28.06 | Unexpected
Luke 9:1-27
‘And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”’
Luke 9:23
Expectations are a big deal.
They are a big deal in relationships, in our jobs, in parenting, in our communication. Expectations are our starting point, an often pre-conceived set of ideas about how things will work out or how somebody else will behave. Expectations are what we bring to the table before anything is said. Much interpersonal communication stands or falls on evaluating, understanding, and adapting our expectations.
For the disciples today, Jesus goes right into their expectations.
Jesus has been doing remarkable things. Chapter after chapter in Luke are stories of the beautiful, powerful, regenerative work of God, as His Kingdom breaks in and supplants the things of death and sickness and hunger and misery. All this could tap into expectations of what the Messiah King of God would look like when He arrived. It was expected that He would bring a rule of goodness and flourishing. It was expected that He would bring prosperity. It was expected that He would bring defeat of enemies. It was expected that everyone’s lives would get continually easier under His rule and reign.
And so, as Jesus disciples today, for the first time, acknowledge who He is—the Messiah, or, in Greek, the Christ—He gets right to work on their expectations.
His very next words are about His crucifixion.
That, you can almost feel the disciples thinking, was unexpected.
But, we might reason, from our vantage point in history, we know that crucifixion was followed by resurrection. We can breathe a sigh of relief. All good.
But then Jesus takes things further:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. And follow.
The movements of this discipling journey in the wake of the Messiah King is truly, utterly, unexpected.
I resonate with this. As a seventeen year old, giving my life to Jesus, I think I carried an assumption that the way forward would be largely easy. My worship of God would in some way be rewarded with a more comfortable, happy, secure and successful life. I’d seen people on stages, looking and sounding happy and confident, every testimony landing in a place of beautiful resolve. I’d never have said it, but my assumption was that life with Jesus would lead me into a life if increasing ease and success.
Over two decades on from this, I’ve noticed a very different journey. At least, on one level. There’s been unexpected grief, unexpected times of long waiting, unexpected criticism, unexpected health issues, unexpected seasons of feeling remarkably isolated or disjointed in ministry. From the big to the small, life in the wake of Jesus of Nazareth seems to be endlessly unexpected.
And yet, there’s been another level too. Where in those places of grief I have grown compassion and hope for the eternal; where in those places of waiting I have been sharpened in vision; where in those places of criticism I have been fortified with conviction; where in those places of sickness I have been settled in the lighter path of letting God be God; where in those places of isolation and disjointedness, I have learned the deep knowledge of a Father whose love is always enough, before and over and beyond all of my doing.
Unexpected, for sure. A daily dying. A daily cross.
And yet, in the beautiful footsteps of our Lord, a daily rising also.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
That we may find our lives, in their truest, freest, fullest form,
We take up the cross daily,
And follow.
Reflect:
What might taking up a cross today look like?
What might you be losing? What might you be finding?
Pray:
Father,
I know I fight this.
So often,
I want the easy road,
And the comfortable way.
And yet, Lord,
I have a deeper desire.
My deeper desire is for the life of fullness,
The life of eternity,
The life of true freedom,
And the life that can only be found
In knowing you,
And so, dear Father,
Lead me today,
In the way of the Cross,
That you may daily put to death in me,
All things of fear, control, captivity, and corruption,
And birth afresh in me
The way of resurrection life,
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Isaiah 27-29 | Proverbs 17:17-25