Radical Request | Genesis 12:1-3

Read Genesis 12:1-3

My sister put onions in her socks one night. She had been sick for several weeks and read online that putting raw onions in your socks while you sleep would make you feel better. What the article didn’t say was that the smell would be so bad it would distract from the actual illness. Needless to say, it didn’t work. If you’ve spent much time online, you know there are a number of wives tales floating around as cures for sickness. Most of them call the reader to follow some ludicrous instruction in hopes of seeing a miraculous healing. But, how do we know the di erence between absurd wives tales and the real deal?

In Luke 5, when Jesus walks along the Sea of Gennesaret, his instruction to Peter must’ve seemed absurd. He called them to go fishing, during the day, after they had fished the entire night and had come up empty. Every fisherman knew the best time to go fishing was at night. This was Peter’s profession and Peter’s father’s profession. If there was one thing in the world Peter knew how to do, it was fish! Fishing ran through his blood. When Jesus approaches him, Jesus calls Peter to throw out his knowledge and his accumulated rationale to follow an absurd instruction. It was the same call God gave to Abraham back in Genesis 12:1, when he said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” It’s absurd and ambiguous. God called Abraham to leave everything he knew in order to step into the unknown. The promise he had was that God was going to show him what to do and where to go, and God was going to bless Abraham when he did it (Genesis 12:2-3).

This tends to be the way God works. Worldly wisdom is a good thing, but it can never be an ultimate thing. Worldly wisdom must never trump divine calling. As people who follow the way of Jesus, we must be open to hearing the sometimes absurd invitation of God. The ludicrous calling to leave everything and follow him. As we look at God’s radical request in the lives of Abraham and Peter, we’re left with a few questions to ask ourselves. Are there any areas of my life that are o limits to God? Are we willing to follow Jesus and hear him. Am I willing to follow God’s absurd instructions, with the same desire for cure as my sister with her oniony socks, even if they don’t make rational sense at the time? The wisdom of the cross and the wisdom of sacrificial love go against the wisdom of the world. May we be people who hear the overtures of a God who calls us to the absurd, and may we obey as fully surrendered followers eager for the remedy only the divine call can cure.