Great Expectations -- Palm Sunday 2018

          A couple of years ago my husband, daughter and I were in South America on a mission trip.  While working on an animal shelter, I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist.  When the doctor in Medellín told us that I would require surgery, we decided to fly home for treatment.  We needed to move our flight up about four days, and I expected a big hassle from Delta.  Much to my surprise and delight, Delta expressed concern and changed our tickets – apologizing that they could only get us as far as Atlanta.  Their response made me a Delta fan and promoter.   I got much better treatment from them than I expected.  Can you think of a time when your expectations were exceeded – when you were blown away by a company’s service or a friend’s kindness?  Maybe even stunned by the kindness of a stranger?  It’s an amazing feeling when you get more than you expected isn’t it?

            As delighted as we are when our expectations are met or exceeded, though, sometimes the opposite happens.  We can all probably recount times when we were appalled at the treatment we received as a customer, a friend, maybe the undeserved mistreatment of a stranger.  Or how about when our family disappoints us?  Or the church?  Or a pastor?  Did you know that there are actually churches specifically formed for people who have been “burned” by the church?   How about when we’re disappointed with God—when He fails to meet our expectations?

We know that Jesus was not the kind of messiah that the crowds either expected or wanted.  The crowds wanted a military conqueror.  They wanted the Romans defeated and driven out of their country.  They wanted a king like David who would usher in glory days of prosperity and promise.  They knew that the messiah would be someone who (like David) was a man after God’s own heart.  Jesus fit that bill – even better than David because he could heal, cast out demons, and feed people miraculously.  Jesus spoke authoritatively, one might even say with kingly authority.  Jesus was like a first century rock star.   

I want to turn and look at the passage from Mark now, but before we do I think it’s important to point out that the healing of Blind Bartimaeus occurs right before this account in Mark.  I think we often take for granted the placement of stories in the Gospels, but it is no mistake that Mark places the account of Jesus healing a blind man right before the account of the Triumphal Entry.  The religious establishment and the crowds are blind to the kind of messiah that God will send – indeed the kind of messiah that they need.  But they can be healed.  And so can we.  The Gospels were written for us.  Let’s find ourselves in the story.

Jesus sends his disciples into the village with instructions to bring a colt.  Let’s read that portion of Scripture:  “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.” 

            It’s interesting that only  2 ½ verses actually tell of Jesus’ triumphal entry.  Most of the story recounts the care with which Jesus has made arrangements for the event.  These verses give evidence that Jesus has planned the entire occasion in advance.   He intends to come as a king into Jerusalem – and he intends for the crowds to understand that he is coming as a king.  Jesus begins his entrance at the Mount of Olives, the traditional location where people expected that the final battle for Jerusalem’s liberation would begin.  The people are there shouting their hosannas, calling for the coming kingdom of David, and treating him like a celebrity.  But he does something unexpected in a conquering king.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem not on a horse, but on a colt – the animal princes rode when they wished to signal that the were coming with peaceful intentions.  Jesus, is coming in peace. 

And that’s the problem with Jesus.  He’s always doing something unexpected.  He could have been a great rabbi – he taught the people with incredible authority.  But he kept doing pesky things like forgiving sins and healing people on the Sabbath and hanging out with socially unacceptable people.  He fed multitudes in deserted places with very little, and the people wanted him to give them this food always – in fact in John 6 we learn that after Jesus fed the 5,000, the people wanted to force him to be king.  Here’s what the scriptures say about that incident:” ¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” That kind of kingship was not his mission.  Jesus wouldn’t keep to his place in a way that satisfied the religious leaders and he wouldn’t take his place as a conquering king in a way that satisfied the crowds.  Why couldn’t he just meet expectations?

And so… because he wouldn’t conform to the expectations of religious leaders and because he would not step into the role of the militant king who would free the people from servitude to Rome, by Friday the crowds were shouting “crucify him!”  If we were unaware of the final outcome of the resurrection, this would seem like a heartbreaking ending to the story of Jesus’ life.

But we are aware that the crucifixion (according to Paul) was actually a part of God’s secret plan.  Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 2:

¹ When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified….  ⁴ and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive [words of] wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, ⁵ so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

⁶ Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. ⁷ Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, ⁸ and which none of the rulers of this age knew; for, if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But as it is written:

“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
    and what has not entered the human heart,
    what God has prepared for those who love him,”

¹⁰ this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

            The religious leaders wanted to maintain the status quo – to keep their religious framework – but maybe make it appealing to the masses (if  only Jesus had cooperated, he would have been so good at the mass appeal angle), but Jesus came to offer the love and acceptance of God to all, even (gasp) the socially unacceptable.  And the crowds wanted to be delivered from the oppression of Rome, but Jesus came to deliver us from a much more insidious power – the power of sin.  While both groups had expectations that they thought were a “good” for them, God had the BEST in mind. 

