Charles Kuralt was driving up a mountain road in Peru one morning when a man appeared suddenly out of the trees by the road. He was wearing a black hood over his face, waving something in his hands, and shouting. Kuralt was terrified. He knew that the man must be a gun-wielding bandit. He was trying to decide whether it would be safer to plunge ahead, or drive back down the road, when the man shouted again, and began stumbling and running as fast as he could toward Kuralt's car. That settled it. Charles put his car into gear and bolted straight ahead. But the strange man changed his course to intercept him on the road. Charles drove for his life.
The man reached the road, removed the hood from his face, and waved the object in his hand frantically just as Kuralt zoomed past him. Then he saw what he was holding. It was a fish. Apparently this man had stayed up all night fishing in a nearby lake, had finally caught something, and was now trying to sell it to a passing motorist. But Kuralt was thinking of mountain bandits, and was terrified. Later he wrote these words about the incident: "We met as if by destiny, but one of us was from another world, and wildly misunderstanding." (1)
Have you ever had such a misunderstanding? You see someone and immediately expect the worst of them because of how they are dressed or where you are. Or you can misunderstand someone by simply not listening to them. Comics frequently portray husbands as sitting behind a newspaper at the breakfast table, answering their wife with an occasional "yes dear," but not really hearing her.
And it's so easy for misunderstandings to cause problems.
There is a humorous story about a fellow named Tom Burns who was on an ocean voyage. He shared a dining table with a Frenchman who obviously spoke no English. Since Burns didn't know any French, they had to enjoy their meals in silence. The only time they spoke was at the beginning of each meal. The Frenchman would nod at Burns and say, "Bon appetit!" Burns, not sure how to respond, would nod and reply, "Tom Burns."
This had been the pattern of their meals for three days, until one day a friend heard of it and took Burns aside. He told Burns that "Bon appetit" was not the man's name, but was French for "Good appetite!" He was telling Burns to enjoy his meal!
Burns was ready at the next meal. When the Frenchman entered the dining hall, Burns nodded at him and said, "Bon appetit!"
The Frenchman smiled and replied, "Tom Burns!"
Misunderstandings are a common part of life. It should be no surprise that misunderstandings arose between Jesus and the disciples on occasion. There were a number of times when they seemed to be going in opposite directions.
Jesus had told the disciples several times what was going happen to him once they reached Jerusalem. "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." But even though they heard it regularly, the disciples did not fully comprehend what it was that Jesus was trying to tell them. Maybe they thought he was telling them another parable ” one which they still hadn't grasped the meaning of. Maybe they were too frightened to think of the implications of what Jesus was saying.
There is a lesson to be learned in this, and that is: WE HAVE TO BE READY TO RECEIVE CHRIST'S MESSAGE. That is a truism of life. Some children learn to read before others. Some grasp the multiplication table at an early age. And some people take a lot longer than others in coming to Christ.
Lee Strobel was the legal affairs editor for the Chicago Tribune. Although he had been raised as a Christian, he was now a self-proclaimed atheist. At one point in their marriage, Lee's wife, Leslie, decided to commit her life to Christ through the efforts of a Christian friend.
But when Leslie tried to share her new faith with her husband, he was unimpressed. He did not want to get involved in it.
However, Leslie kept urging Lee to go to church with her, telling him that if he came for nothing else, he should at least hear the music there. Eventually her tactic worked, and Lee went to church with his wife. And the music was great. But beyond that, when the pastor spoke about God's grace that morning, something clicked for Lee: it sounded wonderful, too. But his skepticism still had a hold of him. He had to find out about God's grace on his own.
With his legal and journalistic background, Lee began an intense investigation. For almost two years he researched other religions, read the Bible, and continued attending church with Leslie. And when Lee realized that he had finally run out of questions, he surrendered himself to Christ. (2)
It took Lee Strobel two years of searching before he finally received Christ's message. But some people take even longer than that. We have to be ready to receive Christ. Some people spend a lifetime looking, yet never do receive Christ. But there is still a worse problem.
