Gehazi Didn’t
Get Away With It
Years
ago when I was in college, I worked with a big guy named Andrew for a couple of
summers. He was good natured and fun to
be around, but he hadn’t always made the wisest of decisions in the past. A few years before we starting working
together, he had been a very accomplished high school wrestler in our home
town. In fact, during his senior year he
ended up winning the Nebraska State heavy weight wrestling title. And so, in order to celebrate his victory the
following day, he decided to get a fake ID, go to one of the liquor stores in
town, and attempt to buy some beer at the age of 18. When he walked up to the counter with beer in
his hand and handed the clerk his ID,
the man said, “Don’t I know you?” “I
don’t think so.” Andrew replied. “Sure I do,” the guy said. “You just won the state wrestling tournament
yesterday!” Andrew, getting a little
flustered at this point, responded, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You must be mistaking me for somebody
else.” “No, I’m not mistaken,” the clerk
said. “Don’t you remember me? I was the referee yesterday for your
championship match.”
That’s a
true story. An eighteen-year-old, fresh
off a very public state championship, tried to buy beer with a fake ID in his
hometown of 5000 people. Did he really
think he would get away with it? Did he
really think that he could waltz right into a liquor store in the town the size
of Delta and avoid running into anyone that might know him? Did he really think that he would be able to
pull this off without his parents finding out or his coach or the school? Sometimes our sinfulness blinds us to the
obvious. Sometimes we are so intent on
what we want that the sinful stupidity of what we are doing or saying or
thinking doesn’t even register. And we
convince ourselves that no one is ever going to know; no one is ever going to
see; no one is ever going to care. But
just like my former co-worker Andrew, no matter what our minds tell us, we
aren’t going to get away with it.
Gehazi learned
that the hard way. The servant of the
prophet Elisha convinced himself that no one would know and no one would see
and no one would care. And so after a
very wealthy Aramean general named Naaman left Elisha’s house without having to
pay anything for the miraculous healing that Elisha’s God had graciously given
to him, Gehazi came up with a fool-proof plan: Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, “My
master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he
brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something
from him.” So Gehazi hurried after
Naaman. When Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to
meet him. “Is everything all right?” he asked.
“Everything is all right,” Gehazi answered. “My master sent me to say,
‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the
hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of
clothing.’” “By all means, take two
talents,” said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two
talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two
of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi. When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the
things from the servants and put them away in the house. He sent the men away
and they left. Then he went in and stood
before his master Elisha. “Where have
you been, Gehazi?” Elisha asked. “Your
servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi answered.
But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got
down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept
clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and
maidservants? Naaman’s leprosy will
cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s
presence and he was leprous, as white as snow.
Did
Gehazi really think he would get away with it?
Did he really think he could trick a prophet of the Lord? Did he really think that God would not let
Elisha know about what Gehazi was up too?
But you can see why Gehazi might have thought that he could pull it
off. Naaman was from another country,
after all. And this general was leaving,
he would probably never be back, and so there was no way that Naaman would ever
be able to mention it to Elisha himself.
Plus, Elisha himself hadn’t been there to see Gehazi leave and so as
long as he hid the clothing and the silver in the house, Elisha wouldn’t ever
have to find out. And just to make sure,
Gehazi sent the servants away when they reached the hill about the house so
that Elisha didn’t happen to see them and suspect that something was up. But no matter what Gehazi’s plans were and no
matter how secretly he carried them out, Gehazi was not going to get away with
it. In fact, even if Elisha never found
out, even if Gehazi never did receive the punishment of leprosy, he still
wouldn’t have gotten away with it because the Lord would know. Because the Lord had been watching him the
entire time!
We Can’t Get
Away With It
Do you
really think you can get away with it? Now,
I hope that none of you have tricked someone into giving you a couple sets of
clothes and 150 lbs. of sliver lately, but I’m sure that there have been any
number of inappropriate thoughts and unchristian motivations and
less-than-commendable attitudes that can be attributed to you. Do you really think you can get away with
those? I might not be able to read your thoughts - and that’s a good
thing! I don’t want to! I’ve got too many of my own thoughts to do
deal with! And I might not be able to figure out what your underlying motivation
is for doing any particular thing in this life - and that’s a good thing,
because I’ve got enough selfish motivations to fend off on my own! And I
might not be able to look into your heart and see what kind of attitude you
have in different situations - and that’s a good thing, because my own attitude
is not where it should be most days! But
even though I don’t always know what’s going on inside that head of yours, and
even though most other people don’t know what’s going on inside that head of
yours, the Lord does. He is aware of
every single one of the thoughts and the motivations and the attitudes that
float inside your mind. Even those that
you are not aware of. Even those that
you have tried to forget. Even those you
have long forgotten. The Lord is not
tricked. The Lord is not deceived. The Lord is not fooled by you even if you are
fooled by yourself! You might not be
called out on the carpet by a prophet like Elisha and you might not be struck
with a flesh-eating skin disease like Gehazi was either, but make no mistake
about it: you can’t get away with anything.
