In early 19th century New England, there was a man named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. In his youth he was plagued by illness, but the doctors couldn’t help him. One day, Quimby discovered that his pain was relieved briefly while on a horseback ride. Intrigued by this, he developed a mind-over-matter healing treatment. He didn’t administer drugs or physical treatments, but in his words, “sits down by the patients, tells them their feelings and what they think is their disease. If the patients admit that he tells them their feelings…then his explanation is the cure; and, if he succeeds in correcting their error, he changes the fluids of the system and establishes the truth, or health. The Truth is the Cure.” In other words, if the patient would accept Quimby’s explanation for their illness as the right one, they would be healed.
Now, Quimby’s method had a grain of truth in it. Our attitudes to life can lead to better or worse outcomes. Thoughts affect feelings. But Quimby’s simplistic solutions had unforeseen consequences. They gave birth to a malady that has gone by many different names in American history, like New Thought. Or the title of the Napolean Hill book, Think and Grow Rich. Or Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking. Or my favorite, and the most recent iteration, “manifesting”. Here’s the definition: If I think positively, good things will happen to me. If I only visualize my intentions for my life repeatedly over time, I will create my own dream reality. And for the Christian-ish version of this: If I only believe hard enough, God will reward me. I will get to live in that big house. I will get over my illness. My spouse and children will love me again. I will finally be happy. Unfortunately, when that thinking fails, we often fall into despair. “I must not have believed hard enough.” “I must not have wanted it enough.” “I must not be worthy.”
I mention Quimby and New Thought because our reading from Jeremiah may strike us, as it may have struck the exiles, as a lot of nonsense. There is no current Davidic monarch literally reigning in the land of Israel. There is no active priesthood, no Temple, and no sacrifice. Retributive violence is the order of the day there, as it is everywhere on earth. There’s no obvious sign of the messianic age to be found. These words may sound like the ancient version of manifesting: if I can visualize it hard enough, it will happen. I can control the outcome.
But Biblical prophecy is not the same as “manifesting”. And it isn’t about what we can do. Biblical prophecy—and God-given faith—are not dependent on literal historical events, but on the very character of God. And the way God acts in history—and the way God reveals Himself—is often surprising. This is particularly true regarding the man Jesus of Nazareth.
It’s hard to overstate how shocking the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus was and is for our world. Jesus, remember, was a nobody. To all outward appearances, he was a Galilean Jewish craftsman who grew up in an insignificant town in a backwater province of Rome. He, like most of his people, was exploited by the taxman and harassed by the authorities. He had no title to land, no seat of power, and no army. Jesus had trusted friends and companions, but the gospels rarely paint them in a favorable light. One of them ended up handing him over to the authorities after Jesus ran afoul of the Temple establishment and Roman governor. Another denied him. The rest abandoned him. Jesus was legally sentenced to death and killed in the most degrading, painful way possible—on a Roman cross. The charge over him tells the story: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”. Such a sign was to heap humiliation on the whole of the Jewish people. Here’s your king—suffering and dying. Here’s your king—tortured and killed by the real power in town. Here’s your king—powerless, helpless, and hopeless. Such an ignominious end could have only meant that God’s favor wasn’t with Jesus. He appeared to be just another failed messiah and pretender to the throne, just like so many others the Jewish people have been plagued with. There was no way to “manifest” out of that disaster.
But on the third day, Jesus was raised up from the dead. He wasn’t raised because the disciples manifested it! The gospels are clear that resurrection was the last thing they expected. The resurrection wasn’t a magic trick or a mass delusion. The raising of Jesus after such a horrific death was the vindication not just of who Jesus was and the kingdom he preached, but a vindication of the character of God. God makes a lot of promises. But God also fulfills those promises, often in a surprising way. When God raised Jesus, God began to fulfill these promises in a new way. Instead of a literal king that rules through the threat of violence, Jesus rules through the peace, justice, and mercy of God. Instead of a literal priesthood offering sacrifices, Jesus offers himself as the final sacrifice for humanity, turning the world’s violence on itself. God proves Himself to be faithful, especially when we human beings are faithless.
Here's a story. Once, Martin Luther’s colleague and friend Philip Melancthon was very, very sick, near the point of death. Luther described later the experience of visiting him, “Then and there was our Lord God obliged to listen to me, for I…besieged his ear with all the promises to answer prayer that I could repeat from the Holy Scriptures, so that he was obliged to hear me, if I was at all to trust his promises.”[1] While Luther’s approach was aggressive, he also trusted God to do what He says He will do.
Here's another story that may illustrate that point even better. A while back, I visited someone who was very sick. What struck me was how fearless this person was. They asked me to pray for a good outcome, but then added, “There will be a good outcome no matter what.” That is faith—not in the shifting sands of unpredictable events, but in the very goodness of God. There was no attempt to control God in that statement. There was no anxiety about uncontrollable circumstances. There was a simple trust that God will do what He says he will do.
No manifesting needed. No false hope here. And no judgment. There is only God who does what He promises. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.
[1][1] Luther as Spiritual Advisor, Lutheran Publication Society, 1894, 55.