MANY WHO THINK THEY'VE GOT CHRIST FIGURED OUT ARE MISTAKEN. That is the second thing we need to see. Many people who think they understand Christ are mistaken. Certainly the disciples were mistaken. While they were traveling through Galilee, Jesus noticed that the disciples were having quite a lively discussion behind him. So when they got to Capernaum, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" This embarrassed them, for they were arguing about who among them should be second in command behind Jesus. Instead of focusing on what Jesus was teaching them, they were campaigning among themselves for the top position.
Jesus, of course, chided them for their foolish behavior. Then he took a child who was playing nearby and placed the child before them. Jesus wanted his disciples to identify with the child, instead of with power and prestige. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me," he said, "and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." Jesus placed a child in front of the disciples to show them how out of whack their priorities were. There is something about a child that speaks to us about simplicity and love.
Manny Lawton was a POW during World War II. He had been captured by the Japanese along with hundreds of other American and Filipino soldiers. And he had survived the infamous Bataan Death March, when many other soldiers died.
While Lawton was a prisoner, the Japanese moved him around regularly with other prisoners. On one of these moves, there were many men loaded onto a crowded freight train. They were hungry, thirsty, ill, and had lost almost all hope. They were unsure of what would happen to them and didn't know where they were going. Many of them were questioning whether the price they were paying for trying to help the Philippines was really worth it.
The train had to make several stops along the way, and at one of these stops there were some young children playing on the train platform. The doors had been opened on the train, allowing Manny and many of the others to see the children, and it also allowed the children to see the prisoners. Soon the children began to hum a familiar tune. They hummed it over and over until the train left. They hummed it because if they had sung the words, the Japanese soldiers would probably have shot them. They were humming "God Bless America."
This lifted the spirits of the men more than anything else that had happened since they were captured. And the rest of the journey was not nearly as rough as it might otherwise have been. The "musical incident," as it came to be called, had fortified the soldiers' desire to survive, all because a group of children had demonstrated their appreciation for them. (3)
They heard some children sing and their whole perspective changed. That was what Jesus was hoping for with the disciples. He wanted them to think not in terms of power but in terms of the powerless: the children. The drive for power has wreaked so much heartache in this world, and it is still a constant threat in every part of society. Jesus is looking for people who are willing to give up their own power to a power that is much greater. And this brings us to our final thought for the morning: CHRIST'S CALL IS NOT ABOUT SUCCESS; IT IS ABOUT SACRIFICE.
There are far too many people nowadays who have turned the Christian Gospel on its head. They have convinced themselves that following Jesus will make them successful. They preach that Jesus will not only provide your every need, but also your every want. They preach Jesus as the key to prosperous, fun-filled living. But these folks have missed everything Jesus stood for! Following Jesus will not lead you to success; it will lead you to service. Jesus put it this way: "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."
A certain woman's mother had suffered a stroke, so she took her mother into her home to better care for her. She was very loving and attentive toward her mother's every need. However, one day they got into a heated argument. They yelled and screamed at each other for a while, and then the daughter went into another room. Silence settled over the house. Later, when the daughter returned with a meal, her mother asked her, "Why are you doing all this for me?"
The daughter began listing her reasons, and there were a lot of them. She told her mother that she wanted her to get well. She told her that she felt a little guilty for ignoring her when she was younger. She didn't want her to have to stay in a home. She wanted her to be near her family.
"Rubbish," said the mother. "What do you mean, rubbish?" asked the daughter. "I mean rubbish," she said again. "You don't have to have all those reasons. We love each other. That's enough." (4)
That is enough. That is what the Gospel is all about. It is not about who chairs the board or who the first soprano in the choir is. It is about love, self-giving love. It is about the kind of love Christ showed us. Are you ready to receive the Gospel message today? Are you ready to open yourself to His love and forgiveness? Some of us have gotten Christ's message all wrong. Nowhere does Christ promise he will make you a success. Rather he promises to make you a servant, a servant to him and the world. The Gospel is about love. Christ loves us ” we love one another ” and in the words of that mother, that is enough.
1. Charles Kuralt. A LIFE ON THE ROAD. (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1990), pp. 244-245.
2. Charles Colson. THE BODY. (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992), pp. 341-342. 3. Manny Lawton. SOME SURVIVED: AN EPIC ACCOUNT OF JAPANESE CAPTIVITY DURING WORLD WAR II. (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1984), p. 50.
3. John Shea. STARLIGHT. (New York: Crossroad, 1992), p. 103.