Jim French and a friend stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The meal was delicious, and French asked the waiter if he could have the recipe. The waiter was quick to oblige. A few minutes later, he returned from the kitchen with a piece of paper. All parties were satisfied. Until Jim French unfolded the paper. The recipe was written in Chinese. (1) This is not what Jim expected.
That's like a "Peanuts" cartoon from years ago. In the first panel Charlie Brown says, "I learned something in school today. I signed up for folk guitar, computer programming, stained glass, art, shoemaking, and a natural foods workshop."
He continues, "I got spelling, history, arithmetic, and two study periods."
Charlie's friend asks, "So, what did you learn?"
Charlie replies, "I learned that what you sign up for and what you get are two different things." (2)
That lesson could be applied to most things in life, couldn't it? How often do our expectations and our experiences clash? How often do we sign up for one thing and receive something entirely different?
I imagine Jesus' disciples felt that way all the time. Jesus was always surprising them. They zigged, he zagged. Every time the disciples thought they had Jesus pinned down, he did something unpredictable that sent their expectations into a tailspin. Let's look first at the disciples' expectations.
Next Sunday we will celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. You remember that happy occasion. When Jesus entered the great city of Jerusalem, the townspeople came out to cheer for him. They threw palm branches--the symbol of victory--in his path. Jesus would have garnered a great score on public opinion polls, if such a thing had existed in his day. What did his disciples think of all the hoopla? They probably thought something along these lines: "Hey, this is great! We're finally getting some respect around here. All our hard work and sacrifice are paying off. People are coming around to Jesus' view of things. It's time to begin campaigning for that new kingdom the Master's always talking about. Time to get our candidate's message out there. And what better place to do it than Jerusalem, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the region? Yes, Jesus sure is savvy. He knows exactly how to work a crowd. He must have planned this all along."
In the disciples' minds, this was the hour of victory--the day they had been waiting for. And their expectations were only heightened when they heard the Master say: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."
YES! That's it! Finally they are on the same page with their Lord. This fit perfectly with all they had been waiting for. But then Jesus zigs where they expected a zag: "Very truly, I tell you," he says, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." What's that? If it falls? If it dies? What's he talking about?
But he doesn't stop there: "Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
"Oh, Jesus," they think with chagrin. "Here you go again." And suddenly, the disciples get that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach. Why does Jesus have to make everything so hard? Why can't he just relax and enjoy the moment? He's never been more powerful or more popular than he is now? Why can't he leave well enough alone? Can't he just muster up a rebel army, take over the throne, and name himself king? This is the man who can walk on water and raise the dead! Why doesn't he just use a little bit of that power for his own ends?
But before the disciples can distance themselves from Jesus' words, he confronts them: "Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor."
Now the disciples are really starting to sweat. And those of us sitting here in our Sunday best, if we really listened to Jesus' words, we'd be sweating too. "Whoever serves me must follow me . . ."
We look at Jesus' promises of eternal life and unimaginable glory and say, "Sure, Lord, I'll follow you there." But when we face Jesus' command to serve the poor and needy, to go into all the world to spread his message, to take up our cross and die to our own self--suddenly we aren't so sure.
In one installment of the comic strip "Hagar the Horrible," Hagar confronts his not-so-bright sidekick, Lucky Eddie. "I need a second-in-command," Hagar bellows. "Can you say yes or no with authority?"
Lucky Eddie shouts back, "Yes or No with authority!"
And Hagar says to himself, "I think I'm going to be sick!" (3)
The best thing we can say about Lucky Eddie is that he is eager to please. But Jesus requires more from his followers than being eager to please. Jesus needs people who can say "Yes" with authority. Yes, I am willing to put you first in my life. Yes, I am willing to die to my own self and my own agenda. Yes, I am willing to follow you, though it costs me everything.
By now, Jesus' followers know that they must make a decision. As Pastor John Kramp says, "Salvation may be free, but discipleship will cost you everything." (4) The disciples are beginning to see that they had expected one thing and they were getting something else.
Has that happened to you? You expected to retire early, but the pass two years you've watched your 401k plan drop precipitously. You expected a life time of marital bliss--now the reality has sunk in that it isn't going to happen. You had such high hopes for your child, only to see that young person drift aimlessly in and out of trouble. You thought things would be better in a new community, a new school. You expected one thing and you got another. What do you do?
FIRST OF ALL, YOU HOLD ON TO YOUR VALUES. It's tempting to think when life doesn't work out like you had planned, "What difference does it make what I do with my life? My life has no meaning anyway?" Oh, but it does have meaning. Those values that you've held on to so long have been a reliable guide to human behavior through the centuries for a reason.
