Giants and Grasshoppers

I think maybe Janica and I were the only ones who heard it and got a good laugh out of it. A couple girls were reading Romans 1:16 to the kids in VBS. Here is how the verse is supposed to read: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.'

What we heard was 'I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the giants. The giants? Really? I didn't know they were a particular target of God's redeeming work.

The whole thought of saving giants made me think back upon a sermon I will never forget. A group of men from our church had traveled to a Colorado PromiseKeepers event. And on the first evening Pastor EV Hill, a black preacher with a real distinctive preaching style who led one of the largest churches in Los Angeles spoke. His sermon was on giants and grasshoppers (or graaaass-hoppers in EV Hill's unique pronunciation).

Maybe you can guess this sermon recounted how the Israelite spies returned to report that the promised land was filled with milk and honey but more importantly giants. Giants so big they made the Israelites look like grasshoppers. They suggested God's plan to return the Jews to their homeland was not a good one. Caleb and Joshua were over-ruled as they tried to convince the people to trust God for the victory.

So as I thought about it later I guessed I could make an argument for our young girls translation. That Jesus died not just for the good folks, not just for the Jews, but for our enemies, for the giants in our lives. Giants are Gentiles and need saving too!

More importantly, the point of the verse we were reading was that we are not to be ashamed of the Gospel. Maybe for us a better translation would be to not 'be afraid' to share the Gospel. Like Israelites we look past the milk and honey of sharing the Gospel and focus on giants, like what other people will think. Even though sharing has great power- the power to save- somehow returning to the dessert seems better than confronting giants.

Maybe the girls had a funny AND meaningful translation. Maybe we could consider their words to be a call to be like Caleb and Joshua. A call to overcome the giant of fear and share the Gospel with everyone including our giants. See you grasshoppers at church this Sunday!

Blest Regards,
Keith