Surprise

The word for the day is, EXPECTATION. It’s different from anticipation. You anticipate things that are actually on the way. Expectations are more in the category of wishes. They belong to that family of wishes that masquerade as “hopes”. Real hope is simply anticipation. When you expect something, you have absolutely no guarantee that it will show up. But it’s funny, expectations are devious – when they come up short, you feel ripped-off, duped, robbed. And they just stand there and say, “What…?” Then your just left with disappointment. You know what that is. It’s an appointment with a dis. Worse than the dentist.

But I have a secret for out-witting disappointment. Don’t expect anything. Seriously. It’s more than just keeping expectations low. I think we expect things because somewhere down deep we think we’ve earned them. We think we’re entitled to things. We’re not. If you want your rights, here is what you have a right to: death, eternal separation from God, eating bread derived from the sweat of your brow, and the law of diminishing returns (AKA – Sin.). That’s it. Everything else is gravy. We have a hard time with grace though, don’t we? We want to buy it. The problem is, it ceases to exist then.

Jesus was surprised once. Surprises are wonderful things. You have a lot more of them when you don’t expect anything. I think Jesus knew this secret (what doesn’t he know…). We read that “he did not commit himself to them for he knew what was in a man”. He did not expect much of us, and rightly so. But he was astonished when the centurion told him to simply say the word, and his servant would be healed. He explained that as a centurion he had authority, and simply had to speak and his will was done. The centurion deduced that Jesus must have the same ability. He didn’t need Jesus to even come to his house. When the Lord heard this, he said that he hadn’t seen faith like this in all of Israel! He was surprised.

The fact that Jesus could marvel is proof that he is really a man. He really did humble himself and fit himself into our skin – our experience. There were many times when he showed divine knowledge, but there were also times like above when he didn’t know something. He knew only what the Father told him then. The Father wanted him to be surprised too. How amazing is that? God the Father wanted His Son to experience something that He hadn’t. You have to be human to be surprised.

I once read that the definition of meekness is to be surprised at how good you’re treated when anyone says anything bad about you, because they could have said much worse. Keep your expectations chained up. They bark really loud sometimes, but what the Lord has in mind for you is so much better than anything you can dream up. “him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think… ” Expect nothing and life will be a never ending surprise party. Also, be surprised when things you know you have coming to you don't show up.

BJ

What's In A Name

I just recently got a new e-mail account. My name was taken already. I was kindly offered some scrambled versions of it that were still free to use. I ended up just having to have my first and last names inverted. That wasn’t so bad. “raymondbj” is better than “ray_mond001b1976j1234”. But, as usual, that got me thinking….

When both Mary and Joseph were visited by an angel to confirm the birth of the Son of God, they were told to name him “Jesus”. That name is a version of the Hebrew name “Joshua” and simply means “Jehovah saves”. But more often than not, in the epistles of the new testament, he is called “The Lord Jesus Christ”. That title is what we may call his full name. It expresses who he is quite well. The Lord… God, sovereign, king of kings. Jesus… saviour, rescuer, redeemer. Christ… messiah, anointed one, chosen, special.

Having my name inverted for my new spam… I mean e-mail account, reminded me that Jesus kind of had the same thing happen to him. When Paul was before King Agrippa he talked about his “faith in Christ Jesus”. The messiah aspect of his title is here put first. It’s interesting to see the number of combinations used for Jesus in His book. Sometimes he is the Lord Jesus Christ, other times he is the Lord Jesus, the Lord, Christ the Lord, Christ Jesus (as mentioned already), Jesus Christ, Christ and simply Jesus. We read also about the Lord and His Christ.

So, why the mixed-up name? Well, I think we are often quick to come up with formulas. I don’t think there is anything magical or mystical in the letters and syllables that make up His name. It’s not like in the Chronicles of Narnia when Queen Jadis uses the deplorable word and destroys her own planet. But we are prone to looking for incantations sometimes. I remember when the “Prayer of Jabez” phenomena hit. It resonated with that place in our fallen natures that craves a system for self-improvement. The thing is, it didn’t last. These things never do. But Jesus lasts. 2,000 years and counting.

