Preparing for Easter: Waiting on the Lord
Today’s Reading: Matthew 27:57-66
I do not know about you, but I hate waiting. I think Americans in general hate waiting… and for the most part we expect not to wait. Technology has made almost everything we want as close as the cursor on our phone or laptop. Needs and luxuries are available almost immediately and on demand. We have become so spoiled that even having to wait a moment for the cursor to respond causes us to pound it impatiently.
Sometimes we are forced to wait for things that are outside of our ability to control. Some are as trivial as waiting for the outcome of ‘the big game,’ or that text from the awesome girl.
But some of the things we wait for are far more profound, and perhaps even life changing. Waiting on the call from the doctor for the blood-work results or waiting to hear from a loved one overseas serving in the military after having watched the news in horror concerning explosive unrest in the region where he/she serves.
But what about ‘waiting’ on God? He is the ultimate authority that we have zero control over. Perhaps we have pounded heaven with our prayers even harder than the computer cursor waiting for God to respond.
The Jewish people had been waiting centuries for their promised Messiah. Many false Messiahs had come and gone. ALL of them were dead and buried. And now the one that seemed to hold out the greatest hope of all, in whom the merry little band of eleven had placed ALL their hope in, was ‘dead and buried’ as well. Matthew 27:55-66. He had made SO many promises. Was Jesus a slacker? Had the disciples waited in vain with misplaced hope?
Jesus’ disciples who knew him and lived with him, had been told repeatedly that the Son of Man must suffer and die…yet Luke tells us “And they understood none of these things.”
Were they simply stupid that they did not understand what Jesus had said to them plainly? Or is it possible that they had harbored hope of an advancement through close association with God’s Messiah? Surely, they (and we?) are willing to wait for THAT type of Messiah!
But now the curtain had fallen on everything they had hoped in. Darkness had seemingly extinguished the light. Their waiting had seemingly been in vain. Perhaps, like them, you have felt the crushing blow of hopes dashed while waiting.
Waiting on God requires at least two elements: total dependence on Him and allowing allow Him to make the terms. These elements also include the timing of God’s plan. Trusting God with the timing of events is one of the hardest things to do. Waiting on the Lord in HIS timing to produce HIS results to carry out HIS purposes involves patience. (James 1:4) Waiting involves the passage of time. Even Jesus learned to wait on the promises of His father as scripture tells us that He grew in wisdom.
Isaiah 30:18 informs us that even God waits; “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”
Waiting on God involves the confident expectation of a future hope - hope based not on blind faith, but through trusting in what God has faithfully done in the past. Namely, all the promises He has revealed in His Son. This expectation must be based on knowledge and trust of what He has already accomplished, or we simply will not wait in hope in His future promises.
You can learn this lesson from your dog. He waits every day in hope for you to come home because of the trust he has in your coming home faithfully in the past. Those who do not know the Lord will not wait on Him; neither will those who do not trust Him. Christians must be confident of who God is and what He can do because of what he has done. Those who wait on the Lord do not lose heart, for “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14)
Waiting on God is a spiritual discipline that renews our strength. (Isaiah 40:31) Studying and meditating upon God’s Word are critical in forging that discipline. Waiting on the Lord requires a heart responsive to the Word of God, a focus on the things of heaven, and a patience rooted in faith. Let us learn the discipline of waiting on The Lord as we love and serve one another; and as we wait for the fruit of His Word that He has promised when we share His gospel to the world.
How do we wait on the Lord and prepare for Easter? The same way our first brothers and sisters were directed to wait in Acts 1:11 for the next great and glorious appearing of our savior; "Men of Galilee," they said, (the two men dressed in white) "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