Don't think that Jesus was unsympathetic to his disciples' fears, or to ours. In verse 27, he says, "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--"˜Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour."
Doesn't it break your heart to hear those words, "Now my soul is troubled"? Jesus wasn't easy on his disciples because he wasn't easy on himself. Did he want to be saved from completing his task? Undoubtedly. But did he take the easy way out? Absolutely not. As he told his disciples, ". . . it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name."
I like what author Ray Pritchard writes about the difficult nature of following God's will: "Many times we start a new project believing that what we are doing is the will of God, and yet very often things do not work out as we planned. You took the new job, and it didn't work out . . . Trouble doesn't necessarily mean you are out of God's will. It might mean that you are doing exactly what God wants you to do . . . No one was ever more in God's will than Jesus, but He was murdered by His enemies. The fact that your life hasn't worked out exactly like you planned doesn't necessarily mean your decisions were wrong. Sometimes there are other factors at work." (5)
It's like an event that startled many first-world Christians a few years back. Five dedicated missionaries were martyred while seeking to make contact with the Auca Indians in Ecuador. A reporter was granted an interview with the widowed wives of those missionaries. He asked a question that was on many minds, "Why would God permit this to happen?" After all, these men were on an errand of mercy."
One of the wives, turning to the incredulous man, quietly replied: "Sir, God delivered my husband from the possibility of disobedience." (6)
That's deep. There was no question, even in that hard hour, about her faith and about her values. Those values gave her strength, they gave her meaning, they gave her hope. When life turns out differently than you expected, first of all, hold on to your values.
SECONDLY, GO DEEPER INTO YOUR FAITH. This next passage is one of the more fascinating mini-passages in the Bible. After Jesus declares, "Father, glorify Your name," we read these words: "Then a voice came from heaven, "˜I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.'" Then notice these intriguing words: "The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "˜An angel has spoken to him.'"
That's interesting, isn't it? Some people were ready to hear God's word. Others heard only thunder. Which would you have heard?
It's like the parable of the sower. Some of the seed falls on fertile ground. Other seeds fall among weeds that choke them out. And some falls on barren ground and never sprouts at all. When life has not turned out the way you had expected, go deeper into your faith. Spend more time listening to God. Read God's word faithfully. Spend more time in prayer. See if God will give you new insights into God's will for your life. I suspect if you do that, you will hear more than thunder.
Hold on to your values. Go deeper into your faith. AND FINALLY, LOOK FOR A VICTORY. You know, so often we see in life what we are looking for. If you are looking only for defeat, you will see defeat all around you. If you look for victory, however, victory is what you are likely to find. "Now is the judgment of this world," says Jesus to his disciples, "now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
Jesus wasn't just going to declare himself king over Jerusalem, or over the Jews, or over the Roman empire. He had bigger plans. By his death, Jesus broke down the wall between humanity and God. By his death, he would draw all peoples to himself. But it was only through his death that Jesus could offer us eternal life. No matter how badly life may be going for you, God can still bring a victory.
In 1995, Vietnamese evangelist To Dihn Trung was arrested and beaten by the police. Then they threw him in jail. His crime? Preaching the Gospel of Christ.
While in jail, Trung began preaching to the other inmates. Finally, after six months, outside pressure from Christians around the world forced the Vietnamese government to release Trung. BUT HE REFUSED HIS RELEASE. So many men in the prison were coming to Christ that Trung decided to stay there and serve out his full sentence. As he said, "I don't care about my own life. The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me--to tell people the good news about God's grace." (7) Trung never expected to find himself in prison for sharing his faith, but even in prison he experienced a great victory.
So, you're looking at your life right now. You expected one thing, but you got something else. That does not mean that you are not in the center of God's will. It just means that our ways are not God's ways.
Ancient records tell us that most of Jesus' disciples were persecuted and killed for their faith. And it is from their blood that the early church was formed. Two thousand years later, people are still gathering every week in churches all over the world to celebrate the message that they first told. What do you do when life does not turn out as you expected? Hold on to your values. Go deeper into your faith. Look for God's victory.
1. Contributed by Jim French in Arizona Highways, November 2000, p. 44.
2. "In Today, Already Walks Tomorrow" by Joseph N. Hankins, Vital Speeches of the Day, Oct. 15, 1997, p. 24.
3. "Hagar the Horrible" by Chris Browne, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, May 1, 2002, p. e6.
4. John Kramp, Getting Ahead by Staying Behind (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997), p. 99.
5. Ray Pritchard, quoted in Beyond Today (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000).
6. "Fools for Christ" by Robert E. Coleman, Preaching, May/June 1999.
7. Jesus Freaks, compiled by dc Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs (Tulsa, OK: Albury Pub., 1999), pp. 181-182.