Mar 28 2021 - Palm Sunday - How to Deal with Unmet Expectations

You are gentle and humble of heart – and provide rest for our souls. Help us to find rest in You.

John’s version of Palm Sunday is one of the shortest in the gospels. Continuing in the miracles/signs that John shares – this Sunday is the raising of Lazarus. There is a measure of expectations – after the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, many go around spreading what happened – and the expectations are off the charts. So they are the ones who have stirred up the crowds, waving the palms and singing Hosanna in the Highest!

I have found that unfulfilled expectations – we all struggle with this – and the reason – we’ll see in these passages – their expectations are unfulfilled – I think because of our understanding of God and how we expect Him to work in our lives, our expectations may be misguided. Don’t get me wrong – God can do whatever He wants.

Remember when things started a year ago… two weeks to flatten the curve! And here we are a year later, and people are angry – because of unmet expectations.

Oftentimes, we get things flipped.

Unfulfilled expectations + disappointment /faith = JOY

Faith can change everything!

John 11:1 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived… ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, look, the one you love is sick."

Think about the expectation in those words! Lord, the one You love is sick!

Mary and Martha had been with Jesus and had seen him heal people He didn’t know, ones He never even SAW – go back home and your son lives! And now, someone He had a close relationship with is sick – and there is this expectation – that of course Jesus will come and heal our brother! There is no doubt.

I think what happens with us – “I love my kids – if I could stop them from going through something difficult – you would stop it immediately!” – we think – that is what God will do – He is more loving than I am!

⁴ When Jesus heard this, he said, "This sickness will not lead to death, but to God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." ⁵ (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.)

John is reiterating – Jesus loved this family.

⁶ So

SO – this is a very important word - So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days.

That is unexpected! What is He doing?

Jesus explains to His disciples – Lazarus has gone to sleep – we will go to

²¹ Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

STOP! Hard STOP! We see Martha’s disappointment!

BUT! Her disappointment is followed by faith:

²² "Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.“

So into this disappointment Martha introduces trust. There are two different interpretations of this – 1 – Martha believes Jesus can raise Lazarus, right then and there. I think that is unlikely – look at the context:

²³ Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." ²⁴ Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

Yes, he will live on that last day – eschatologically… But when the possibility to raise him today comes up, she makes a comment about the smell…

Even though Jesus did not answer her request – she still trusts Him – believes Him – and believes He has a bigger purpose.

²⁵ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" ²⁷ She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."

This is real faith! Significant faith – to believe that Jesus is the Christ – the son of God, who comes into the world. That is where the most genuine faith lies! It is not in believing the spectacular will happen – but believing Who Jesus is.

³² Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

Here it is again – the disappointment! The greatest disappointment with God – that we might have with God – comes from knowing that God COULD HAVE FULFILLED our request but didn’t. That God could have stopped the suffering – but did not! That can be the hardest for us to get through and to get over.

We all ask – why does God allow suffering – and we would all – I would hope – we see the Psalmist – how long o lord? – I typed that in – how long must we suffer – how long must you not avenge – how through the prophets this went on!

Now, the delay – let me continue:

³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, ³⁴ and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." ³⁵ Jesus wept.

Then people said – My how He loved him!

It was not the delay – Jesus showed emotion over this whole thing. The fact that He delayed did not have to do with a lack of love – but a greater purpose.

Lazarus, come forth! And Lazarus walks out alive. For Mary and Martha – their grief was short-lived. 4 days. For us, the reality – our grief lasts a long time. And we have to cry out like the Psalmist – how long.

Moving to Palm Sunday – and this is also about misguided, unfulfilled expectations:

John 12:12 ¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him. They began to shout, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!" ¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ¹⁵ "Do not be afraid, people of Zion; look, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt!"

The crowd comes out – many had heard or seen the miracle of Lazarus, and are waving the palm branches – they clearly understood what was going on – their expectations were at a fever pitch – and this is what they would do when a military leader was coming to drive out the oppressors! That is what they were expecting.

They were looking for a warrior king – Zechariah 9:9 – they understood Him to be the Messiah – but a warrior Messiah – a king who is gentle and humble on a donkey – He WILL be a victorious warrior – but not the kind they want! They want a military one – and they get one who reigns by personal suffering – dying on the cross – they could not get their heads around it – and we can’t blame them – we’d have done the same thing!

After He comes in, Gentiles come to him – seekers – who want to put faith in Jesus.

Greeks – want to be followers – Jesus responds – My hour has come.

As the Messiah, I am going to die on the cross and the age of the Gentiles is at hand. There will be this huge transition – the people of God won’t JUST be the Jews anymore – but the Gentiles will be welcomed in, as they are

²⁷ "Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? 'Father, deliver me from this hour'? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." ²⁹ The crowd that stood there and heard the voice said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. ³⁰ Jesus said, "This voice has not come for my benefit but for yours.

³¹ Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." ³³ (Now he said this to indicate clearly what kind of death he was going to die.) ³⁴ Then the crowd responded, "We have heard from the law that the Christ will remain forever. How can you say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this Son of Man?"

There we have it!

They were not questioning who He was – they believed He was the Son of Man – the Coming King – they just did not like the kind of King He was. They had expectations and Jesus simply did not meet those expectations – They wanted an earthly, military King, and Jesus was a spiritual, heavenly King – whose victory was over sin and death and the spiritual forces of evil. They wanted something else. And we need to realize – how small of a victory it would have been if Jesus had restored Israel at that time – how unbelievably small in comparison to what He did on the cross! Which was so much greater! Giving His life for the world.

For us – unmet expectations – shattered dreams, disappointment with God – are the reality for us – and they can lead to greater joy when we introduce faith into the disappointment.

Let me give you a couple phrases – oftentimes, we have unmet expectations because we mistake lesser joys for greater joys! We think THIS would be the best things that could happen, but there is something so much greater God has.

When God seems absent from us – He is doing the most important work in us!

When we have unmet expectations, it feels like God is not there.

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? That prayer is not exclusive for Jesus. Psalm 22 was written for all of us! For Jesus, it was an exceptional way, but verses like that are peppered through our bibles because that is a genuine emotion. God is doing His most significant work inside of us! But we don’t realize it until it is over. We can look back to a time like that – and see it, but when you are going through it – everything is dark! But that is what faith is – seeing the unseen work of God.

We need to expect unmet/unfulfilled expectations – because they are necessary for spiritual growth – they are necessary for the spiritual growth process.

If we want to help others, we can only help them through grief and disappointment when we have gone through grief and disappointment. The things you struggle with will be the things you can help others.

We comfort others in the way we’ve been comforted by God.

Sometimes when you are the center of grief and disappointment – the very heart of it – that is when your voice is the most powerful in that area or situation.

Like Mary and Martha – our ultimate hope is in Jesus – not in the blessings that He gives in this world – we should appreciate them and be thankful for them – but our ultimate goal is Jesus Himself – to experience Him – to know His grace, love and mercy in our lives – and Paul says there is only one way to experience Jesus and the power of His resurrection. We experience that through participation in His suffering – the fellowship of His sufferings .

Let’s pray – Lord, as we think through the difficulties that we are going through – or have gone through – help us to understand that these struggles are the reality of being followers of Christ – of living in this world – and that through them we might find a way to have faith and to trust You – that even though we may need to cry out – How Long, O Lord – that in the end, there will be a greater joy, an ultimate joy that we enter into and that through the fellowship of your sufferings – by us participating in how You have suffered, we will be allowed to experience the power and glory of Your resurrection.