"What Do You Want Him To Do For You?"

In the wilderness His nation, redeemed from Egypt, wanted food and water and covering, but they didn’t want HIM; they didn’t want to know His ways! (Heb 3:9-11)

At the trials of Jesus the Jews wanted a confession of guilt, Pilate wanted his philosophical questions answered, Herod wanted to see a magic show, but none of them wanted to know Him or to do right by Him.

And the church wants to pray the prayer of Jabez and get something, right now, and the church wants to grow and prosper, and the church wants to make demands on society, that society do better and live more Godly and acknowledge Christ and Christians, and the church wants things to go smoothly and programs to be successful and for the favor of men to shine down on her…

…while Jesus is saying, ‘…whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for…’ YOU!

REDIRECTION

Well, Jesus is the Master of redirection. Not as a politician redirects to avoid an issue, but as the Master teacher, who redirects thinking to get the student on the right track.

I mentioned earlier that He did not rebuke them, which He could have, for their thinking at this point was much like that of Peter’s, when he chided the Lord for talking about going to a cross.

Instead He asks them a question to make them think, because when we’re actually thinking is the time we are most likely to figure things out. Our modern society largely discourages thinking.

Commenting on the pursuit of faith, author and preacher Philip Yancey said that those in a monastic lifestyle “…live in spiritual communities with scheduled prayer and worship times and have no cell phones and televisions to interrupt their days.”

Then he asks, “What about the rest of us, who face to-do lists that never get done and live in a culture that conspires to drown out silence and fill all pauses?” Philip Yancey, REACHING FOR THE INVISIBLE GOD, Zondervan, 2000, chapter 7

How often for you and me, Christian, if we were really tuned in to God, would we find ourselves being redirected in our thinking, away from the mundane and misdirecting concerns of this life and this world, to consider how prepared we are to follow Jesus where He goes; wherever it is He’s going?

Wouldn’t we face one challenge after another if we stopped periodically to ask, ‘am I now pursuing my own interests, or Christ’s?’ There is a time for both, but only when our interests are Christ’s.

They were desiring an earthly kingdom. He had been showing them and preparing them for a heavenly Kingdom.

They were focused inward and seeking to get a leg up on those outside of their little inner circle. He, existing as God, not regarding equality with God a thing to be clung to, had taken the form of a bond-servant so that He might give His life for them and for us.

They entertained the presumption that they were ready to take seats of honor by His side. He knew that in their days ahead the world would treat them with anything but honor.