Lent: Expectations and Hosanna

So I have some news for you about Randy and Sandy.

If you've been with us, my pretend couple, I've been inventing and obsessing about the past few weeks.

If you haven't been with us, I'll catch you up on Randy and Sandy.

They're kind of important in our church at this point.

If you remember, Randy was the hero husband, right?

I mean, that's what we had been thinking about Randy.

He does the dishes the way that Sandy taught him.

He actually loves that she taught him.

He requested, he saw Sandy load the dishwasher one time.

He thought, oh, this is amazing.

It's so much better than me.

Sandy, please we teach me how to load them like you do.

And so ever since he's been loading that way, he serves her, he does all the laundry before she wakes up.

You remember that?

And then he serves her breakfast in bed, scrambled eggs in the shape of a heart every morning.

It's unbelievable.

He's unbelievable.

He loves to listen to her problems every evening after work.

And she brings the problems from work and her boss and her Instagram stress, and he just loves to listen to it.

He doesn't find any of it ridiculous.

He never rolls his eyes.

He never tries to fix it.

He loves all of it.

He listens, and we thought Randy was the hero husband.

And then last week we found out, the story thickened, and last week we found out that Randy is quite the servant, but he's actually really, really guarded.

And so while he's doing all this for Sandy, he never, he never lets Sandy in.

He never shares anything of his emotions or his past or what he's thinking.

He's very, very guarded.

And then this week, while I was preparing the sermon, some some sad news broke.

I need to let y'all know that they're not doing well.

Randy and Sandy.

Pretend couple, by the way.

Don't get too upset about it.

I think they're gonna make it through this rough season of marriage.

I think they will.

But things aren't great.

Randy hasn't said it directly, but he's quite resentful of Sandy because he thought out of all this service he's pouring out, that she would be oozing appreciation back to him.

This was his expectation.

And Sandy is just not being appreciative, right?

This is what he expected, all this appreciation, and he's getting none of it.

And Sandy, on the flip side, she grew up with an affectionate dad who oozed his emotions and talked about his heart and wanted to cry together.

And so she expected that Randy would become that.

He wasn't that when they got married, but of course he would become that.

He's a Christian man, active in his faith.

Of course, this is what he would become.

So this was her expectation.

So both of them have expectations that just aren't happening.

So you you've felt this, right?

You you've felt an expectation that just hasn't happened.

You've felt it with a loved one, you felt it with your mom or your dad, you felt it with your sister, you felt it with your kids, you felt it with your finances, you felt it with your health, you felt it with your retirement, you you felt it with what you thought romance would be like at a certain age, and it's not what you thought it would be like.

You thought you would be one way.

At age 20, at age 16, at age 36, at age 76.

You thought you would be one way at this point, and you're not.

And you thought God would be one way, and he hadn't been that.

Expectations.

So we get John 12, the story about Palm Sunday, which has expectations built into it, because Jesus here in this John 12, Jesus at this point is a rock star rabbi.

He was poor and he was from the north, but at this point he has built up a following with miracles and teachings and crowds.

And so he is coming into Jerusalem.

His disciples, a couple disciples went and found this donkey and they brought it back to Jesus, and Jesus gets on this donkey, and he's marching to Jerusalem.

This is quite a scene because this famous rabbi who could possibly save these people from Rome is what they're thinking.

He is marching into Jerusalem.

This is huge.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of people are lining the street.

This is a scene.

And that's where we read, I'll reread it, John 12, 12-15.

The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's coal.

So they're singing the song Hosanna, which means deliver me.

So they're singing this song, which is from the book of Psalms, which means songs, and they're all singing it.

They would all know this song, and they're singing it together.

They're singing, Give Me My Freedom.

And the whole scene just smells of irony.

Because kings ride on horses, not on donkeys.

So not a symbol of power coming in.

But the people, it's almost like they don't even see it.

They don't even see that he's on a donkey, he's on a symbol of humility and peace, and they're waving palm branches, which is a nationalistic symbol.

It's on their coins, it'd be like us waving American flags.

So many of these people thought Jesus was coming in earthly power, political power, to overthrow Rome.

I mean, these were oppressed people.

I mean, these people were oppressed, they were heavily taxed, there was military rule over their lives from a foreign government, and they think this is it.

