And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Luke 19:39-40
Jesus is preparing to enter the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as we read this verse. The disciples and the crowd are shouting praise at Jesus, and calling him, Messiah, something that makes the Pharisees uncomfortable. You see the Pharisees had the job of studying scripture to make sense of all the clues in the Old Testament of who the Messiah is, when He is arriving and where to find him. You can almost picture the Pharisees grumbling, “Hey this guy cannot be the Messiah, stop distracting us from our scholarly books, we are trying to figure out how we will know when we meet the Messiah!” And the Pharisees are out there complaining as the Messiah, the one they are looking for, walks right past them,
I want to suggest that we are a lot like the Pharisees in this verse. You pray for God to help in your marriage, that God might help your spouse to just see things your way. But when God opens their heart to seek out a Christian counselor, you say, “Quiet down, can’t you see that I am listening for God to answer my prayer here.” And the answer walks right past you.
You pray God I am looking for work in a tough economy. God I am looking for a position in upper management making a certain salary, with good benefits, help me out. So you don’t follow up with a friend who can land you an interview for a job because it’s “below you,” I mean can’t they see I am waiting for God to answer to my prayer for a certain kind of job. And the answer walks right by you.
If you are not careful you can, like the Pharisees, watch God walk right past you, because you have too narrow of a view of God. God is at work in and around you, and through the people and circumstances of your everyday life. It’s less a question of where God will show up, but will you be on the look out for Him?
Pastor Bill