I confess that I have been disappointed by God before. I always had faith and a relationship with
Him but there were moments in life where I found myself out in nature at a park bench or picnic table journaling while screaming “why?” at God.I assumed we were on the same page and then God suddenly switched gears on me as if He hadn’t quite read my memo. He'd obviously read my memo though because He's God which means He obviously hated me or was playing games with my life instead. My expectations and plans were good ones; ones that would even benefit Him, so why wouldn’t they work out? In those moments it was easy to put myself into the “Andrea is everything” category rather than God.
We approach life like this a lot of the time, we expect
something to go a certain way or anticipate results or plans to work out. There are specific goals and hopeful outcomes
for our jobs, health or relationships.
When they don’t pan out it can leave us questioning things and sometimes
questioning God or being disappointed in Him.
Going into the Easter week I have been thinking of
traditions, church services, the crucifixion, resurrection and God’s
people. God’s own people condemned His
Son.
God disappointed them.
You see, they actually expected the Messiah to appear. They had prophecies throughout the Old
Testament and were well studied in what was to come. HOW DID THEY MISS IT?
They expected a king, someone to restore their people and
set up God’s Kingdom. Instead there was
this man who claimed to be the son of God who healed people, hung out with the broken
and socially outcast people who preached on God’s love and repentance. All
while they followed the very laws that they saw as pleasing to God and
protected them from offending God. This
isn’t what they expected. They expected
to be saved by the Messiah; saved from the law, saved from sin and saved from their political and religious unrest as
God’s kingdom was established.
They had expectations on how they thought the Messiah would come
and what He would do. They questioned
Him on who He was and didn’t want to consider that Jesus was the Messiah they
waited for. He offended them. He didn’t
fit their expectations and that must have meant He was nothing but a nuisance
disrupting their beliefs.
After searching for ways to get rid of him they settled on
crucifying Jesus for claiming to be the Son of God. An unpopular choice as he had been known for
healing and not criminal activities.
Even Pilate, who had to give him over to be crucified, found no basis to
charge Jesus and washed his hands of it.
In John 8:19-22 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to
the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.” The chief priests of the Jews protested and
asked Pilate to change it to say “this man claimed to be king of the
Jews.” But Pilate responded with, “what I
have written, I have written.” Perhaps this was Pilot’s last way of saying that
this is what Jesus is condemned for and He’s done nothing wrong. Perhaps after questioning Jesus, Pilate wondered if or believed that Jesus may just be the King of the Jews. Perhaps he was just angry at the Jews for
forcing his hand on condemning an innocent man and gave them one final jab by
declaring Jesus as their King.
Jesus was crucified for exactly who He was; King of the
Jews, the Messiah. He wasn’t what they
expected. They were disappointed in
their expectations and thought they knew God’s plan. When God’s plan wasn’t theirs they were
unable to recognize it.
Jesus was either everything He claimed to be, the son of
God, or He was nothing.
He didn’t come to save them from political unrest and
establish his kingdom in the way they expected.
Instead He came to do something far more important and to break the very
way they saw and interacted with God by removing the barriers and fulfilling the
law. He saved us FOR God and to be His
people regardless of circumstances and our own expectations.
I’m grateful this Easter to think on how He is everything
and how I can continue to rest in Him and not my own expectations when they disappoint
me. As much as it can be easy to think
that God has disappointed, the reality is that my own expectations or lack of
grasping the whole picture is what has generally disappointed me. I have instead been saved FOR God, not for myself.
He is all He claimed to be and was crucified for it,
conquered death and rose the third day.
