This last week has flown by and to be quite honest its been a tough week for us. A lot of things didn’t go according to plan. Certainly not the least of which was losing the ring, but the hits didn’t stop there. It was a painful week for Melissa recovering from her eye surgery, as well as some additional financial hits and frustrations with wedding plans not going to plan. I often say that things in Tanzania just don’t ever go according to plan, well, this week California’s proving to be the same way. I think part of being human is building up high expectations and then being taken aback when such things don’t go according to what we thought.
Quite fittingly this was holy week - the week that we celebrate the most important event in history and the crowning work of Jesus’ ministry on earth. I sat in church last week on Palm Sunday and was reminded of all that the day meant. I had trouble following where the preacher was going and I couldn’t help but think about the people that greeted Jesus waving those palm branches. They had some lofty expectations of what Jesus was about to do.
I question the historical likelihood of Jesus riding side saddle sticking his right arm in front of Him as He rode. Image via WikipediaDo you ever wonder why the people were waving palm branches as Jesus entered Jerusalem? It was a symbol referring to Judas Maccabeus’ victory over the Syrian Seleucids that were occupying Jerusalem almost 200 years before Jesus took his donkey through the city that day. The palm branch was his sign of victory and was stamped on their coins. The revolt was, as all revolts are, a violent affair. The Maccabean Revolt is still revered in the Jewish religion and celebrated through the winter celebration of Hanukkah. It was even fresher in the Jews’ minds during the first century and they were looking forward to what they thought Jesus would do in overthrowing the oppressive Roman government. They basked in their heritage and waved a symbol of military victory as yelling to Jesus, “Hosanna!” “Save us!”
Funny how it was these same crowds that were riled up by the priesthood to have Jesus nailed to a cross only five days later. Fickle? Perhaps. But it goes deeper than that. These people were expecting him to do a mighty work. While He may have never exhibited violence towards people (let some tables have it in the temple though), the people recognized that He was indeed powerful - powerful enough to do a number to the Romans. Imagine their surprise and disgust when only five days later, this supposed prophet, was on trial for blasphemy. Safe to say that their previous expectations were unmet and the result was a historic upheaval.
A lot of crowds place expectations on Jesus; time after time, the expectations go unmet. We see this still today. People expect Jesus and His “religion” to fit into Box A and He exhibits zero interest in getting into said box. The people then get upset with Jesus and toss Him aside just as the crowd did in the early morning of Good Friday.
I knew that things would be hard for us in the coming season financially. I had an expectation of how much school debt was in my name and while steep, it was manageable on our minimal budget. Then something came in the mail from my mom. They were notices of a loan that I thought was consolidated with ones that I was already paying off and since there weren’t any payments made, a bunch of penalties and interest were thrown on top. I made a mistake for sure and the expectation I had was unmet.
Melissa is a very creative and somewhat meticulous woman when it comes to designing things. She certainly has visual/spatial intelligence and a knack for truly aesthetic design. You can imagine the ideas that have been going through her mind for our wedding coming up. Well, some of her ideas are starting to become a reality and as we learned this week with the bridesmaids attire, some ideas simply aren’t coming to fruition. Her expectations too were unmet and that can be discoursing as she pours herself into this special day.
There is a hope though in these unmet expectations and we learn that in the Easter story. This is a hope that is only for the followers of Jesus and the truth of this story comes forth when a few of His followers go to the tomb the Sunday after His crucifixion.
Pastor Bob spoke on Sunday about how the women that came to His tomb had prepared all these spices and aloes to give Jesus a proper burial (see Luke 24:1-12). They were expecting to find a dead man. Jesus didn’t meet that expectation either. As Bob mused, if they were on the same page with Jesus they would have brought him orange juice and a stack of pancakes as opposed to burial spices.
Jesus stated many times Who He was and what He was doing there. Jesus didn’t pull punches and while He did speak in perplexing parables, He always explained them to His followers. Had they believed Him in the first place and remembered His words, they would have known what to expect from Him during holy week. Unfortunately, the crowds, His disciples then and His disciples now are all sinful and forgetful people. We ought to take heart though because as our expectations go unmet, we can then change our focus to the good thing that He is about to do - as unexpected as it might be.
