Disappointment in the Last Hour

Today's writing is by Anthony Compolo. Who? Yep, I didn't know either. He appears to be an interesting guy. He is a present-day Christian speaker, sociologist, author and pastor. If you are so inclined you can google him.
The Scripture reading is Matthew 26:16. It reads, "And from that moment on he began to look for an opportunity to betray Him."

When Jesus came to earth He became one of us. In many ways he gave up His power. He could have squished Judas right there, but He didn't. He had a mission to accomplish. The concept posed by Pastor Campola is this, "some think that Judas betrayed Jesus in order to force Him to play the power game and establish His rule." Did Judas just want Jesus to show His power? What? A weak and suffering Messiah?! No way! I do not know if I really believe Judas was trying to manipulate Jesus. There is no way to really know why Judas betrayed Jesus.

At the time most people thought the Messiah would overthrow the Roman rule and take a position of power ruling over Israel. Judas may have thought his association with this coming King would be of benefit. I have felt something similar at times. If I hang out with Jesus good things will happen to me. The Bible promises something different. It promises that in this world there will be trouble (John 16:33). Judas may have pictured this great overthrow. Oh the glory! Can you hear Judas saying, "I know Him! I know Him!" Yep, in my mind I heard Buddy the Elf.

As Jesus ministry marched on it became evident that Jesus had different plans. He hung out with, well, the 'unpopular' group. He had no money, slept outside much of the time, got hungry, and well, let's be honest...ruffled a lot of feathers. The washing of the disciples feet had to be shocking to Judas if he was expecting this powerful king to come.

John 13

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

¹ It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.
¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.
¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

I think of the application into my own life. In Day 51 the Lord laid the word commitment on my heart. How committed am I to Jesus when he does something I do not like or that causes me discomfort? Being on Jesus team involves many sacrifices and one is going against the crowd, not being mainstream, or being weird (plug for Journey's latest sermon series). It is possible that Jesus disappointed Judas. Where were the king-sized parties, the grandeur, the glory?! If I am honest with myself I will say I have been disappointed by God. As my mom slipped closer and closer to death my disappointment grew. Here was this woman who was larger than life. She lived and loved out loud. She was, well...Dinah.

She was stripped of all her dignity. She was bald, looked 15 years older than she really was, her teeth had broken off, her eyes hardly worked, her body ached, she had such buzzing in her ear that it sounded like a jet taking off inches from her head (because of the brain tumor), her body was swollen from the huge doses of steroids, and the list goes on. As I sit beside my mom in that bedroom (the very room my sister and I spent hours having heart-to-hearts with mom in) holding her limp hand watching her life on earth come to an end the disappointment overwhelmed me. As her morphine-induced stupor wore off and she screamed and writhed in pain the disappointment took my breath away. "God! Where are you?!" The exclamation point occurred when she went home to Paradise. What a day February 24th, 2011 was. The emotions are very raw now because just a year ago she was told there was no hope. There was nothing that could be done. Can you imagine her disappointment?! Dad's days were spent looking after her and making sure she got her pills every few hours.

Yep, disappointment, I know it well. Here's the thing, I don't know why Mom had to die an atrocious death. Satan would love if that disappointment pushed me from the Lord. He would love it if it caused me to betray Jesus, turn my back on Him. After all, He could have healed my mom in this life. What kind of God is this? I'm going to be different though, even weird. It is in the times of great disappointment where we must cling, white-knuckled, to our faith. You know what? It is also okay to desperately cry out to God in our pain. After the mortician came to her shell I sat beside her hospital bed, held her eyeglasses, and cried like I have never cried before...then I felt a little better. After that I got up and did the next thing.

Who knew I could learn so much from the 'sell-out?' I have learned that being committed to Jesus takes work and is never easy.