Expectations and Anger

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God.”  Matthew 27:39-40

The majority who saw Jesus crucified thought he was weak.  If he had exerted his power by saving himself from the cross, they might have spoken of his strength but we would not have a Savior!  His accuser’s perception of what was weak and was was strong was entirely wrong.  They were living life in the moment.  They were not able to see that the power was in the cross, the thing that looked like it inflicted shame and defeat.

God has appeared feeble to me at various points in my past.  Like those who hurled insults, I have been known to cry out, “If you are God, come and down and change this.”  Yet, the sources of pain that seemed to much to bear tempted me to demand deliverance.  But in the end, they have become the very things through which the power of the cross has been showcased.  Where I was weak, through Christ I am strong.  Where my heart bled, through Christ my scars bear the handiwork of his grace and glory.  The things I thought would destroy me have, in essence, saved me.  All of them have been the doorway that brought me to the end of myself and to the beginning of new life.

We cannot live in the moment, daughter of promise.  Things are not as they appear.  We cannot judge whether or not God is powerful by looking at our present circumstances and setting up a criterion by which God must prove himself.  We need only look back to see that He has already done that.  We need only look ahead to see that he is a King who will rule throughout eternity.  What could be more powerful than the cross and future glory?

Your plan for me is redemptive Lord.  I trust you with my life today.  Amen