The hope of following Christ is that the resurrection into perfection always comes after the hardship. The wonder of following Jesus is that He always manages to blow our minds in a way that we couldn’t previously have imagined or expected. The hard thing about it all is that He uses our disappointingly unmet expectations to make us into the kind of people that are actually able to walk into the new reality He’s calling us into. Thanks be to God for His grace that guides us into that beautiful reality, for this we give praise.
Quite fittingly this was holy week - the week that we celebrate the most important event in history and the crowning work of Jesus’ ministry on earth. I sat in church last week on Palm Sunday and was reminded of all that the day meant. I had trouble following where the preacher was going and I couldn’t help but think about the people that greeted Jesus waving those palm branches. They had some lofty expectations of what Jesus was about to do.
I question the historical likelihood of Jesus riding side saddle sticking his right arm in front of Him as He rode. Image via WikipediaFunny how it was these same crowds that were riled up by the priesthood to have Jesus nailed to a cross only five days later. Fickle? Perhaps. But it goes deeper than that. These people were expecting him to do a mighty work. While He may have never exhibited violence towards people (let some tables have it in the temple though), the people recognized that He was indeed powerful - powerful enough to do a number to the Romans. Imagine their surprise and disgust when only five days later, this supposed prophet, was on trial for blasphemy. Safe to say that their previous expectations were unmet and the result was a historic upheaval.
A lot of crowds place expectations on Jesus; time after time, the expectations go unmet. We see this still today. People expect Jesus and His “religion” to fit into Box A and He exhibits zero interest in getting into said box. The people then get upset with Jesus and toss Him aside just as the crowd did in the early morning of Good Friday.
I knew that things would be hard for us in the coming season financially. I had an expectation of how much school debt was in my name and while steep, it was manageable on our minimal budget. Then something came in the mail from my mom. They were notices of a loan that I thought was consolidated with ones that I was already paying off and since there weren’t any payments made, a bunch of penalties and interest were thrown on top. I made a mistake for sure and the expectation I had was unmet.
Melissa is a very creative and somewhat meticulous woman when it comes to designing things. She certainly has visual/spatial intelligence and a knack for truly aesthetic design. You can imagine the ideas that have been going through her mind for our wedding coming up. Well, some of her ideas are starting to become a reality and as we learned this week with the bridesmaids attire, some ideas simply aren’t coming to fruition. Her expectations too were unmet and that can be discoursing as she pours herself into this special day.
There is a hope though in these unmet expectations and we learn that in the Easter story. This is a hope that is only for the followers of Jesus and the truth of this story comes forth when a few of His followers go to the tomb the Sunday after His crucifixion.
Pastor Bob spoke on Sunday about how the women that came to His tomb had prepared all these spices and aloes to give Jesus a proper burial (see Luke 24:1-12). They were expecting to find a dead man. Jesus didn’t meet that expectation either. As Bob mused, if they were on the same page with Jesus they would have brought him orange juice and a stack of pancakes as opposed to burial spices.
Jesus stated many times Who He was and what He was doing there. Jesus didn’t pull punches and while He did speak in perplexing parables, He always explained them to His followers. Had they believed Him in the first place and remembered His words, they would have known what to expect from Him during holy week. Unfortunately, the crowds, His disciples then and His disciples now are all sinful and forgetful people. We ought to take heart though because as our expectations go unmet, we can then change our focus to the good thing that He is about to do - as unexpected as it might be.
The hope of following Christ is that the resurrection into perfection always comes after the hardship. The wonder of following Jesus is that He always manages to blow our minds in a way that we couldn’t previously have imagined or expected. The hard thing about it all is that He uses our disappointingly unmet expectations to make us into the kind of people that are actually able to walk into the new reality He’s calling us into. Thanks be to God for His grace that guides us into that beautiful reality, for this we give praise.
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