Misplaced Expectations

This year, I have been reading (not perfectly) through the Gospels and posting some of my thoughts on my Facebook feed. Today's thought was fairly long, so I amended my post on Facebook for space and readability. Below is my complete thought. Enjoy

Misplaced Expectations - a musing of Matthew 27

Something struck me as I was reading this morning about the scene in front of Pilate's palace. This crowd gathered to condemn Jesus was massive, likely everyone in Jerusalem at the time. They were whipped into so much of a mob-like frenzy that Pilate, a notorious despot warned by his freaked out wife to find a way out of condemning Jesus (Matt 27:19), eventually weenied out to delivering Jesus to being crucified because he saw "that a riot was starting" (Matt 27:24). These people were pissed so much so that the only thing Pilate saw that he could do to calm them down and restore order was to give in and have Jesus crucified.

Matthew records that this was "all the people" who answered "His blood be on us and our children." This wasn't a fringe group here... it was almost everyone.

But wait a minute? Five days earlier, wasn't this same crowd saying "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" as He came into the city riding on a donkey and dropping their coats and palm branches on the ground?

It was the same crowd. What caused this seemingly fickle and very drastic change of attitude toward Jesus?

I am not an expert, mind you, but here are some thoughts.

On Palm Sunday, the crowds came out to greet Jesus with an air of expectancy. Here is their King! He has confirmed his identity as the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. He has healed the blind. He has raised the dead. He has healed lepers. He has freed the demon-possessed. The proof points are undeniable! And now, HE has come to Jerusalem, in their mind, to restore Israel and the fortunes of the Jews and break the tyranny of Rome. These people were expectant.

Then, he does the unexpected.

• He clears out the convenience store in the Temple and drives out all of the vendors and money-changers. 
• He is obviously at odds with the highly respected leaders of their religion. 
• He affirms the authority of Rome when he says "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; at to God the things that are God's." (Matt 22:21) 
• And someone from Galilee may have recognized that one of their TAX COLLECTORS was hanging out with him? (okay, that's totally conjecture, but it's possible)

And now, they see Him standing accused and bloodied by beatings in the court of their hated ruler, Pilate. 

The crowd, blinded to who Jesus really is and the true reason He came; when their expectations were not met, turned on Him without really much persuasion. Their faith, misplaced as it was, was crushed and now they wanted blood.

This is a good question for today for us. What are our expectations of Jesus? Do we really love Jesus because we value Jesus, or do we love Jesus because of what we think He will deliver? What happens when following Jesus doesn’t deliver that thing that we think, or someone had told us, that we should have?

• What happens when a disease that a family member (or we) isn’t healed? 
• What happens when our career doesn’t take the path we hoped it would? 
• What happens when our political and cultural “leaders” govern against our conscience? 
• What happens when, like today, unity in the church alludes us because we can’t seem to get rid of erroneous teaching and bad behavior? 

What happens to our faith? Do we, like that crowd in Jerusalem, discount a savior that we believed in… however savior in our mind and the Savior on the cross aren’t the same guy?

I know when it’s me, I tend to get mad. My flesh is fickle, like theirs was and all of our flesh is. We want God to fix things NOW but He doesn’t. He didn’t promise to until He returns. When I get mad at God… it’s never God’s fault. It’s mine.

What’s crazy is… this same crowd with the same attitudes and history, fifty days later in this same city, heard about 120 followers of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit, proclaiming the Gospel and each hearing this good news in their own language. At first thought they that these folks were drunk but then Peter gets up and tells them about Jesus and the reason He died. In that moment and in the days after… many of them (many estimate about 20,000 in the first days in Jerusalem) repented and received a new heart… the one that God promised long ago.

Even in misplaced expectations, there is hope because God is relentless in His pursuit of us and desires that we know Him and trust the real Jesus and receive this gift of a new heart that loves that God loves. That is hope. It’s the hope that my heart longs for and I imagine yours as well. If we see this and savor it, I believe we’ll see the societal healing we are looking for, definitely in Heaven but perhaps we can see a little glimpse of it here on earth while we wait.