Tuesday, March 30

by John Wilkinson, Pastor

As Jesus has been teaching, preaching, performing miracles, the crowds are growing. In Matthew 14:22-33, he walked on the water, and Peter didn’t. But note the setting. He had just fed the crowd with loaves and fishes. He needs to get away. He dismisses the crowds. So perhaps our Lenten water can be the lake on which Jesus walked and Peter didn’t. But more so, perhaps it can be the lake shore where we gather to meet Jesus. That thin place between him and us, and our hopes and dreams and desires and fears—our expectations, and how he meets them.

Perhaps it is the same question, now some 2000 years old. Who is he? Who are we? What happens when we encounter Jesus at that lakeshore? How are our expectations of him, and us, met, exceeded, transformed?

So let’s ask the question one more time, as we prepare to meet him, at the lakeshore, at the foot of the cross, at the empty tomb. What are our expectations—of him, and us? Whatever they are, I could make the case that he does not meet them. Rather, he exceeds them, and better than that, he transforms them. We don’t necessarily get the messiah we want, or expect. But we get the one that we—and the world, and the church—need. And that is good news indeed.