Are You the One Who is to Come? When Jesus Disappoints You - Blog # 36

 Starting Prayer:

Lord, prepare our hearts and mind for what You decide to speak to us today. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit to receive Your Word. Fill us with Your peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, we humble ourselves to You. Who is like God? Our thoughts are not like Your thoughts. Our ways are not Your ways. Lord, in our limitations, have mercy upon us. Lord, in our short-sightedness, give us eternal mindsets. Lord, we desire eyes to see and ears to hear. Lord, soften us. Lord, move in our spirit and soul. Lord, help us not to stumble on account of who You are.

In Jesus name we pray,

Amen

Introduction

    It’s not supposed to be like this.

    I had Jeremiah 29:11 burned into my brain. “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” This verse felt more like a slap in the face. God knowing these plans would happen was a stab in the back. I didn’t feel prosperous by any means. I felt harmed. I felt like God had done first-degree murder to my hope and future. 

    I was hurt. God confused me before, but this time was different. I had given over a sensitive part of myself, still bruised and bleeding, over to Jesus. I had trusted in the circumstances: this time it would be different because God was with me. How could I fail with God on my side? This would surely end in victory. This had to be a story of overcoming! A testimony. I just knew it.

    So, when I metaphorically fell flat on my face, I felt cheated. It was like God was poking at me, laughing at my failure and embarrassment. Floods of negative thoughts entered my mind and assaulted my faith: God loves you? Then why didn’t He stop this? God cares about you? Where is He now? God has good plans for you? Does this feel good?”

    Of course, in my head, I knew that God had done nothing wrong. He deserved none of my blame in my situation. If anything I played a huge part in what happened, and I knew God was taking an unfair attack on His character from me. But I didn’t care. I wanted to be mad. I wanted to hurt and lash out. I wanted to scream: this is not fair!

    John the Baptist Gets It

    As I did my Bible study for the day, I came across a passage that continues to strike me. It comforts me and also challenges me at the same time. If we look at Matthew 11, we find John the Baptist unfairly sitting in a prison cell. John the Baptist, for context, is Jesus’ cousin. He was prophesied before his birth to his parents that he would make the way for Jesus to come in. John ate locust and honey, lived in the wild, and would constantly talk about the coming of Jesus: repent now!  

    John’s whole life was based on promoting Jesus, and he was immensely honored to have that calling. He talked about how he was even unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals. He didn’t care about his growing popularity: in fact, he wanted Jesus to get more popular because he knew that Jesus was the real deal. Then, all his preaching lands him behind jail bars.

    During this time, does Jesus come in and bust him out? Send a league of angels to his rescue? Send his cousin a message that he’ll handle his situation? According to the Bible, Jesus carries on with His ministry outside, so John decides to send him a message. I love how poignantly the Bible poses the question. Matthew 11:2 “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

    I really want the both of us to marinate in the heart of that question. I want you to imagine John, counting the cost of his life and giving it all to God, and it lands him in prison. I want you to imagine that same God, now walking in the flesh on earth, performing miracles and making breaking news. All this great news, and he’s a sitting duck — waiting for slaughter — at the hands of an unrighteous king. What would you think? How would you feel?

    I want you to move from John’s POV to your POV. I want you to imagine your life, everything that you have done right for God, and it lands you in the worst possible places. You get COVID. Your parents don’t stop arguing. You don’t get the job. The promotion passes over you. You can’t raise enough to become a missionary. Your relationship flops. Your marriage is on the brink of divorce. Your kids are crazy. You have no friends. Your church falls apart. You can’t make the grades. 

    Then, you read the Bible, and you see what Jesus can do. Jesus can heal the sick. Jesus can bring peace. Jesus can change lives. Jesus can speak to the dead and bring back to life. And he does! He does all these things. So, why won’t he do that for you? Why does your situation not move his heart? You believed. You prayed. You waited. You wailed. You hoped. You cried.

    It hurt me more to read all that Jesus could do because it meant that he saw what happened in my life and decided not to. Maybe you wonder if God is punishing you. Maybe you were a little too sinful. Maybe you didn’t pray enough. Maybe you should’ve fasted three times. Read another chapter. It can feel like that. Like we were an inch shy of getting what we wanted if we had just done more.

    I found myself sitting in that jail cell with John, asking “Are you the one, Jesus? Or should we wait for someone else?” I was questioning God out of my hurt. I wanted salve for my disappointment. We look at our present situations, and we can’t find God anywhere in sight. We don’t know what’s next. We don’t know why this is happening to us. We are blindsided and baffled by the pain. My ESV study notes say John is “probably concerned because his present imprisonment doesn’t match his understanding of the Coming One’s arrival”.

    Jesus’ response goes “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” To be perfectly honest, this answer doesn’t comfort me. It’s not the answer my Jesus is supposed to have. 

