He who was going to redeem Israel (Luke 24:21)

Someone gave me a book a few years ago written by a Jewish man.  His main purpose in the book, whether stated or not, I don’t remember, was to help young Jews not become Christians.  He explained why Jews are not Christians, why Jews should not convert to Christianity and laid out the differences between Christian and Jewish understandings of the Messiah.

He said that the Jewish Messiah was going to come and set the Jewish people free from the oppression they are in politically at the hands of their enemies.  But he said that the mission of the Christian Messiah was “just to set humanity free from its bondage to sin”.  Just.  Option 1: the Messiah sets free God’s chosen people and leaves the rest of the race of men to burn.  Option 2: the Messiah opens the doors of freedom to the entire race of men.  Which would you choose?

Now, before you call me anti-Semitic, you should know that I am Jewish.  Not in a “we are now all part of the Israel of God” way, but in the “my mother was Jewish, her mother was Jewish and her mother was Jewish” kind of way.  And I’m not making fun of this guy who wrote this book.  I think he did a great job of showing that Christianity is a better option, not only in the section I mentioned above, but throughout the book.  His points made Christianity look much more appealing to me, I think I got saved again at least once while reading.

It is true, the Lord committed Himself to redeeming Israel, but He is just one of those guys who does more than is required of Him.  Paul put it well when he wrote that He does “exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we could ever ask or think”.  Call it over-achieving, call it excellence, call it whatever you want, I’m just glad He didn’t just stop with one people group.  It seems to me that it is more like Him in His character as I know Him to search for any way possible to bless whoever He can in whatever way He can.

He has a greater vision than us.  He thinks bigger.  He loves larger.  He believes in us more than we do in ourselves or each other.  He waits longer for the perfect moment to spring up and ambush us with blessings we cannot contain.  He invests more in us than we think we can handle.  He trusts us more than we think we are worthy of.  He knows us deeper.  He understands us better.  He is more creative than we can imagine.  He is more kind.  He is never worried about what is going to happen.  He is your biggest fan.  He does it right but doesn’t freak out when things don’t go the right way.  He can do anything, except remember what you did wrong.  He is not irritable.  He can handle anything you can dish out.  He is very patient.  He is love.

Sure, He was going to redeem Israel, but then He figured “Why stop there?”  Just like in Mark 6, when He walked on water, His intention was to go past the little boat of scared disciples and beat them to the other side.  But He saw that they needed Him, so He stopped by to help out by stopping to contrary winds.  And when He was about to go to the Father as our Great High Priest to sacrifice His Blood to complete the necessary atonement, He stopped to comfort Mary in the garden.  He is still a big proponent of redeeming Israel, setting them free political oppression, but He won’t stop there.  His sights are set slightly higher than that.

*Redeemer, give us Your heart so that we live like You live.

He who was going to redeem Israel (Luke 24:21)

Dealing with misunderstanding and disappointment is one of the hardest things to do.  The two men on their way to Emmaus, along with the rest of Jesus’ followers, thought that Jesus was going to be the Jewish Messiah.  They thought that they knew what that would look like.  And indeed, they were right in their understanding of who He is, what they did not have right is what that would look like.  They thought He would rise up militarily and overthrow the unrighteous governmental system over Israel.  But God just doesn’t do it that way.  His plans always involve changing people’s hearts and releasing them to take over by changing the structures from the inside out.
Replacing one overpowering government with another is not a good change.  Infiltrating the systems and mentalities of culture is the only truly effective way of to change a culture, a nation or a planet.  That is exactly what He intends to do now in our culture, our nation and our planet.  Christians will be up in arms until abortion is made illegal, all abortions, all the time.  One problem with that is that people will still get abortions if it is illegal.  This is because the hearts of the people have not changed, just what they are allowed to do without getting in trouble.  I am not saying that abortion is a good thing at all, what I am saying is that ending abortion means transforming how people think about it.  Even if abortion is legal or even encouraged, people will not do it if their hearts desire their seed to be perpetuated.  Abortions don’t happen in groups that want children.  Islam is taking over Europe by having half a dozen babies per family, encouraged by the religious leaders.  In one generation they will be able to vote in whom ever they want into any governmental position, because the current generation is not aborting their babies and is raising them with their values.
When God does something different from the way that we want Him to do it, the problem is not with His ways, but with our understanding.  When we get offended because God is not doing something, and we think that our anger is righteous anger, I believe that it is wiser to step out and change what we don’t like rather than get upset.  Jesus said that He was the light of the world while He was in the world.  But now we are the light of the world, we are the sons into whose hands the earth has been given.  It is our responsibility to change and transform culture through stepping into it and effecting change, not by complaining and hoping that our whining is going to reach the right ears to change something.  There is a place for intercession, but the Lord told His disciples to pray for laborers, people who would do what is needed for a harvest.  We need laborers.
In principle, no one would disagree with how the Lord does things.  No one would say that He is doing something the wrong way, at least not openly.  But in our hearts we question His ways more than most of us would like to admit.  We know that, just as the Scriptures say, “He is righteous in all His ways”, but we don’t know what to do with the government officials He allows to get into office or the injustice of a friend or family member dying when they die.  Even disasters are from the Lord according to Amos chapter three, verse six.  At some point we have to come to a place of humility where we can honestly say “I don’t understand You, but I trust You and I love you.  I’m sticking with You no matter what.”  We will not always get it, nor will we always agree with what or how he does something, but we know that He is good.  And if that is true, then we can rest assured that He does everything from a place of goodness and love.
*Lord, we trust You, help us grow to trust You more and more easily.  Amen.*