But I Wanted Something Different

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem, rightly honoured by the crowds as conquering King.  They did receive their King, just not the King they wanted and a few days later in their confusion and dismay, would shout, "Crucify him!".

I've always been grateful to have been born on this side of the resurrection, to have an understanding that God had plans other than defeating our worldly enemies in order to relieve our oppression,  that the real oppressor was sin that led to separation from him who gives us life.  How many times, when we ask God for something that we think we need, we end up with something totally different than what we thought we should have received.  This invariably brings us to a test of faith.  Do we really trust our Heavenly Father to give us, his children, good gifts when it appears so differently from what we'd hoped?  We meet this challenge differently at different times, sometime weakly and other times with strong resolution, but in the end, it is the same decision the crowds had to make on Good Friday, to accept or reject Jesus as King.   To say, "Yes, Lord.", or to say, "I must have been mistaken, you can't be the one I had hoped for.".

How I do sympathize with the crowds.  Jesus is different than what we thought we wanted as he goes about breaking  our stereotypes, even our archetypes.  He is the suffering servant who shows us the Father, who empties himself to give us life - who is life, who says we must take up our cross.  He may be different from what we thought we wanted, but he is just what we need.  He is the true King.