What Did You Expect?

Scripture: Luke 11:2-11

When I was about three years old… we had a mouse in our kitchen. My mom hated mice. She screamed, jumped up on the counter – terrified me. I was absolutely terrified of whatever this “mouse” beast was that had invaded our kitchen. So I jumped up on the counter with my mom and screamed as well. I refused to walk into the kitchen after that. To get to the dining room – I walked the long way around. During dinner that evening, we heard the trap go off.

My grandfather gets up from the table, and goes and takes care of the mouse. Now, having never seen a mouse, I was most intrigued… now that it was dead, I was ready to face this fearsome creature. My heart was beating – my palms were sweating… here it comes…



Grandpa pulls out the trap, and this tiny little mouse dangles from his hand… and I stared at it for a moment, my eyes widening in surprise, looked at my mother and went, “What? You were afraid of THAT little thing??”

Our expectations sometimes don’t match the reality.

That’s the problem with expectations. And we tend to put a lot of expectations on people as well. We have a lot of expectations that we put on our kids today. What we want them to be – what we want them to aspire to… I remember those expectations. To get certain grades, be good at certain things, to follow in certain people’s footsteps… and most of us, we take those expectations and we try and adopt them. We try to live up to what the expectation is going to be.

The problem is, most of the time – the expectation just isn’t the right expectation to have.

I had to finally come to terms with the fact that I was not going to probably make a very good scientist. Even though I took all the advanced math and science courses – the expectation that I would follow in the footsteps of other members of my family was one that was going to fall woefully short.

Yet – the problem was not that I did not live up to the expectation. The problem was – the expectation just wasn’t the right expectation to have. I wasn’t my brother, my mother or my father – I was me.

Likewise, I think we all have an expectation regarding Jesus. Who Jesus is – what Jesus is like.

John the Baptist had his ideas as well – last week we heard what he thought and expected in regards to Jesus. Calling people to repent, for the one who was coming was coming in judgment. The winnowing fork was in his hand! John was out calling the religious leaders “broods of vipers” and warning them – the Messiah was gonna cut them down if they didn’t watch out!

John’s expectation for Jesus was something a little different than what John actually got. Here John is, out in the desert, preparing the way for the one who was to come, eating locusts and honey, wearing camel skin, acting like a good prophet should – no doubt expecting a fierce warrior who was going to put the Romans and religious leaders alike in their place. Maybe call fire down from heaven like Elijah – put on those great shows and displays of the great prophets of old.

And here comes Jesus. He’s not donned the prophet’s clothing, hasn’t adopted the ascetic lifestyle. He’s eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors – not calling out in the wilderness for people to flee from the coming wrath. He has not assumed the role of the Davidic warrior – and instead speaks of peace and turning the other cheek. He’s not marching on Jerusalem or thundering condemnation against Caesar and his legions.

So it is no wonder that John begins to doubt whether Jesus really IS the messiah. John has an expectation that Jesus isn’t meeting.

We still have some of those expectations today. We still have these ideas of what Jesus should be like, what he should and should not be doing. How Jesus should fit how WE envision him.

I want to take a moment and watch a short clip from the movie Talladega Nights. It is a comedy with Will Ferrell, so keep that in mind. But in this clip, Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, is a race car driver who is attempting to say grace prior to eating dinner. Through the course of the prayer, they begin discussing how they all view who and what Jesus is… let’s watch.

Cal Naughton Jr’s view I think is one we all can identify with – he wants Jesus to be… just like him. The boys want Jesus to be a ninja – fighting off evil samurais. Ricky Bobby – well, he likes a nice, non-threatening Jesus in the form of the baby Jesus.

While this was obviously a humorous look at how we tend to imagine Jesus, it’s also pretty indicative of what we actually do. We pick and choose the attributes about Jesus we like best and apply them to our vision and our expectation of who he is and what he’s like. This is the Jesus I like, therefore – this is how I view and see Jesus. This is how I EXPECT Jesus will be.

Many people will tell you if you don’t believe this or that about Jesus – well, Jesus will smite you when he returns for being wrong. So I think we’ve got a lot of people who actually DO view Jesus as a ninja most of the time.