“The LORD is slow to anger and
great in power;” Scripture says. But
“the LORD will not leave the guilty
unpunished” (Nahum 1:3). You can’t
get away with it. The Lord will not
allow it. He must punish every sin -
that’s what he promised. He sees
everything. He knows everything. You
can’t get away with it. You can’t get
away with anything.
We Got Away With It!
But you
did! You did get away with it! Because look: you aren’t up there on that
cross. You aren’t the one with nails in
your hands and nails in your feet. You aren’t
the one with thorns pressed down into your skull or gouges in your back from
multiple lashes with a metal-tipped whip.
You aren’t the one whom they beat with a wooden rod or punched in the
face. You aren’t the one they
blindfolded and slapped and spit on. You
aren’t the one who lost every one of his friends; you aren’t the one who took
the eternal wrath of a righteous Father; you aren’t the one who was forced to
cry out in complete terror: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” You aren’t the one whose dead body was
stabbed with a spear. You aren’t the one
who was quickly thrown into a grave-cave so that everyone else could get home
before sundown. You aren’t the one who
laid there lifeless. You aren’t the one who
was murdered.
You got
away with it. In fact, you got away with
everything! Every thought, every word,
every action, ever attitude, every motivation… you got away with it all! Because you aren’t suffering the eternal
consequences of all your sins - and you never will. That verdict isn’t being held against
you. It has already been held against
someone else.
Jesus Didn’t
Get Away With It
You
might have gotten away with it, but Jesus didn’t. Jesus didn’t get away with any of the sins
that he was carrying for us. And so
although he didn’t deserve anything bad to ever happen to him, he was the one
that had to go through what we should have gone through. And he knew coming down to this earth that he
wasn’t going to get away with it either!
He knew he was not going to escape life on this earth without having to
go through the worst possible pain - on this earth and in hell. Can you imagine undergoing the eternal
punishment of every fault and ever mistake and every sin of every person of all
time all at once! The wrath of the
almighty God came down upon Jesus without mercy. His Father did not let up for even a
second. There was no reprieve. There was no chance to even catch his
breath. Because God the Father was not
going to let his own Son get away with any of it. Jesus was going to have to experience every
single ounce of pain and torture and sheer misery that sin deserves. Because that’s the way it had to be. If we were going to be forgiven for our sins
and saved from their consequences, Jesus wasn’t going to be able to get away
with any of them. Every single sin was
going to have to be paid for. And no
other payment would do but his blood. We
got away with it because Jesus did not.
Years
ago my former co-worker Andrew got away with it too. Remember that we left him standing there at
the liquor store counter. He knew he was
in deep trouble because the clerk not only knew who he was but he knew exactly
how young he was as well. Andrew had
been caught red-handed and there was really nothing he could do. But then the clerk said, “I’m going to hold
on to this ID and you’re going to leave.
I’m not going to call the cops but I don’t want to ever see you do
something like this again.” And so
Andrew was able to walk out of that store no worse than when he walked in. He wasn’t able to keep the beer, of course,
and he had lost his fake ID, but the authorities had never been called, his
parents had not been informed, and the school knew nothing of it. Andrew was free to go his way purely on the
basis of the mercy of the liquor store cashier.
We are
free to walk away from our sins purely on the basis of the mercy of our loving
God. A God who knew who we were and what
we had done, but a God who lets us walk away free anyway. But he doesn’t just hold onto our fake ID and
send us on our way. He took what we
deserved and put it on someone he loved.
He called the cops and informed the parents and notified the school and
handed out the death sentence and carried out the punishment on Jesus all at
the same time so that no one could ever accuse us of anything again. And then, of course, he raised Jesus from the
dead, he placed him on his throne, and he set everything under his feet. So now the one who didn’t get away with
anything is ruling over us who have gotten away with it all. Thank him for that today in your prayers. Praise him for that today and every day
throughout your lives. Because you got
away with it! You actually got away with it!
And now you are on your way to heaven.
I hope that you would show him how much you appreciate that gift of his
grace every day you have left on this earth.
Amen.
“You turned our
waling into dancing; you removed our sackcloth and clothed us with joy, that
our hearts may sing to you and not be silent.
O Lord our God, we will give you thanks forever.” - Psalm 30:11-12
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