Expectations

Do you ever feel totally misunderstood? Like someone has misjudged your motives or thoughts, or like you just weren't able to explain your point of view well enough? As I've continued reading through the "Drama of Scripture" I am reminded of just how misunderstood Jesus was in his day - and how he continues to be misunderstood even now.

Before Jesus even started claiming to be God, the Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah. The Old Testament scriptures prophesied that God would send a Savior to redeem His people from oppression and foreign rule. So, they were expecting a king - a strong, wise, politically savvy man who would lead the Jewish people out of bondage to the Romans and make them the ultimate national power in the world. Leaders in the Jewish church felt very strongly that this ultimate salvation was reserved first for the faithful Jewish people - those who held strongly to the laws of the Torah and who separated themselves from the 'unclean' Jews and Gentiles around them. Then, once the faithful had been given power and authority under their new king, they would draw the rest of the people of the world to worship their God.

The reason they hated Jesus - and eventually crucified him - was not just that he claimed to be this long awaited Messiah. . . but that his plan was very different from theirs. Rather than immediately conquering all foreign nations and oppressors, rather than judging the ungodly, unclean people outside of the Jewish nation, rather than encouraging a separatist and elitist mindset among his followers, he preached a way of love and suffering. He called people to love without bounds - even their enemies. He broke many of the ritualistic and legalistic rules that the teachers of the law had required of the Jewish people. He said that he would have to die - no normal death, but death on a cross. . . the most shameful and humiliating death to suffer. Why on earth would the Jewish people want to follow this king? What kind of a king is that? They denied him because they didn't understand him.

Today we aren't so offended by the cross. Our greater tendency is actually to minimize it and trivialize it. We believe in this loving, gracious, easy-to-please Savior who just wants us to be happy, fulfilled, and content in this life until he can take us home to be with him forever. Some of that is true. . . but some of it isn't. Jesus has also called us to walk the same way that he walked. The way of love and suffering. As Christians we are actually supposed to love as deeply and intimately as he loved. . . We are supposed to put our wants, needs, and comforts aside when he calls us to serve and sacrifice for the people around us.

In John 6 Jesus gives a vivid and undeniable picture of what the Christ-life actually looks like. And what is the response?

"From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." John 6:66

They left because the teaching was hard. Too hard to swallow. But Jesus didn't try to candy coat it and make it seem more appealing than it was. He was honest about the job he came to do and how through it he would redeem the world. I think that when we candy coat the Christian life we do a lot more damage than good. We might draw people in with our promises of health and wealth and pretty perfect children, but when reality comes and our new converts see that what they were given was only a partial view of what Christ has called us to - they will leave feeling more angry, hurt, and jaded than when they came. In the words of Caedman's Call:

That boy had the highest of expectations
When he heard that Jesus would fill him up
Maybe something got lost in the language
If this was full, then why bother?

This was not the way it looked on the billboard
Smiling family beaming down on the interstate

Jesus is so often misunderstood because we often misrepresent him. I am making it my goal these days to know exactly what he taught, and exactly the way he walked so that I don't turn people away because of catchy but false advertising. If you are a Christ-follower already, I would encourage you to do the same. If you haven't connected to the Jesus you've been taught about, and if you can relate to the words of that song, I beg you to open up your bible and read about Jesus as he really was.

The picture painted there will never disappoint you.