“Expectations”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, March 31, 2022

Mark 8:27-9:1 (Forward, p. 61) CEV p. 1037

It is interesting, and informative, to note just how we humans spell out to potential ‘recruits’ just what expectations we have of them. Enlist for a summit of Mt. Everest or a cross Atlantic yachting race and the specifics and hazards will definitely be spelled out. Even for a major high school drama production, the expectations of the actors were spelled out very clearly and starkly. All of the actors—and their parents—were required to be at the introduction meeting and the actors were told—point blank—very explicitly that all other activities, except for their studies, would have to be discarded during the period of the practices and performances. But then, by way of contrast, why do we so soft-pedal our expectations for church or community tasks or responsibilities—or even, for that matter, what is expected of people as Christian believers?

Jesus did none of this. He was very explicit about what was going to happen to Him, no less than being arrested, mistreated, and killed, afterwards rising to life again. And He was likewise very explicit, very up-front, about what they could expect as His disciples. They must set aside their own feelings and agendas (that’s what ‘forgetting self’) is about and simply choose His way over their own ways whenever it came to a matter of choice (that’s what taking up their crosses was about). They were to choose Him and His gospel over everything else, including their own safety and security and comfort.

I couldn’t help but contrast this with the ‘pack of lies’ that I was fed as an adult coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Yes, I was told that I was now a new person, forgiven and freed from the burden of sin, but I was never told that sin was still very much with me or that temptation would be even more severe and prevalent. And certainly, the no-stress, no-hassle, no-problem life that I was promised, never did materialize. In some ways, by way of contrast, my pre conversion life was a ‘piece of cake’.

So, maybe we need to spell out this unpleasant reality a bit more, whether in sermons and Bible studies, or in confirmation or new members’ classes. And maybe we need to prepare and equip them to meet this eventuality. And, while we are ‘at it’, not only to mention their responsibilities as Christians and mention some of the tasks that they might take on (by way of recruitment, perhaps), but also spell out just what is involved. It may be, if the challenge is presented and the expectations more clearly spelled out, that people will be more interested, more attracted to this, than something that demands little or nothing. Something to think about. Amen.

Forward notes: “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (verse 31).

“’I’ve got some good news and some bad news,’ my then sixteen-year-old said. He was a new driver, and I stayed on pins and needles whenever he took the car. ‘Which do you want first?’ That question always gives me pause. Eventually, I am going to hear the entire story, but I never know in which order I want to receive it.

“Mark says that after Jesus told his disciples what would happen to him, Peter argued with him: How can this be? Jesus’s proclamation fell on disbelieving ears. The disciples only heard the terrifying news: that Jesus would suffer and die. They missed the good news that he would rise again. Hindsight gives us an advantage over Peter. He faced what he thought would be a devastating future, but we know the whole story. Ours is a future of hope and the promise of eternal life. We live in the Good News!”

Moving Forward: “How can we reflect our belief that there’s always Good News (even in the bad)?”