Great Expectations

Rightly Ordered

When I was growing up, it was fascinating, no it was inspiring, watching my Dad shop. He was focused and objective driven. Dad never went to stores for fun, shopping was not a leisure activity, there was no wandering through a store. He only went when he or my mom needed something. Even before he got in the car, he knew exactly what he was getting, he knew exactly what store he was going to get it from, and he knew exactly where in the store he needed to go to get it. We would roll into the parking lot, he would shift the van into park, the door would roll open, and the plan would be executed. We would walk quickly into the store, straight to the place where the item was that we needed, to checkout, and out.

I on the other hand, have to be careful when I go to Target. I might only go in for one three dollar item, but sometimes I’ll wander through the aisles just to see if there’s anything else we ‘need’ . . . and I walk out with a cart full of stuff. And the difference is this, I go to the store with the attitude of “what do I want.” I find things I want, I construct a reason that we need them, and I buy them. Dad, on the other hand, starts with what is needed, constructs a plan to fill the need, and buys only what is necessary.

Now, I bring this up because I think it helps us begin to understand what is going on in our reading today. You see, Jesus knows the will of the Father, has a plan to make that will happen, and does it. He’s a lot like my Dad. He knows what needs doing, has a plan to do exactly that, and executes. He knows that the will of the Father is to baptize and save all people, He knows that the will of the Father is to make disciples, He knows that the will of the Father is to teach all people His will. So He follows the plan to do that. He came to earth as a man so that He could take all of our sins on Himself. He does ministry for years to do miracles, to take care of people, and to teach the will of the Father. He goes on trial because He knew that it was necessary, He goes to the cross because He knew it was necessary, He died because He knew it was necessary, He stayed dead for three days because He knew it was necessary, and He rose from the dead because He knew it was necessary. Every breath He took sought to do what the Father sent Him to do. He wanted to do the will of the Father, He knew what that was, and He did it.

We’re Backwards

Too often, that isn’t the approach we take. We don’t take a top down approach. We identify more with the crowds in our reading who placed their agenda on Jesus. They wanted certain things to be done. I’m sure they wanted their sick healed, their problems solved, their taxes paid, or better yet, their taxes gone as Jesus kicked out the Romans.

And today, we a lot of times take the same approach to God. We want something, maybe it’s even something good, we try and find a way to convince ourselves that it’s what God wants, and then we have the audacity to get mad at God when He doesn’t work that way. We want to be famous, we convince ourselves that the fame would be about Jesus, so we demand that God work that way. We want the country to work a certain way, to have certain policies or politicians in place, we convince ourselves that it would be what Jesus wants, and we demand that God work that way. We want to sin and follow our own designs, we convince ourselves that it’s for the greater good, that we know better than God, and we demand that God work that way.

Few of us have the audacity, the arrogance, to say aloud that God should do things a certain way - but our attitudes and our approach to the world betray us. Too often we think and act like God should do things our way. Too often, we want something done, we come up with an excuse for it to be okay, and we demand that God work that way - just like the crowd in Luke that wanted to throw Jesus off of a cliff.

And when we approach things in this way, we’re way off base. When we’re driven more by what we want than by what God says, it’s like a local delivery drive demanding that Jeff Bezos change the approach of Amazon Web Services’ learning AI. It’s someone without authority speaking without understanding to someone who knows better.

When we demand our own way before God, we are simply people without authority speaking without understanding to someone who knows better.

Final Comparison

So the comparison is between the people who wanted to stone Jesus and, well, Jesus. We can pursue our own wants, try our best to justify it, and fault God for not working that way. Or we can desire to be followers of God, to seek His will in our lives, and to do our best to act in line with it.

God wants us to baptize people of all nations. That is His will, to save everyone. So how do we allow that will to shape our lives? Talk about Jesus to the people around us who don’t know Him - tell them that Jesus loves them and wants to minister to them!

God wants us to teach people the lessons that He has passed on to us. So how do we allow that intention to shape our lives? Parents, that means you teach your kids intentionally about the faith - it means you make time in your day to sit down and do devotions as a family. And if you don’t know where to start, you have a pastor who is happy to resource you! It means that we all spend time in God’s Word, doing our best to learn more about who He is and who He calls us to be.

And God wants us to be disciples, to prioritize Him in our lives. So how do we allow that intention to shape our lives? We spend time in His Word, we spend time with His people, we put ourselves in the place that shapes us in Him. He is the God of all creation, His will is that you have a relationship with Him and His people, surely He is worth two hours on a Sunday morning - every Sunday morning. Surely He is worth putting off other things for that much.

We are not called to be people without authority speaking without understanding to someone who knows better, we are not called to shape God to our wants and preferences.

We are called to follow God, we are called to seek His will, and we are called to live it out. Amen.