He is not a formula or a system or even a means to another end. Paul was told that he would be a witness to Jesus in Rome, and even though he had to go in chains, he still went. Why? For Christ’s sake. He was most likely killed, eventually, under Nero – alone in prison writing to Timothy that everyone in Asia had left him – even Ephesus. Why? For Christ’s sake. His Lord, loved him and gave himself for him. There was no formula for Paul. Jesus, plus or minus nothing. He wrote in his letter to the Ephesians (1:10) about “the SUMMING up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” NASB (emphasis added) It’s a mathematical term that’s used here. And it’s simply this: EVERYTHING = CHRIST. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of it’s parts when we put it that way.

Even in His name we find a complexity and that touch of “otherness” that accompanies this One who left heaven to come looking for the very ones who dragged that name through the muck and mire. You can’t pin him down. He has a name that is above every name, we read. I think there is more to that than simply J-E-S-U-S. I think it’s like the Jews that never actually spoke the name JHVH. We can’t say his rightful name yet. Not until we have new tongues and a new heavenly speech. I can’t wait. No more e-mail…

BJ

Lightbulbs and Great Fishes

Epiphany is a funny word. It just sounds funny. Really - say it out loud right now. See? Funny word. It sounds like a girls name that everybody skips over in the baby-name book. What would you call her for short? Epiphany is one of those words you have to look up in the dictionary twice. What the meaning of it boils down to is, a lightbulb. Think cartoon: A coyote has a great idea (always involving explosives) and a lightbulb appears over his head. An epiphany is when the light comes on in a big way. It even looks funny typed.

So, I was sitting one Sunday morning, listening to a guest speaker in our chapel and I was daydreaming. I should have been trying harder to pay attention, I guess, but I found myself thinking about how Jesus said he was like Jonah. It was the time when the Pharisees were asking for a sign, and all the Lord would give them was the sign of Jonah. He said, “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” I had never really thought much about how that was so. So, I did. It fits better than I would have thought.

It goes this way: Jonah was on a ship close to capsizing. The cargo had been thrown overboard and the nature of the storm was such that the sailors were sure there was something supernatural to it. They determine that somebody on the ship is the cause, and so they draw straws to let divine intervention pinpoint the culprit. Jonah gets the short straw (or long one and the rest were short… not sure). He jumps into the sea – the very thing that is about to kill everyone – and the storm subsides. The sailors are saved. He is then carried through the water – through death – in the belly of that great fish. God commands the fish to throw him up, and Jonah then goes on to save a million people in Nineveh. Do you see it?

Death is the result of sin. It didn’t exist before the fall. It wasn’t part of the original creation. But death is not only something that happens to us at the end of our lives. It’s something that is present with us all the time. Death is inside us. So, the Son of God takes on humanity – he dives right into it – and allows mankind to swallow him. But he’s preserved through it. He comes out the other side. Millions of people are saved. Maybe you’re reading this going, “um… ya Beej, that’s great. I learned that in Sunday School when I was 8 months old.” But it’s MY epiphany! That’s the thing about those things. They’re personal. God makes something real to YOU and you hang on to it.

Christ certainly didn’t have Jonah’s attitude, but Jonah is a “type” of Christ. He pre-figures the Lord in what he goes through. The interesting thing is that now the opposite is happening. Before Jesus came, people like Joseph, Isaac, and Jonah outlined Christ in different ways. Now, we who are reborn in Him find Him as our type too. T. Austin-Sparks wrote that the Holy Spirit is writing a biography of Christ in the lives of believers. We will go through what Jesus went through here in varying degrees. Jesus said, “the world hated me, and they will hate you too.” But he was preserved through it all, and so shall we be.

The Lord turns the light on sometimes. Sometimes it’s the littlest and simplest of things that all of a sudden become dear to us this way. I’m thankful for a fresh look at Jonah. I am grateful for how it has increased my appreciation of Jesus. Now, if I can just say epiphany without snickering.

BJ