neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts..."
Long before Jesus was born, the prophets were telling of the one that would
come to save God's chosen people. For hundreds of years the stories were told
of he that would come and rescue them from their oppression, from their own
foolishness, from everything bad that surrounded and was within them. Everyone knew he would come riding in
on a stallion with his armies of men to beat and kill and take what they
believed to have been stolen from them, their rights, their humanity, their
comfort, their luxuries. One day God would send that person, that guy, to save them and
they would never have to worry again. God would provide.
Until this person named Jesus. He wasn’t the first to be named that, nor was he the last. He wasn’t even the first one from Nazareth. The rumors began from the very moment of his conception. Elizabeth saw it and felt it, remember? Her unborn baby leapt in her womb. You know she had to tell Zechariah. Did she tell others? Wouldn’t you? If you had seen the miraculous things they had seen and been a part of, wouldn’t you share what you knew to be true?
The religious leaders he spoke with when he was twelve, the ones he sat with, the ones he stayed with when his parents couldn’t find him on their journey home after the Passover celebration. Surely someone or several someones told others about the amazing things this child shared. He told them, "Where else would I be but in my father's house?"
Or those at the wedding celebration where Mary asked and Jesus turned the water into wine. Those that witnessed that miracle shared with others; you know they did. That’s what we humans do. That’s what this particular medium, this online storytelling, is all about. “I know something that you don’t know so I will share it with all of you.” It’s our very nature.
The followers who were with him every day thought they knew it. “He’s the one! Come with us and see!” And the numbers grew and grew wherever he was. “He’s the one! The time will come when he will shed this mask of servitude and poverty and show us all that he’s the one. Just wait!”
Jesus said the time was near so preparations were being made. It’s easy now to look back and see that they all missed his message, “It won’t be like you think. God doesn’t see things the way that you all see things. That’s what I’ve been trying to teach you. Listen! It won’t be what you think.”
But no one understood. When he washed their feet and dined with the sinners. When he healed those whom others wanted to stone they whispered among themselves. When he ‘misinterpreted’ what was clearly written in the Book of Moses. Wait, was he the one? He clearly wasn’t acting the way they had believed for all time the savior would act.
And then the week arrived. This would be it! Now he would finally show himself to be who they believed him to be! After all, he said the "The time is at hand." Hallelujah! And still he told them, “It won’t be as you think.”
So when he was arrested, they couldn’t believe in him as the savior. God’s savior, God’s appointed king, wouldn’t allow himself to be arrested, beaten, and hung on a cross! He must be an imposter! He doesn’t fit what we think a savior should be so he’s not the one. Forget that we followed him for years, that we saw with our own eyes the miracles he performed. It was all magic! We knew it all the time! He’s a fake! I told you so!
Even his closest friends and followers gave up. It wasn’t true. He wasn’t the one. He didn’t do what we thought he would do so he’s not the one. He was a great friend, a wonderful teacher, but he just wasn’t the one.
And I would suggest more than two thousand years later, we are still waiting for that guy, the one. You know, the one who will ride in on his stallion, leading his great army to save us. We watch the news. We listen to our politicians. We believe that the great leader, the Savior, will come riding in one day soon and finally rescue us from this great mess we have created, never really understanding that he was here and we ignored all of his pleas, all of his teachings, all of his love.
He was here. He was the one. And we missed it.
We look to entertainers. We look to politicians. We look to presidents. We look to anyone who will tell us what we want to hear and make us believe we can count on them to show us the way. He was here. But he didn’t say and do the things we thought he would.
And we still ask, “Is he the one?” I would suggest that there will still be some of us who won't recognize him when he does (the Bible tells us so). I would suggest that as much as some folks claim they read their Bible, and I don't doubt it, that like those folks who walked and talked with him, there will be some who won't recognize him because he still won't look and act like they think he should look and act.
And the question will be, "Is He the one?"
