Someone who will Never Disappoint – February 12, 2020

When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified . . . so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
1 Corinthians 2:1,2,5

Someone who will Never Disappoint

No one likes to be let down. No one likes to be disappointed, especially when the one disappointing us is someone we respect and trust. The problem is, eventually everyone we admire will disappoint us in one way or another. The parent who seemed perfect while you were a child suddenly reveals flaws as you grow older and wiser. The professor who seemed to know it all when you were in school turns out to have made mistakes. No matter whom we admire or how much we admire them, eventually, they will let us down.

The apostle Paul knew this. He knew it about himself. He was a sinful man just like every other man. And he knew there was a danger that the people who heard him preach and teach might make too much of him. They might equate the validity of his message with the reliability of his person. And if they did, they might abandon his message when he let them down.

So, he told them not to make that mistake. He reminded them that the validity of his message was not dependent on his personality or power of persuasion. His message was valid because it was true. And his message was powerful because God made it so.

Christians today are in danger of making the same mistake as the first-century Christians to whom Paul gave this warning. We can put our trust in the people who tell us about Jesus rather than in the message about Jesus.

Thankfully, the forgiveness of our sins and hope of heaven does not rely on the people who preach to us about it. It relies on the cross of Christ–where he shed his blood to pay for the sins that separated us from our God. It is an accomplished fact.

No matter how often other people disappoint us, Jesus never has and never will.

Prayer: (Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal – 387)
Drawn to the cross, which you have blessed with healing gifts for souls distressed, to find in you my life, my rest, Christ crucified, I come. Amen.