This is the guy who will save us from Rome.

And so they're laying down their palms, they're singing out Hosanna, and it's all irony.

Save us from Rome, free us.

See, they thought they needed a God to save them from Rome.

Really, they needed a God to deal with their hearts.

They expected one thing.

And he came to do another thing.

And that's point number one.

Point number one is this is false expectations create deadly disillusionment.

False expectations create deadly disillusionment.

This was never more clear in my life than after we had our first child.

We had our daughter at Piedmont Hospital.

We returned back to our little house in Grant Park, and we get back there, have one week of paternity leave.

And so I wake up the first morning and I check in, and Christy's there, got the baby.

Everybody's healthy, healthy baby, healthy mama.

Everything's good.

So I make my run to Lowe's first thing in the morning of my paternity leave.

I get some paint.

I come back to the house and I'm gonna paint the office.

I start painting the office, which is in the middle of this little house, which means no matter where you go, you're smelling the paint.

You're seeing me working.

I am working away.

I have a week off of work.

This is the perfect moment to get something done.

So I painted for two days.

I'm having a great time, I'm serving my family, making my home better.

And then it happened.

Do you know what happened?

Maybe you know what happened.

Men, maybe you don't know what happened.

My lovely wife, this sweet Christian thing that I married, she let me have it.

And rightfully so.

Rightfully so.

But at the time, I didn't know what was going on.

I had no idea what was going on.

Now I know we had two different sets of expectations.

Yes, hers were right.

Just go ahead and say that, put that out there.

She's sitting here.

I had an expectation that a week off of work in this situation means, you know what, I'm just around and I can get a few things done.

That this is what this means.

It was actually a false expectation.

Because the reality was, is Christie needed me to exist in that week, to be present, just to be there.

And that false expectation that I held led to deadly disillusionment almost to my death.

Is point number one.

False expectations create deadly disillusionment.

So this leads us straight into point number two.

It kind of bridges off that.

And maybe you felt this.

Jesus was a disappointment to those wanting to control their world by power.

Jesus was a disillusionment to those wanting to control their world by power.

And maybe you felt that because something's not going well, or it wasn't going well, and you asked Jesus to come and rescue the situation.

And maybe for some of you something happened and the situation resolved itself and it was amazing, and praise the Lord, and make a video of you and put it in church, and then everybody else who didn't have it happen feels bad for the next 10 years, right?

That's often what happens.

Because the situation might just stay there.

What we want is we want God to be something that he never promised he would be.

God's never been in the business of always granting you more power and control as if that would bring you peace.

Now here's the key: God is in the business of freeing you from the urge to need more power and control in order to have peace.

And that's the difference.

That's a difference of expectation, that's a difference of disappointment and disillusionment, and it is actually the difference when you begin to be free from the urge to need power and control in order to have peace, but you might be able to have peace apart from a situation being perfect, that you can have peace apart from that.

Now you're actually on a path of growing in grace, a transformation.

And yet, still at times we we line up, we're waving that palm, I'm waving that palm, singing Hosanna and a complete disillusionment.

Wanting Jesus or the gospel to be something it's not.

And here's what the gospel is: point number three.

God satisfied his expectations of you in Jesus.

So let's think about it this way.

Randy and Sandy, last time, I don't know, maybe not.

I'll be honest, I'm having so much fun with it.

Sandy wants Randy to be more open and vulnerable, right?

If we remember back to the expectation.

So what Sandy wants, because it's not happening, it's leading to a lot of death in the relationship.

They both want the other one to be something they're not.

And now the end is near.

Death is looming, you can feel the relationship breaking down, but what if, what if one of them, what if one of them decides to be everything for the other, no matter what the other is like?

What if out of love, one dies to the expectations of the other and becomes the thing the other wants them to be, even while the other one does not become the thing they want them to be?

Now you have imputation.

Now you have someone, you have love imputing onto someone else something they're not when they don't deserve it.

And you have the gospel.

Jesus takes on our imperfection and our sin upon himself on the cross and gives to us our righteousness, which gives us value, security, wholeness, eternal life out of the gift of grace.

We are his beloved.

Before we perform.

So Jesus marches into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Five days later, he is killed on Good Friday.

That's what this week is, Holy Week.