            And that’s the problem with us.  Sometimes we think that we know what we need.  Sometimes we think we know what the “best” outcome is.   When God doesn’t meet our expectations, we think that the problem is with Him. 

Let’s look at a couple of examples.  I’ll give you one that we can easily wrap our heads around first.  Remember that I mentioned that there are churches formed for folks who’ve been burned by the church?  Any of us who have been around in church for any amount of time know that the church is made up of – guess what – sinners!  The problem is that we expect people in church to behave better.  We know that God doesn’t just wave a magic wand over us when we accept Jesus as Savior so that we immediately stop all of that bothersome sinning.  But we can’t understand why God doesn’t wave a magic wand over our neighbors to make them stop all their sinning.  The reality is that God has purposely left us in community together with one another while we’re in the process of sanctification because he uses our interactions – good and bad – in the process of sanctification.  It becomes a problem when we expect more of others than we do of ourselves.  The problem is in our expectations.

             If only everything was as easy to wrap our heads around as that.  Here’s one that’s harder, and I offer it from my own life – but I bet you probably have some examples too.  I met my first husband in college.  He, like I, was a Bible and Religion major.  He was a smart guy, and I felt that he had so much potential to serve God and advance the Kingdom.  Once we were married, however, Mike had no interest in following Jesus, in going to church, or anything remotely related to discipleship.  This is before people were saying, “Wait, what?!”  But that was my response.  Along with many other issues – believe it or not – the Lord became a big bone of contention in our marriage.  After 17 years, we finally split.  I prayed countless prayers for Mike during our marriage,  but they seemed to hit to ceiling and go nowhere. 

            BUT… in the process of getting counseling after our split, Mike turned around.  He renewed his relationship with the Lord, and began to follow Him wholeheartedly.  His life was transformed.  He met a wonderful woman who had been wounded by her husband, and their love brought healing into her life.  He became a better father, consciously trying to encourage our two kids.  He was a volunteer counselor, signed on with God’s Pit Crew, played the drums at church…  And after only a couple of years got bone cancer.  He fought it for 2 ½ years, but in the end succumbed.  Wait, what?! 

            All of that potential.  A new wife.  Two young adolescent children.  Now, please understand… I firmly believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Mike actually went to his reward.  But what about all of that potential to build the Kingdome, what about his new wife Debbie, what about Olivia and Alex – what about me?  It’s hard to understand God’s economy. 

In fact, the longer I live the more I’m convinced that the only story we have any hope of understanding even a little is our own.  Mike is in heaven.  Somehow, though the loss of their father will feature into the story of redemption for Olivia and Alex.  Somehow, the loss of her new husband will feature in the story of sanctification for Debbie.  And I already know that raising adolescents by myself played a role in my own sanctification process.  There is a golden thread of redemption and grace woven into the fabric of our lives.

            What’s interesting is that when Mike finally decided to follow the Lord, the Lord gave him this verse from 1 Corinthians 2 as his “life” verse:

“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
    and what has not entered the human heart,
    what God has prepared for those who love him,”

Usually that verse is removed from its context when Christians use it.  In fact, while I don’t know for certain, I imagine Mike received it out of context too.  But the context is important – and that context is the mysterious plan of God. 

            It’s that mysterious plan that we are all caught up in, and what’s required is trust.  It’s trust that we struggle with the most, and it’s been that way since the very beginning.  Adam and Eve sinned because they didn’t trust God’s good intentions.  The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they didn’t trust God to give them what He promised.  The Scriptures are full of examples of the problems that arise because the characters don’t trust God.  When we look at our own lives, too, there are more examples that we’d like to admit of not trusting God.

              In Luke’s version of the Triumphal Entry Jesus laments over Jerusalem’s blindness:  In Luke 19 it says,  ⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴² and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”  A few verses later he says that they did not recognize the time of God’s coming to them.  I wonder how often we don’t recognize the time of God’s coming to us because we are blinded by our own ideas of what that coming will look like. 

            As we enter Holy Week, I invite you to reflect on your expectations, and on your willingness or unwillingness to lay aside those expectations and embrace God’s best.  Like Bartimaeus our blindness can be healed and we can be free to follow Jesus into God’s best.