    What is ‘my Jesus’? Well, it’s the soft, cuddly Jesus I have pictured in my mind. It’s the Jesus who hugs me and tells me that He just wants me to be happy and comfortable. It’s the Jesus who hears that I’m troubled, runs to me, and fixes all my problems on the spot and exactly the way I want Him to fix things. It’s the Jesus who gives in to what I want because that’s love. 

    John’s Jesus is Jesus who takes over the earthly kingdoms to establish Himself as king. He conquers the opposing empire. He can’t wait to laugh in King Herod’s face for imprisoning him! (My conjectures). John’s Jesus is king now in this time and on this earth. 

    Who is your Jesus? What does he say? What does he do? What is he supposed to do? How did your Jesus match up to actual Jesus? How does the disappointment in your heart reveal the difference between the two?

    You see, we all have our own Jesus because we want God to be someone we can grasp. We want His version of good to match our version of good. We want His desires to match our desires. We have this Etch-A-Sketch drawing of Jesus in our minds that He has to live up to in order for us to believe, follow, and sacrifice.

    The thing is that we can idolize our version of God instead of loving and receiving who God really is. We can idolize our plans and let it dictate our walk with God when they go awry instead of letting God dictate our plans. 

    Pause to pray and ask God: Am I open to your plans even if they don’t match my expectations? 

    What if God only fails because He can’t live up to your expectations?

    Then who is God here, Jesus or you?

    What if Jesus has bigger plans than just to make you happy and comfortable for the next 80 years? What if giving you what you wanted and when you wanted it was detrimental to your life? What if God doesn’t want to squeeze into the handy dandy outline you made for Him?

    In the blog post “Blessed is the One Who is Not Offended by Me”, it says “In answer, Jesus sent John a beatitude that applies to all of us: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.”

The ESV study note is helpful again. “John and his disciples must be open to God’s unfolding plan even though it does not match exactly their expectations.”

Stop right there and think about that for a moment.

That is SO powerful for each of us.

Does it mean we stop listening for His voice? Absolutely not!

Does it diminish the role of the prophetic in our lives? Absolutely not!

Does it dampen our expectation for the promises of God given for our lives and those we love? Absolutely not!

What it does mean is that we allow God the final word, convinced that He is always good, and that He is always working for the Kingdom good in us and those we love… even when circumstances don’t “appear” to match our expectations.

Let’s be willing, in ways that never diminish the wonder of hearing from God, to recognize our humanity in our ability to understand and apply God’s word to us.

Our confidence remains anchored in God!”

    This is honestly so relevant and also so difficult for my season. To trust that God is good and working out good for us even when it doesn’t look like it without being distrustful or lowering my expectations is a daily battle. Yet I desire to adapt to God’s will, and I have to adapt or suffer. I can’t live off of my own will because I will live forever frustrated and miss out on God’s plans.

    That doesn’t mean the pain isn’t real. God cares about you. God wants you to run to Him and cry in His open, welcoming arms. God desires you to give Him your dreams because they’re too fragile in our hands. 

    I’m sure like John, you have unanswered questions. Why did it happen like this? Was I wrong for believing? Yet, I believe God is big enough to shoulder the burden to those questions and give you the peace to live without answers. Yes, the peace to live without knowing everything or understanding why is far greater than knowledge. Only God can handle such knowledge, like in the Garden of Eden, and God doesn’t keep it from you to harm you but to protect you.

    I’m learning to surrender moment by moment. “God, help me to let go of what I had in mind. God, help me to be open to Your plans. God, please give me new Christ-centered expectations. God, help me to see beyond my present circumstances.”

    It’s really difficult. I fail in letting God be God, but God doesn’t stop His work in me. God pushes me. God keeps me. God holds me. God loves me. In my confusion, it doesn’t make it less confusing to run from God or deny my faith. It makes it even more confusing and distressing to live without Jesus running the show. 

    Although I’ll never be perfect, I pray that God will release me from the tension of controlling my life. I pray that God will grant me the peace to accept my lot. I pray that I would be content in all situations because that is what pleases God. I pray that even when I fail, God will never stop working in me.

Ending Prayer

    God of creation, we imagine the lifeless dreams and hopes we had being lifted into heaven. God, we need You. We need healing. We need peace. We need strength. We need faith. None of this is natural to us. None of this can be self-produced. Lord, help us to look to You as the founder and perfecter of our faith. Help us to trust in Your goodness and Your mercy all the days of our life. Help us to adapt to Your plans. Help us recognize our unmet and sometimes unspoken expectations we have for You, and let us come to repentance for the ways we have made ourselves God. 

Lord, I pray that You give me and my friends the ability to say “Yes, this is good” even with tears and hurt because God, You are good. God, we thank You for being who You are. God, we thank You for not being easily offended or off put by our misgivings about You. Lord, You are so so good.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

   

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