And we had our hopes up that he was about to deliver Israel.
The idea that God is about to do a new thing might be the cornerstone value of my particular faith community; and it makes some sense. Think about it, since the mercies of God are fresh every morning what could be more predictable than a new thing. Yet, for humans whose thoughts and ways are much lower than God’s the potential of getting the particulars of that new thing wrong are high given the theological, dispositional, experiential and physiological variables that inevitable color our thinking. But oh how we love particulars.
Have you ever gotten your hopes up that God was about to do something new that did not happen? If you have been a follower of Christ for more than 15 minutes you probably said, “Oh yeah.” Let me ask you, “What happened to your faith in the moment of negative realization? In the months and years since your unwelcome knowing?” From this crossroad there are a number of different paths one can take.
Victims
One path involves being emotionally wounded and blaming others for crushing our expectations. The travelers of this trail becomes victims who must carry the heavy loads of bitterness and resentment. They may abandon the notion of a good or a sovereign God altogether because he is perceived as either the perpetrator of or an accessory to whatever the perceived injustice may have been. This trail just goes in circles. Even though it leads nowhere its travelers generally go there proudly.
Users
Another trail that can be taken is one of theological alteration. Here God’s sovereignty is discounted or altogether removed from the equation. The reasoning that follows the alteration is tortured but it goes like this: I am a child of royalty – God gives me the desires of my heart – I didn’t get my particular desire therefore I must have used the wrong technique to get what God wanted me to have – I will now try this new technique so that I can acquire the new and greater thing from God. This traveler with their view of God as one who responds to manipulation is headed into a wilderness of error barren of relational intimacy with God.
Quitters
Another trail is quite short but popular nevertheless. Those taking it really just shift into neutral. They don’t want to renounce their faith. They want to retain the longterm benefits of Christianity (i.e. heaven) so they just settle into a manageable routine of Christian flavored activity and an unspoken vision of survival. They once took the risk. They put their hearts out there on some venture of faith only to have their expectations dashed. These travellers make an inner vow – a kind a pact with their own heart that says, “THAT will not happen again!” Since it is impossible to please God without faith (i.e. risk) this stalled-out traveler lives with the delusion that neutrality is safe.
Abiders
Then there is the one who, like all travelers, have their heart broken while living for that new particular thing that evaporated or exploded before them – knocking them down in the dirt. This one however has something in their heart that the victims, users and quitters did not. This one had abandoned their heart at the onset of the journey to a faithful shepherd who pledged to see them to their high places. It is his understanding of God that he is both good and sovereign. So even though their natural vision appears to have evidence to the contrary, he gets up off the ground and presses on. This traveller has just become a disciple of Jesus Christ.
God is indeed a rewarder of those who follow this pathway of faith where the disciple honors who God is and what he says above his own human appraisal of matters. The authentic disciple makes the same discovery that the Emmaus road travelers did: i.e.; The particulars of one’s expectations can be wrong. God was up to something far greater than establishing rulership over a geographic region or a singular nation. He is always advancing his kingdom one heart at a time.
Discipleship
As the heart relinquishes its primary bent on particulars the kingdom makes its advance. The heart may mourn briefly but its sorrow will be turned to joy as the disciple discovers that Christ himself is the prize and that the intimacy with him eclipses the realization of any set of under-imagined particulars. The trails that disciples follow is often harrowing. Because God’s intent of rewarding them with more of himself, he jealously attempts to protect them form putting their confidence and expectation in any of the myriad substitutes (idols).
Father, as you did with your disciples, open our hearts and eyes to grasp the bigger picture of your redemption. Help us to let go of all our idols – making way for you, the King of glory, to triumph in our hearts; winning our affections away from all the competition. May we see the great commission and its inherent pathway of abiding-discipleship with unprecedented clarity. In Jesus name. Amen.