PreacherMike

You’d think a change in travel plans wouldn’t require a theological treatise. But with Paul it did.

He was spending two or three years in Ephesus, but much of his attention was on the struggling church in Corinth. So he sailed the 250 miles across the Aegean to make a painful visit. Then he returned to Ephesus and wrote a letter that stung. Their values didn’t fit the story of the crucified Messiah — a message that was foolishness to most Greeks.

At some point he told them he was going to Macedonia and that he would sail to Corinth, turn north to Macedonia (Thessalonica, Philippi), and then return to Corinth before returning to Jerusalem. But now he had changed his mind. (Any parents remember ever hearing these words: “But you Promised”?) There may have been several reasons, but one of them was that if he showed up at Corinth at that moment he’d want to kill the whole gang. It just wasn’t the right time for a reunion. He needed to have Titus find him in Macedonia to let him know how things were going.

Some who were planting doubts of suspicion about Paul took this change in itinerary as a sign of his fickleness. “We told you he was wishy-washy.”

But, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, he’s not the kind of guy who speaks out of both sides of his mouth. And much more than that, he represents a faithful God who doesn’t say “yes” and “no.”

Then, this wonderful passage: all God’s promises are “yes” in Jesus. He is God’s “yes.”

This is Jeopardy. We have the answer (”yes”) — just not sure what all the questions are. But the answer in Jesus Christ is “yes.” To those who are broken, grieving, and disappointed, there is the great hope of knowing that everything is “yes” in Jesus. We don’t see all of that “yes” right now — but it’s started in the reign of the Messiah and is working toward fulfillment. All God’s promises.

And to that, Paul says, we can only speak this Hebrew word: AMEN.

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