Expectations

Luke 7:18-30 (The Message)

John's disciples reported back to him the news of all these events taking place. He sent two of them to the Master to ask the question, "Are you the One we've been expecting, or are we still waiting?"

The men showed up before Jesus and said, "John the Baptizer sent us to ask you, 'Are you the One we've been expecting, or are we still waiting?'"

In the next two or three hours Jesus healed many from diseases, distress, and evil spirits. To many of the blind he gave the gift of sight. Then he gave his answer: "Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard:

The blind see,
The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed,
The deaf hear,
The dead are raised,
The wretched of the earth
have God's salvation hospitality extended to them.

"Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves fortunate!"

After John's messengers left to make their report, Jesus said more about John to the crowd of people. "What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly. What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot. What then? A messenger from God? That's right, a messenger! Probably the greatest messenger you'll ever hear. He is the messenger Malachi announced when he wrote,

I'm sending my messenger on ahead
To make the road smooth for you.

"Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. The ordinary and disreputable people who heard John, by being baptized by him into the kingdom, are the clearest evidence; the Pharisees and religious officials would have nothing to do with such a baptism, wouldn't think of giving up their place in line to their inferiors.

Expectations often pre-fabricate our opinions.

Was something good or bad? It really depends on whether it met your expectations. Just ask any politician...they know how to "lower expectations" before a debate or election, so that they can then frame their showing in the best possible light.

So...what do you expect from Jesus?

That question, and how we answer it, cuts right to the heart of our faith.

Jesus was not the kind of messiah that many expected in his world. Many wanted a strong, assertive, charismatic military leader who would rally the people and lead them in an overthrow of the Romans.

Most thought that the Messiah would be ten feet tall and bulletproof, to say the least.

To me, Jesus seems to laugh at our expectations. We tend to form them more in our own opinion than in scripture. If the people had been able to really read and understand the prophets who had come before, they might have realized that Jesus was indeed their man.

"Are you the messiah, or are we still waiting?"

"Take a look," Jesus seems to say, "and judge for yourselves."

Who do you expect Jesus to be in your life? How do you expect to encounter him?

He is with us. We can come to know him, more and more each and every day...as we learn to look, and expect to see.

Mother Teresa famously said, "I see Jesus Christ, each day, in all of his distressing disguises."

It all depends if we want to look...if we're willing to see...and if we're ready to stop waiting.

Prayer: Give us eyes that see and tender hearts that soften and respond to the presence of the Christ, "in all his distressing disguises."

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.