Missing Reality

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Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true.  He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon.  They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.”  But they didn’t understand any of this.  The significance of his words was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about.  Luke 18:31-34

Have you ever missed it entirely?  You saw what you wanted to see, not the reality that was staring you in the face.  If you have, you probably have little difficulty understanding why the disciples just didn’t have a clue.  Jesus told them plainly how the next week was going to play out, and they just couldn’t connect the dots; they missed reality for a pipe-dream of an earthly king, a political Messiah, who would whip the Romans and usher in a new regime.  They were holding on to a now-and-right-now mirage, while Jesus was trying to pull back the curtain and show them reality.  They couldn’t have missed it by a wider margin!

To the disciples’ credit they had walked with Jesus for over three years, seen incredible miracles and signs that authenticated their Teacher as the One promised by the prophets to deliver Israel.  They were star-struck, earth-bound people, fishermen, tax collector, a rabble of common folk following the Son of God.  They had simple faith in Him, not imagining for a moment that any power on earth could kill him; after all, they had seen him pass right through an angry mob that wanted to stone him,[1] and confounded every Pharisee who ever tried to trip him up with rhetoric.  How could they kill this man?  No one was like Jesus.

It’s tempting from our vantage point two-thousand years and a resurrection later to marvel at how the disciples couldn’t see what Jesus meant, how little real faith they had.  But, lest we forget, those men, even Judas, had left everything behind, family, jobs, safety of hearth and home to follow this unknown rabbi, and had firmly stood with him after the adoring crowds started diminishing through this final year of opposition.  They did have real faith!  Most of us have a faith that knows nothing of sleeping on the ground, uncertain of the source of our next meal, away from our homes, family and friends, staking it all on the promise of this man who said they could connect with God through Him.  They hadn’t missed the reality of His call to follow; they just missed the reality about where they were going.

The disciples were my model when I first surrendered to ministry in 1978.  I was going to follow Jesus wherever he led.  Of course, I wasn’t any brighter than the disciples, and have found myself trusting some assumptions that the Lord had never promised.  I imagined I would graduate from seminary, go to a church as pastor, stay there 40 or 45 years, and retire.  Well, 40 years later there have been several graduations from 4 theological schools, 9 churches served, and everything but staying in one place for very long. 

In hindsight I can see God’s hand at every step, and His purposes have peeked-out from behind the curtain to help me understand why God moved the way He did.  So, come to think of it, I was right to think ministry would be like it was for the disciples.  We’ve seen plenty of miracles and been confused by most of it along the way.  We’ve found out that His ways are much higher than ours[2] and more than a little difficult to understand.  But in every circumstance and need of life we have also sensed the confidence of everlasting arms holding us up and holding us close.  There have been times when it seemed like the darkness would win, like we were three touchdowns behind with only a few seconds left on the clock, but God was always in control.  We haven’t missed reality at all; we’ve had a front-row seat!

For You Today

When you follow God today, don’t expect to understand right away, or see the path clearly; just keep praying, trusting, and stepping.  It’s a journey, not unlike travelling through the birth canal of reality!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Luke 4:29-31

[2] Isaiah 55:9

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Clueless Disciples

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Monday, June 8, 2015

Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true.  He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon.  They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.”  But they didn’t understand any of this.  The significance of his words was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about.    Luke 18:31-34 ^(NLT)

One would think that the disciples might have had something of a clue. 

How could they be so totally dense after three years of following Jesus around, never having heard something false drop from his lips, or have him predict something that didn’t come to pass; there were miracles to back it all up, and the truly astounding fulfillment of God’s promises standing before them.

Still, they were clueless. 

God was setting in motion a cosmic struggle for the souls of all people, past, present and future.  Jesus had told his disciples on more than one occasion not to expect an easy ride, or anything less than rejection.  They might have seen this coming had they not been so vested in their own ideas of what the kingdom was supposed to look like.

And how could they?  They were simple men, not skilled theologians.  The common understanding of Messiah was that when He arrived He would be a mighty son of King David who would sit on Jerusalem’s throne.  How did flogging and death fit with that?

Clueless!

But before we judge the denseness of Peter, John, James and the rest, we might remember that the so-called skilled theologians also missed it.  Everything Jesus did, miracles, teaching, and even rasing people from the dead was done publicly.  The ruling elders of Israel knew the Scriptures and all the prophecies, yet they too were clueless. 

(Perhaps, in their case, it was less that they missed it, and more like they dismissed it.)

The rulers were vested in their own idea of God’s Kingdom on earth; that clouded their judgment, rendering them as clueless as the disciples, because they pictured themselves as an important cog in the wheel of Messiah’s kingdom.  Their self-poprtrait of their self-importantance told them they were entitled to a little more respect than having to cow-tow to a lowly carpenter’s son turned preacher.

And what about us?

Two thousand years after the resurrection of Jesus his disciples still wander around clueless at times.  Jesus gave us a mandate to proclaim the Gospel, and yet what generally dominates the news reports about what the church is doing has little to do with the open arms of Jesus to receive sinners.  More its about the struggle caused by the rejecting spirit of people who want control.  

It’s pretty tough to get a good look at the cross when you’re having a tug of war in the mud pit.  Today’s mud pit is the back rooms of church buildings and courtrooms where the slug-fest between heterosexual and homosexual kicks up enough dirt to obscure any Jesus-sightings at all.

And so it goes. 

People trying to figure-out what Jesus is doing are legion; the disciples had trouble understanding that Jesus was talking about himself when he pointed to the temple being destroyed and raised back up in three days.  Nicodemus was confused about being born again physically, when Jesus was talking spiritually.  The woman at the well thought of wet water, while Jesus offered a baptized soul, spirit and mind.  The disciples couldn’t get their minds around Jesus being bread to eat, or that Lazarus was sleeping in death, and needed an awakening.[2]

And we probably miss a whole lot more than we see too.  Especially when we begin to lose sight of who is really in control.

For You Today

How about starting this day with a prayer that says something like, Dear Father, you are God and I am not; help me keep that straight.

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[1] Title image: By Sergio bramante, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Events recorded in John 3-11