Yet I think we need to pay closer attention to Jesus’ response to John. John had an expectation. John KNEW his scriptures. John wanted Jesus to fit the prophet mold. And Jesus… didn’t comply.

Because what John and the rest of us fail to realize is that Jesus came not to meet our expectations as to what a messiah or savior ought to do and be, but rather… he came to meet our needs.

Now, unlike most kids who are trying to live up to expectations that are a little off-kilter, Jesus doesn’t bother. Jesus doesn’t even attempt to live up to the expectation people have of him. Instead, he just says – “Here’s who I am and what I do. The lame have been healed. The blind see. You figure out what that means.” I’m doing what the world needs – not what you may want or expect of me.

He didn’t tell John, “Yes, don’t worry – I’m just a little different – but I’ll get there.” Or, “Geez John, you’re my cousin, and you’re doubting me? Really?”

Rather, Jesus just says – look at what I’m doing and decide for yourself if I embody the kingdom of God. See if my actions reflect the God of the scriptures.

During this Christmas season, we have a lot of expectations and views of Jesus. Like Ricky Bobby – let’s face it… we really like the Christmas Jesus best right now. And that’s actually ok. God wants us to like the Christmas Jesus. Not because he wears golden fleece diapers – which we know he didn’t – but because God wants us to see his heart revealed in a humble child, born amid the most scandalous of circumstances. Born to an unwed peasant woman in a smelly stable, surrounded by simple local shepherds. It’s not a cutesy Jesus God wants us to see, but the HUMAN Jesus God wants us to see.

God wants us to see Him in the unexpected way in which he has chosen to come to us. Not in fury and anger, wrath or vengeance like John was envisioning… but in love and healing. In the form of a tiny child – that yes, will grow up into a man. But that’s the thing – he will grow up – just like us – and experience the challenges of life – just like the rest of us.

After all, you’ve heard the Joan Obsorn song… “What if God was one of us… just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus…”

Indeed – God became one of us in the Christmas event. Who can be fearful of a God that comes to us in this way?  A God who comes to us and says I don’t care what your expectation is – this is who I am – and happy is the one who doesn’t take offense to that. See what I do. See how I have come for those who are hurting, the outcast, the downtrodden. See how I care for those in need.

Our own expectations unfortunately sometimes blind us to how God comes to us. We focus instead on trying to figure out dates and times that Jesus will come back and smite the wicked so the rest of us will be able to stand back and mock. Like John – many today are still looking for and expecting the vengeful, wrathful, militant Jesus that will rain down fire, hail, death and destruction.

As many of you are aware – last week new predictions on Omaha billboards surfaced on Christ’s return. The new date for the “rapture” is apparently May 21, 2011. Hmmm... so much for us joining the Big 10 next year... Their argument is that we CAN know Christ is coming just like Noah knew about the coming flood, we just have to be prepared for the thief and know the thief is coming.

There is one point I agree with – we have to be prepared. But what if their expectation – like John’s expectation – of how Christ is going to come to us is off-kilter? John knew the scriptures inside and out and Jesus said he was the greatest of all the prophets… yet even his knowledge of the scriptures and his knowing the Messiah was coming – after all, he was the one to prepare the way for him – still did not prepare him for the reality of Jesus.

So, the question we have to ask is: What is the best way to prepare for Jesus’ return? Is the best way to sit and read the headlines with anticipation and a sense of glee that the world is going to hell in a hand basket? Or is the best way to prepare for Jesus’ return to be doing what Jesus commanded of us? Loving our neighbor. Taking care of the sick and the poor and the lowly. After all – that’s what Jesus did when he came the first time, despite all other expectations. The lame walked – the blind saw… and he wanted to know… what were you expecting?

My hunch is when Christ returns, it’s not going to be so he can pat on the back the people who have spent years and years calculating and predicting his return and go “aha! You figured out my secret code!” I think Jesus will ask – did you feed me? Did you clothe me? Did you see me sitting on that bus? Did you see me when I came to you humble, and hungry – just like I did that first Christmas?

Just like I expected a giant beast and instead got a tiny mouse… sometimes we expect the raging lion of Judah ready to kill – but instead we get a meek lamb who has come to die for us.