If absurdity is defined as that which appears to be untrue and irrational – even to being ludicrous – then faith has its absurd dimensions. This may well be why some "intellectuals" – in the church as well as the world – have a problem with their faith. If they can’t explain it – scientifically or objectively – they can’t accept it. Some of them may stay in the church, but they do not really believe.

Reason, science, and experience are summoned to prove that dead men do not rise from their graves. Neither do people walk on water, turn water into wine, or calm a storm at sea by mere command. Such claims are contrary to the world as we know it, the skeptic insists. Biblical testimony to the contrary must be interpreted some other way, for people cannot be expected to believe what is contrary to common sense.

The very basics of our Christian faith appear as absurd to the world. Why does there have to be "shedding of blood" for a loving God to forgive sin? And why does God himself have to "suffer" in order to save sinful man? And what is more absurd than grace itself – where God "shows mercy to whom He will"? Jesus’ teaching itself points up the absurdity of grace – such as paying workers a full day’s pay who labored but one hour! Or declaring a despised tax collector – extortioner, unjust – as righteous before God, while rejecting the Pharisee – who did all the right things – as unrighteous before God. Irrational grace!

And who can really believe that one is to give all that he has to the poor, or that the way to find one’s life is to lose it? Or that we are to lay up treasures only in heaven? Or if one wants to be first let him be last? Paul the apostle put it this way: "We walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). The wisdom of the world insists that we walk (or live) by sight – by the rules of common sense.

How much "sense" does prayer make? Recently at breakfast after I had thanked God for our blessings, I said to Ouida, quite to her surprise, "Do we really believe that the omnipotent God, creator of heaven and earth, is listening to us?" The well-meaning intellectual might find some subjective value – some psychological benefit – in prayer, but it is otherwise absurd. One is only talking to himself!

The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 well illustrates the absurd dimensions of religion. You will recall that he was a Syrian general – a pagan, a fact to be remembered – who is described as "a great and honorable man," but he was a leper. Advised by his slave girl, a captive from Israel, he goes to the prophet Elisha in Israel to be healed of his leprosy. Quite an act of faith for a pagan general!

But the general had a problem when the prophet did not so much as come into his presence, but sent word that if he would baptize himself seven times in the River Jordan he would be cleansed. Faith or not at the outset, he now turns away in anger. He supposed the prophet would lay hands on him and heal him in the name of his God. Instead, he was told to dip seven times in the muddy Jordan. "How about the clean rivers back home in Damascus?" he complained.

This is the first absurdity in the story. The general’s intellectual pride was showing. It destroyed what faith he may have had. He couldn’t accept the mystery. Everything had to fit his view of the universe. An aide told him as much, "If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?"

Now humbled, Naaman goes to the Jordan – muddy or not – and dips himself as directed. He is made clean! It must have been overwhelming. Embarrassed and rejected all those years by an odious disease, he is now a well man.

This sets the stage for the second absurdity. Naaman praises the God of Elisha, "Now I know there is no God in all the earth except in Israel." He wants to shower Elisha with expensive gifts, but the prophet refuses. Grace is free, absurdly free! His gifts refused, he makes a final request of the prophet: "Please let your servant be given two mule-loads of dirt; for your servant will no longer offer either burn offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord."

It is understandable if this gives us a hearty laugh. The general – who at first refused to baptize himself in the Jordan – now wants to take soil from Israel back to Syria so he can have his own "dirt church" and worship the God of Israel as if he were in Israel!

We can see him creating his sanctuary, spreading the soil from Israel, and building a booth around it, so as to protect the "holy" dirt. And there he will offer sacrifices to Yahweh, the God of Israel. And this at great personal risk, for he would be rejecting the gods of Syria and worshipping a foreign God in his own land.

The absurdity lies in his faith that Israel’s God was the only true God in all the earth, and yet he supposes that if he worships that God he has to take some of Israel’s dirt back home with him. He assumes that he couldn’t worship the one true God on Syrian soil! But in this absurdity he shows the depth of his faith. To paraphrase Paul, it is in becoming a "fool of God" that we become true believers. The proud intellectual has a problem being a fool for God.

But that is the nature of religion – it partakes of the absurd. The general was now a true, bold believer. Now he was walking by faith, not by sight. We see the same absurdity in the fleeing Jonah. He was "escaping from the presence of the Lord" while describing him as "the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." He was running away from the creator of the universe! But in the absurdity he was demonstrating faith.

True faith – bold, courageous faith – can lead people to do weird things. Such as the apostle Peter’s petition to build three churches on the mount of Transfiguration. And when he drew a sword to defend a Messiah who could at will summon legions of angels to his defense. The absurdity is sometimes beautiful – such as Mary Magdalene on Easter morning offering on her own to move the body of Jesus that she supposed had been stolen from the tomb.

Even though a pagan, Naaman found favor with the Lord, the God of Israel. We are told in 2 Kings 5:1 that "the Lord had given victory to Syria because of Naaman." Here we have Yahweh God helping a pagan nation in battle. When Jesus sought to give his home congregation a broader view of the grace of God he reminded them that "there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:27).

Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth were unprepared for such an absurdity – that God also cared for pagans – and so they ran Jesus out of town.

Naaman’s story reveals even more about God’s concern for pagans – nations other than Israel. Now that the Syrian general was resolved to worship only Yahweh, he realized this would mean trouble for him back home – such as his obligation to go to a pagan temple with his master. He puts it this way to Elisha, as if to Yahweh himself: "May the Lord pardon your servant; when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon – when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon his servant in this thing." Yahweh’s answer? – "Go in peace."

This is a wow! God sent his people Israel into captivity because they persistently bowed down to pagan gods. He burned the last vestige of idolatry out of them during 70 years of Babylonian bondage. But here he allows a recent pagan convert to the one true God to go into a pagan temple, and bow down with his master to the Syrian god Rimmon!

Elisha knew that Yahweh now ruled Naaman’s heart, and that he would still be in his heart even in a pagan temple. To have a heart for God is what matters – and if it be in a pagan temple that may be all right. One might worship the true God anywhere! While his master bowed to Rimmon, Naaman, right beside him, bowed to the God of heaven!

How absurd can one get?

As I proofread the above I recalled my own experiences in pagan temples, such as when I was a bartender – and preached on Sundays! I believed that God was in taverns as well as churches! Absurdities! Do you want to tell me about yours – such as loving the unlovely or forgiving the unforgivable?

One will notice access improvements to our website www.leroygarrett.org And there continues to be new material added, not only all these essays, but more and more from Restoration Review, which I published for 40 years. You may enjoy browsing.