The Messiah you have? Or the messiah you want?

Let me tell you why I love the outdoors store R.E.I….If you buy a backpack and use it a few times and decide that it isn’t the backpack you need, you take it back and get what you want. I know that if I buy something there I will get what I want and if I end up not liking as much as I thought…I can just exchange it. It is almost like the Burger King of the outdoor world, “What you want is what you get.”

How often do we approach Jesus, accept our cross, carry it for a while, and then take it back for some adjusting. If you really think about it and look into it, the cross is kind of a fixed object. It isn’t that Jesus does not want to provide the customer service for us. He does…He says He’ll help us. You don’t even have to go back to the store…He’ll help you where you’re at. The problem we have though, is that we don’t want “help” with the cross…we want something different.

It is amazing how when you have something on your mind, you end up having three or four conversations about it in a week or so. That is how it has been with me and good ol’ Judas this week. Why did Judas betray Jesus? You’re thinking, “Ryan, the Devil entered him…duh.” I thought of that too, but how often does the Devil enter into me? Think on that for a minute, not the Devil entering into me, but how, when you sin, the Devil has entered into you.

The Jews of the day were looking for a “Son of David” to come back and be their messiah, their King, and kick Rome’s tail. As a Jewish leader you would end up being pretty high up in the ranks of Israel as a nation. As an Apostle of the messiah you would be even higher in the kingdom…hence the mother’s request in Matthew 20:20-28.

I am under the belief that Judas was so wrapped up in the earthly kingdom and Jesus, the messiah, the king, he turned away from Jesus when the “Messiah must die” conversations started happening. Judas had the messiah that he wanted and not the Messiah that he had in front of him.

Do we ever crucify the Messiah you have for a messiah we want? Look deep into what Jesus taught. Die to yourself? Give your stuff away? Love your enemies? Fast? Pray? Do not worry? Don’t judge? Etc? Our Messiah calls us to a different kind of living…and sometimes we find ourselves saying, “I don’t think He really meant all of that.” How is your cross? Are you saying, “Here Jesus, I’ll save you the trouble of adjusting my cross. I’ll do it myself.”

A whole other subject, “how do we present the Messiah to others?” Maybe we’ll talk about that next week. For now ask yourself, “Do you want the Messiah you have or do you want the messiah you want?”