Didn't See That Coming!
When’s the last time we experienced something great that was totally unexpected? Maybe a million dollar check from a long lost relative or an all-expense paid vacation from a friend? Maybe something not so drastic but none less meaningful like a surprise date totally arranged by our significant other? And not in the first month of dating but in the 10th year of marriage and beyond when it’s a bit more unexpected.
Each of these examples pale in comparison to what God has done for us in expressing His love, but God’s love is an unexpected kind of love. The love demonstrated by God through His death and resurrection was so unexpected that it caught everyone by surprise as the events unfolded and often does today.
Would God really subject Himself to His creation to die cursed on a tree so that you, I, and whosoever believes in Him can have life everlasting in His presence? It’s just so unexpected!
Bottom line, the Easter story is quite unexpected, and it’s been that way since the beginning. If we’re wrestling with the reality of God on a cross or an empty tomb, we’re in good company. In Luke’s account, the women followers of Jesus first discovered the empty tomb and reported to the disciples the body was gone. Their response: nonsense! It’s just too unexpected! Jesus, early in His ministry, began sharing the vision of His life to be a ransom for many through His death and resurrection but it fell on deaf hears. A typical response to that which is outside our expectations.
I believe love is the strongest when it’s the unexpected variety. In fact, it’s the unexpected variety that authenticates the love. Not from obligation. Nothing to be gained. Just pure affection. It initially didn’t compute with the first disciples and we still have a difficult time computing it today. God can’t just die in my place, for my sins, so that I can live. God die? God can’t just accept me sins, scars, and all; there must be something I have to do. It can’t be! It’s too unexpected!
Jesus, fully God and fully man, willingly subjects Himself to death on a cross and three days later is resurrected leaving the empty tomb behind! Totally unexpected from our point of view but it was God’s plan all along.
God knew the price He was willing to pay before we were ever created. Love. Real and unexpected. There could be no other way. If God is just and perfect, how could we ever collect enough moral tokens to make us right with God? Playboy and preacher on common ground before the cross. So scandalous; so unexpected. Jesus with arms open wide, nailed to a tree, calling out today in bold silence, “Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest.”
What should our response be to love that unexpected? Accept it and let it sink deep into our soul. Accepting though can be hard. Surely, there’s more to it than that? No, salvation is God’s work of unexpected love for us and it’s a love so strong and pure there’s nothing we could ever do to add to it. But once we experience it, there’s no going back. It changes us from the inside out!