Unexpected

“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”
Mark 8:31

The people of Israel had been waiting for a very long time for the expected Messiah to come. The prophets seem to have made it clear what would identify the man. I don’t know if they simply did not under what the prophets had said or if over the course of time their circumstances colored their expectations of who and what the Messiah would be. Many missed Him because he did not meet their expectations. They were expecting a warrior and political king. The Father’s Son came as a carpenter, a teacher and a servant. They expected someone who would overthrow the government. He came to overthrow their hearts and ours.

Even those who did recognize Jesus as the Messiah had expectations that were met with the unexpected. Just as they were starting to “get it” Jesus tells them that He will be killed and then three days later be raised from the dead. What? In the next verse we see Peter rebuking Jesus for what He has just told them and Jesus responds be telling him “get behind me Satan!” That certainly must have been an unexpected response. Jesus was killed just as He had said and the confused and scared disciples wondered what had happened - this was not what they expected. Then there He was standing in their presence, eating with them, talking with them. 

The leaders of the day would never have picked any of Jesus’ disciples to be counted among their number, Jesus did the unexpected and left a new community in the hands of fishermen, tax collectors and women - some of whom were of ill repute. This group had no idea that they with the power of the Holy Spirit would change the world by helping God overthrow the hearts of men, women and children.

Today, we have our own expectations of who God is and how He operates. The question is do we allow our expectations to get in the way of how He unexpectedly works? This week try setting your expectations aside so the Lord can work in unexpected ways - I know that could be scary, but ultimately it will be amazing.

A Prayer
Father, thank you for not living up to our expectations, instead treating us in unexpected ways that take us far beyond what we can imagine. Forgive us when our expectations get in the way of what You want to do for us, with us and through us. Help us Lord to be ready for the unexpected, the kind of unexpected that changes hearts and the world. In the name of Jesus, Amen.