“…that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
– Ephesians 1:18-23 (English Standard Version)
I’m a fan of mystery movies. You know the kind: you’re in a race to figure out the plot before the movie ends and the surprise ending suddenly ties all the odd clues together. In mystery movies like The Sixth Sense, there are subtle clues throughout the movie – but you have to be looking for them. For example, every time there’s something red on screen, there’s a dead person there. The clues often seem hidden because they only make sense in the greater context of the movie and lead to a completely different conclusion if you only consider them in the immediate on-screen context.
The Bible is often this same way: little clues to God’s ultimate plan dropped like breadcrumbs as the story unfolds – and which are often so seemingly obscure that we overlook them entirely. The New Testament quotes a ton of the “Old” Testament. This makes sense, since Christ fulfilled the Old Testament – the New Testament is not a new story, after all. But the most often-quoted Old Testament verse to be referenced in the New Testament is not from Psalm 23 or Genesis 12 or other relatively famous Old Testament passages. It’s Psalm 110:1
The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
It’s not immediately clear this is talking about Jesus, until you see it over and over again in the New Testament. But like a mystery thriller, this is the theme that ties the whole book together: From before Adam and Eve first rebelled against Him, God the Father has been working through His Son Jesus to subdue every enemy and establish His rule throughout Creation. His victory is so sure that He even “calls His shot,” explaining that the last enemy to be subdued will be death (1 Cor 15:26). One day even the “sure things” of death and taxes will cease as Christ establishes His reign over everything!
Paul makes this point to the Ephesians: God alone is all-powerful, even has power over death, and demonstrated this by raising Jesus from the dead (see vs. 20-22). In a city where Artemis was supposedly sovereign over life itself, Paul reminds these struggling believers that Artemis is utterly powerless – God alone has power, and God alone has demonstrated it by doing the impossible. Dead people don’t come back to life, after all – yet God did exactly that. Paul is deliberately throwing sand in the face of the Artemis cult.
Does your life reflect this truth – that God is sovereign over everything? It’s Monday morning, and Mondays are notorious for unwanted surprises, for little bombs hidden in your email inbox that will create a crisis and ruin your entire day. Do you see God in even these seemingly insignificant details? This is hard – most of the time in those circumstances, I’m in damage control mode. Just minimize the damage and clean up the mess so I can get back to my to-do list, my priorities. I miss the little clues, the evidence that – in spite of the circumstances – God is sovereign over the details. And when I miss the clues in the small stuff, I’m probably not likely to see them when a bigger issue comes up.
What happens, for example, when you face something impossible? One of those monster problems that rears its ugly head – and you find you’re only armed with a popgun and don’t have the resources to deal with it. Are you facing one of those impossible problems now – the kind that keep you up at night looking for some way to overcome it, but you’re losing hope that one exists?
But – and this probably sounds like one of those nice, neat, happy answers – but if Jesus was, in fact, raised from the dead – then wouldn’t that classify as a truly impossible problem? Death is usually pretty final, after all – death doesn’t release its grip. But if Jesus has overcome even death, then there is no such thing as “impossible.” Even death has a weakness. The door is always still open just a crack. And that’s incredibly encouraging, isn’t it?
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