. Oswald Chambers said, “Sometimes it looks like God is missing the mark because we too shortsighted to see what He’s aiming for.”
Inner Unconquerableness
Death is not a period. It’s a comma. It’s not the end. It’s a conjunction between this life and the afterlife.
A few years ago I was talking with Parker and Summer about their Grandpa Schmidgall, Lora’s dad, who passed away several years ago. Parker said, “I wish I could have said good-bye to grandpa and told him to say hi to Jesus.” Then in a real excited voice, Summer said, “When we die we’ll get to go to heaven and see Grandpa Schmikel.” Parker said, “You shouldn’t get so excited about dying.”
I hope I’ve got a lot of living left to do. I love life. But there is a level of excitement about death because it’s not the end. Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
Oswald Chambers said, “No power of earth can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.” That’s what the resurrection is all about. “It was impossible for death to keep its hold him.” Jesus reversed the irreversible.