Have you ever faced a truly impossible situation – one that seemed way past the point of no return?
For example: what went through Jairus’ head when he was told that his little girl had died while Jesus was making His way to her bedside? What was it like for Mary and Martha, when Lazarus died? Jesus showed up two days after the funeral – Lazarus was dead and gone. And dead people generally stay dead.
Or what about Saul, the persecutor, the murderer. People don’t change, and Saul didn’t seem real open to the possibility that he had things all wrong.
Or what about the day after Good Friday. Jesus – the hope for so many on Palm Sunday, and certainly for the disciples – had been betrayed, beaten, crucified and buried. Imagine the disciples trying process that… what must have been going through their minds? Jesus – the one they had thought was the Messiah – was dead. What had the past three years been? And where do you go, having experienced that?
But Jesus didn’t stay dead, and that’s the point. Because of that, in Muhammad Ali’s words, “impossible is nothing.”
In Ephesians 4, Paul describes how the body – an impossible mix of people with irreconcilable differences that finds its unity only in Him (Eph 2:11-22) – should work together, it’s fitting that he mentions this little parenthesis:
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:7-10)
In a world where “fallen” mean “normal,” and earth is hardly “as it is in heaven,” the most improbable thing of all might have been the incarnation itself. Jesus – God the Son – left heaven to come be with us. We have a hope and a future because – as the Apostle’s Creed summarizes – Christ descended to earth, suffered and died, and on the third day, rose again, ascending to heaven where He sits at God’s right hand. Jesus did the impossible – He died and rose from the dead, and when He did, He gave gifts to each of us so that we could also do incredible things for His Kingdom – so that we could participate in making earth look just like heaven.
But our world doesn’t look like heaven, does it? And instead of transforming earth into heaven, many of us are just fighting to survive.
What impossible thing are you facing? What is the thing that you lie awake at night thinking about? I’m talking about the problem that you roll around in your mind over and over as you stare at the ceiling, examining all sides of the issue, looking for some way to overcome it… and coming up with nothing. For me, those are very lonely, empty times.
But in those times especially, Paul commands us to remember (Eph. 2:11), and so Paul reminds us here: nothing is impossible for God, and He has given you and me power in Christ to overcome – or walk through – impossible situations. Just as with Lazarus, part of the reason you may be staring down the barrel of this present impossible situation may be so that He can show the world His work in you (John 11:4). Your struggle is not without purpose – it has eternal, cosmic importance.
Paul commands us in 4:1 to “walk.” In this, we face an impossible task: to take a fallen, hopeless world full of hurting, lost people and transform it into heaven – and all the joy, peace and fullness that “heaven” implies. As part of Christ’s body, we’re called to do the things He did: to forgive, instead of demanding justice, to restore broken people and relationships, to preach the Good News, to love the unlovable and protect the marginalized and the vulnerable. And we are to do this in spite of the hurt that such work will bring. He made Himself vulnerable in order to overcome the worst this world could bring, and He has given you and me gifts – divine power – to do the same. And if the same Jesus who had power over death is working in and through you and me, then be encouraged! Whatever impossible thing you and I face can be overcome, it can be survived, and it is not stronger than the God who is at work in you.
After all, Jesus overcame death. After that, most other problems seem kind of small.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
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