They Won’t Fail!

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• Dr Eliezer Gonzalez
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Jan 1, 2015 1975

There is an ancient legend said to have been first told by Christians living in the catacombs under the streets of Rome which pictures the day when Jesus went back to glory after finishing all his work on earth.* The angel Gabriel meets Jesus in heaven and welcomes Him home.

“Lord,” he says, “Who have You left behind to carry on Your work?”

Jesus tells him about the disciples, the little band of fishermen and farmers and housewives.

“But Lord,” says Gabriel, “what if they fail You? What if they lose heart, or drop out? What if things get too rough for them, and they let you down?”

Well, says Jesus, then all I’ve done will come to nothing!

“But don’t You have a backup plan?” Gabriel asks. “Isn’t there something else to keep it going, to finish Your work?”

No, says Jesus, there’s no backup plan. The Church is it. There’s nothing else.

“Nothing else?” says Gabriel. “But what if they fail?”

“They won’t fail, Gabriel,” He said. “They won’t fail!”

In Luke 19:40, Jesus said about his followers that,

[I[f they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

I used to take this literally and I thought that this meant that Jesus had an option for preaching the gospel… that the stones themselves would speak. After all, God made a donkey to speak, so why not stones.

But no, the force of what Jesus said is to highlight the imperative upon us to speak out – to proclaim the gospel.

Indeed, God has no back up plan, at least according to what he has revealed in Scripture.

However, to me the history of the church seems to me to be one of brilliant successes amidst many more failures.

What will it take to fulfill the commandment of Jesus,

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. – Mark 16:15 ?

First, we need to understand the gospel.

Second, we need to embrace and accept the gospel so that we are immersed and amazed in the wonder of it.

Third, we need to allow the gospel proclamation to burst out through our lives in the power of the Spirit of the Lord.

Let it be us. Let it be us of whom Jesus will say to Gabriel,

“See, I told you so!”

– Eliezer Gonzalez

* I have serious doubts about the veracity of this legend… but none about the gospel!