Missing the Messiah

Replacing our great expectations with God’s expectations

03/08/2019

Luke 9:22-25 Jesus said to his disciples: "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?"

On our recent mission trip to Honduras we not only spent time with the poor, I also enjoyed my time with the missionaries. We had lots of great conversations, especially on the five hour bus ride from the airport to Tocoa, where we stayed. One thoughtful missionary named Chip surprisingly asked me a very spiritual question. He asked: “Fr. John, how did the Jews miss the Messiah, if that is who their whole religion was waiting for?” I said, “That’s such an easy question, I’ll let Deacon Cesar answer it.” Not really.

I answered: “I think the Jews’ expectations for the Messiah were very great, but they were also very earthly. They wanted the Messiah to save them with political power, military might, and bring them worldly wealth. But because Jesus did not promise or provide any of those fulfillments, they not only missed him, they even murdered him.” Today’s first reading seems to justify the Jews’ earthly expectations. We read in Deuteronomy: “Choose life…long life for you to live on the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” In other words, the Jews had been educated to expect the Messiah to achieve two goals: (1) restore their lost land and (2) give them long life. But Jesus the Messiah did neither.

Have you read the classic novel called Great Expectations by Charles Dickens? It was published in 1861 and recounts the education and expectations of an orphan named Pip. I mention the novel because Pip slowly learns that his own great expectations are not always God’s expectations for his life. Through a long series of disappointments, dangers, and even deceptions, Pip discovers that God’s expectations always turn out better than his own. In a sense, we might say the whole bible – Old Testament and New Testament – should have served like the novel Great Expectations for the Jews. The experiences of the Jews in the bible should have taught them to relinquish their own expectations in favor of God’s, which always surpass anything they could have imagined.

In the gospel today, Jesus finally and fully unveils what God’s expectations are for the Chosen People. Jesus declares: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” And he adds: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” In other words, Jesus is trying to raise the Jews’ expectations from earth to heaven, from their own great expectations to God’s even greater expectations. St. Paul will put a fine point on this in 1 Corinthians 15:19, where he writes: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” Jesus came to transform our own great expectations for us, into God’s expectations for us, which always exceed what we could hope for.

My friends, sooner or later our own hopes and dreams for our life fail to pan out as we planned. Maybe a marriage you hoped would bring you happiness turned sour and ended in divorce. Sometimes a career path we saw promising prosperity and even early retirement blundered into bankruptcy and dire debt. For some people chronic illness or persistent pain makes them give up on healing and health. We aspire to be a saint but moral mishaps and spiritual struggles leave us lethargic and lacking love for God or our neighbor. What parent doesn’t hope their child grows up to cure cancer, but sometimes they grow up and care barely treat their common cold. All our great expectations seem to shipwreck on the unseen reefs of real life.

May I suggest to you that is the perfect point to exchange our own great expectations for God’s much greater expectations? Just like the Jews and Pip endured disappointments and dangers and even deceptions, we need to realize our own struggles are all designed to help us let go of our expectations and learn to embrace God’s. In a certain sense, that is also the underlying lesson of Lent: we sacrifice our earthly expectations (our pleasures and our plans) so we can embrace God’s heavenly expectations (his providence and his peace).

If we do not undergo that transformation, we too may end up like the Jews: we may likewise miss the Messiah.

Praised be Jesus Christ!