“Do you have any idea how hard it is to work with someone who thinks he knows everything?” —Barney Fife
In a scene from the 1987 film Broadcast News, Jane, the hyper, intelligent associate producer (played by Holly Hunter) insists that her amicable boss, Paul, is making a big mistake and should defer to her better judgment:
Paul: Okay, that’s your opinion.
Jane: It’s not opinion.
Paul: You’re just absolutely right, and I’m absolutely wrong. It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you’re the smartest person in the room.
Jane: No, it’s awful.
Prophets know how Jane feels. Nobody likes a know-it-all. This is particularly discomforting for the prophets because much of the time they actually do know better. There they are, simmering in crystal clarity, only to be shrugged off as extremists—or worse.
Even writing this I run the risk of coming off as an arrogant religious snob (which I am), but just hang in there a minute with me.
A pastor once told me that the role of the prophetic was to hold up an ideal. The zealous claims of the prophet, he explained, served not as a goal but as a goad, nudging the people a bit closer to God’s will. Nobody, he said, could be expected to receive the prophetic exhortations at face value; that would be unrealistic.
This is rubbish. The prophetic vision is not an idealistic or romanticized dream of the perfect world or church. On the contrary, it is founded on the inescapable (and extreme) character of God. Even though the prophet, too, struggles with the demands of the New Covenant, he refuses to negotiate terms with the Almighty. He knows that God is not satisfied with us simply doing the best we can, nor does he command the impossible. The prophet is convinced that God expects his outrageous prescriptions to be realized.
That’s what can make for a lonely go of it. While everybody else is content basking in the oblivion of grace, the prophets are compelled to point out the travesty of treating that very grace with contempt. Real prophets never exclude themselves from complicity, but are driven—in spite of their complicity—to repudiate it. This spiritual double-bind is one of the most excruciating elements of the prophetic calling and often difficult for others to understand.
Authentic prophets are not simply encouragers of the church, but advocates for God. Often torn between the practical world and the highly impractical will of God, they are annexed by the Spirit to insist on full compliance with the divine purposes. Because the contemporary church doesn’t quite know how to handle this “polarity,” it often marginalizes the prophet.
When the church once again learns to properly “judge” prophecy as a matter of daily corporate practice, the isolation often experienced by the prophets will be mitigated somewhat. But even so, the nature of the prophetic call itself includes a kind of apartness that is necessary for clarity of vision. This is the prophet’s loneliness, the loneliness out of which speaks, in often agonizing brilliance, the voice of He Who Alone Is God.
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Scripture clearly states that the church will gather to itself teachers who will tickle their ears. This is the position your pastor friend has taken with his description of the prophetic. The prophet is the anchor to keep this kind of “thinning’ of the truth, a watering down if you will, from occuring.
I have come to believe that rather than trying to see results from people who are not willing to respond to the will or word of God, it is more fruitful to go to others with the truth that they may have the opportunity to respond.
Unlike the prophet of the law, I believe the prophet of today is not obligated to travel into captivity with the “rest” in their lack of obedience. Present the truth and if it is not received move to other soil more receptive.