Meditated yesterday on Palm Sunday.Jesus comes into Jerusalem, and the people celebrated him like a king coming into his kingdom. They threw their robes and palm branches down, crying out “Hosanna!” to him, literally, “God help us! Save us!”
As we know, the Jews were looking for a Messiah that would free them from their Roman oppression and establish a new Jewish kingdom more extensive and powerful than David and Solomon’s combined.
They got that. But just not as they defined it. They got something far better. An eternal kingdom and an eternal king, a freedom not predicated upon local or imperial law that can be changed and abused but upon an eternal reality that can never be shake, a heavenly Kingdom that will shake and dismantle every earthly one.
But since that Jesus didn’t meet the expectations of many of the Jews – the ones in power, the ones whose power was based on Rome’s power – then they had to end him to preserve and accomplish their ends.
God can disappoint you. The true God and Messiah, the true Gospel, the eternal Kingdom, is bigger than modern political positions, agendas, and leaders. And if we want what is less that what God is, God angers and disappoints us.
Was it the same people on Palm Sunday that cried “crucify” the following Friday? Probably not the exact same, but it would be beyond logic to think they were two totally different groups of people, as well.
The point is this: it is ironic that the greatest being in existence, the one who is the source of love and creation, can be seen as “not enough” to the very same creation. That disappointment, and resulting anger and disbelief even that God exists, is a deception based on lowered expectations.
One of our “coffee” pastors was talking with another coffee distributor the other day, and this distributor was giving our pastor a hard time about how much we pay our farmers for the coffee – like, we pay too much. And our pastor turned to this distributor and said, “We’re not serving gas station coffee, here!” Not realizing that this distributor’s expertise was, in fact, coffee in gas stations.
Our coffee is the top 1% coffee in the world and we were taught to roast by one of the best roasters in the world. It is amazing coffee. Additionally, we pay our farmers 4-5 times fair trade, directly, and that money gives dignified employment and relief and ministry. We also support pastors, missionaries, and other domestic relief by selling the coffee here in the US.
Even though our coffee does amazing things and tastes as good as anything out there, some people prefer bad coffee. You know, they were raised on Folgers pumped full of sugar and milk. Smooth, great tasting coffee makes them wince and spit it out.
Coffee isn’t the point, though. That’s just an example of the principle. There is nothing greater than the Eternal King and Kingdom. But if our expectation of Christianity, of God Himself, is colored by what is by nature less – the things and thinking of this world – then when confronted by the real thing, we wince and spew it forth. We reject it, and ultimately, because the source of our thinking is this world, then it is no surprise when we reject all forms of Christianity and the existence of God Himself.
The only solution to this is relationship with the person of God. That will train our spiritual pallet to what is real and true, lift our vision ever higher with peace and joy. Taste and see. He’s good.
It works the other way, too. When we are used to great coffee, as I am, then it is easy to recognize bad coffee, crappy coffee. Same with the Kingdom. Through a consistent relationship with the Creator, I can more easily recognize that which is not of Him, that which is of the world.
God isn’t offering “gas station” Christianity, or a “gas station” Kingdom. It is the greatest eternal Kingdom that can possibly exist. That’s all he offers. There is no watered down version of that. It cannot exist. He loves us too much to offer less.
Peace.
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