You ever wonder what kind of confusion the disciples were experiencing the week leading up to Jesus crucifixion. As we are in the season of lent and the holy week I wanted to just take a moment to think about how you go from triumph to death to awe.
I bet on palm Sunday when Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem with the crowd going wild the disciples were feeling at the top of their game. Here they were with Jesus, the promised Messiah, the crowd is going crazy, Jesus will be the next reigning king. I bet they were ready. I bet they were already thinking about that new kingdom. I bet they were excited, smiling, handing out high fives, and living the dream. I bet they were thinking about their place in this new kingdom. They were about to go from the nobodies to the somebodies, from the oppressed to the ruling.
Jesus was doing exactly what they thought. He was fulfilling their understanding and expectations.
But boy did they get the curve ball later in the week. I wonder if they ever clued into the fact that Gethsemane was coming. I wonder when they started to think that something was terribly wrong. What day or what words did they hear that began to cast shadows on their bright future? Do you think they saw the signs and understood the events of the fig tree, the temple cleansing, the last supper? Or where they just so enamored by their own interpretation of events, of Scripture, that they refused to acknowledge the fact that God had charted a new course? That the events they had read about and been taught in the synagogues were not the correct interpretation of what was about to take place.
I think there is something to be said about our desire for God to crush our oppressors and free us from "romans". That is what the disciples were anticipating. Jesus didn't come to crush external governments or political parties - He came to free us from internal bondage and heal our brokenness.
We too like the disciples come in on triumphal Sunday thinking God is going to do something great and mighty only to have our savior crucified. How many times have we been hood winked into hoping that something or someone will save us from our misery only to have our hopes and dreams beaten down by Romans, betrayed by close friends, and buried in a tomb?
I bet the disciples were in a world of confusion. Nothing they had planned or expected was working out. Nothing they had hoped for was coming to pass. The God they had followed was dead. The Savior they looked to had failed them. They were scattered in darkness, alone, and left with nothing. Having given up everything with hopes of more, they realized it was all for nothing.
I guess I see God that way in my own life. I have lived the euphoric Palm Sunday only to find myself staring at the Skull, wondering what the hell just happened. But staring at the Skull is vain. The truth is not found there, it is found in darkness; by staring into the dark place of an empty grave. In that dark hole I find the freedom, truth, power, and LIGHT of God. That grave is empty.
Stair into darkness - He is alive - He is risen and though I don't understand this new path I am convinced that His plan for my life is better than anything I dreamed about on Palm Sunday and bigger than any crucified dream on Good Friday.
My Jesus lives, dashed hopes, misinterpreted Scripture, and shattered dreams have no power over an empty grave.
Let's never forget - HE IS ALIVE and that makes all the difference in my broken world.
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