And on the cross, he looks down at the people who are killing him, who are in absolute disillusionment about who this God incarnate should be, and they're killing him.

And he says in Luke 23, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Well, that's amazing.

They didn't even ask for forgiveness.

And then he turns to a thief who did ask for forgiveness.

He says, Please remember me.

That's a conversion prayer.

Right?

If you need a conversion prayer, we just settle for that one.

Remember me.

That's enough.

A broken, exhausted man has nothing left.

Looks at Jesus and says, Remember me.

I need you.

And now Jesus could have said, you wait till now?

Like, how could I ever know if you're serious or not?

I mean, you you you don't even have any time to show me you're serious.

I mean, you're just at this point, I mean, give me a break.

You're just looking for an insurance policy.

How could you mean it?

How could you mean it in this setting?

How could you actually mean it?

Of course you're hedging your bets.

He doesn't say that.

He says, I tell you the truth.

Today you will be with me in paradise.

Right?

He says, I forgive you, I accept you, I love you.

Now, how could Jesus extend forgiveness and eternal life like that?

I mean, the guy doesn't have any time to prove himself.

Well, it's the same story in the garden, the Garden of Eden, right?

Genesis 3.

Adam and Eve have fallen, they are hiding, they are not seeking God, and what happens?

God seeks them.

John 8, one of my favorite stories.

I mentioned our student retreat this weekend that we had.

The adulteress is afraid.

She is brought before Jesus in front of a crowd.

She is being condemned by them.

Jesus says to all those Pharisees, you know, whoever doesn't have any sin, go ahead and throw the first stone.

They all leave.

She's alone with Jesus.

We don't know how sorrowful she is.

We don't know what she's going to do with the future of her life.

And what does Jesus say?

He says, I don't condemn you.

Go and leave your life of sin.

We don't know what she ended up doing.

It's the same as the prodigal son story.

The rebellious son who has rebelled and he ran off to a foreign country.

He just throws away all the inheritance of the Father, unbelievable disrespect to the Father.

And as the Son is on the way home, the Father runs to him before the Son even begins the apology.

And this is how the gospel offends us.

Because first, God does not show up and do everything we want him to do or give us everything we want, like all the people lining, singing Hosanna.

And then he doesn't relate to us in a way that we can control.

Rather, God dismantles our control and desire for our own power and merit.

And he grants us forgiveness and acceptance and belovedness before you do anything.

And that's it.

I mean, it's in that absolute grace that your heart will be transformed and you will grow in grace.

This week, Christy and I were out to eat with some friends of ours.

And right away we sat down, we started talking, and pretty quickly into it, they started talking about their teenage daughter who had uh just been getting in more and more not trouble, just going through a hard time.

And they didn't even know about it.

I mean, it took a little parental, kind of like uh snooping around, really, for them to figure it out.

And they figured out what was going on and what she was doing, and of course it saddened them, but like horribly, and now they're working with her and working with the counselor and all of that.

And as the mom is telling the story, you can just she is just she's her her eyes well up with tears, and eventually there's going down her cheeks.

And then the dad says this the dad says, I can tell her, his daughter, I can tell her she's beautiful a million times, and I have, but right now she just doesn't believe it.

I thought about this week with holy week coming up, because God's heart is on display this week, and this March, and then Good Friday, and then Easter.

It's God redeeming you by his word, not yours, to say to you, you are beautiful before you do anything.

It's a forever yes of you before you perform.

And religion and the world demands performance and obedience, then you will be accepted.

And the gospel says you are beautiful and accepted and forgiven.

And therefore obey.

So, my brothers and sisters, the king is coming.

The king has come, but not riding into Jerusalem to overthrow some political system.

He's coming to ride into your hearts with humility and love.

Let's pray together.

God, we come before you and we pray, Hosanna.

We pray, deliver us, oh God.

Deliver us not from Rome, but deliver us from ourselves.

For we believe too many things that are obstacles, too many things that are obstacles of what is actually true about us.

That we are forever your beloved because of the work of Jesus.

And it is outside of our performance.

Would you help us as a people to know this in a greater way?

Might it transform our hearts to know we are forever accepted and secure and loved by you?

Would it be the source of our value?

The source of ourselves, the source of our forgiveness, our absolution, and our redemption.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.