CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
March 16, 2008
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.geocities.com/adon77373/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
www.cypresswoodchurchofchrist.com
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WAITING
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:1-2).
We all hate waiting in lines. We do not like standing in grocery or bank lines. We do not like being stuck on the interstate waiting for traffic to move. We do not like waiting in doctors offices to be seen. And if you have been in an emergency room, that could be a four or five hour deal just to see someone. But while we can gripe about it, we end up in lines time and time again. The military phrase heard in boot camp is “hurry up and wait.” One moves quickly from one building to another only to wait for hours. Getting a drivers license, going to a government office, and many other governmental services are known for long waits. Then there is the waiting to hear about a job or an application to a college.
Jeremiah was a prophet of God to the city of Jerusalem. He spoke over a period of forty years warning the nation of the direction it was heading unless they changed direction. But the people did not listen. In Lamentations, we see Jeremiah looking over the city that has finally fallen to the Babylonians. Everything he knew was gone. What once was a bright and active city was now in ruins. Few remained to carry on the affairs of state. The Temple, the center of worship, was destroyed. God had forsaken His people as He said He would. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?” (Lamentations 1:12).
As we read through the book, we see his sorrow, grief and despair. Knowing that God would do this but seeing it done are two different things. He knew what God was doing, and deep down he knew that God was with Him; yet it does not make it any easier to understand. Moreover, what God plans for the future is not clear at all. We have a complete history of what God’s purposes are but Jeremiah was living it one day at a time; and it was not easy. What does God have in mind? Now Jeremiah could say with confidence, or hope that because of His great love and compassion, “They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him” (3:22-24). Wait for him for what? And how long will it take? What is He up to?
It is interesting to note that each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is used in order in the text so that the alphabet is gone through four times (chapters 1-4). Chapter five rounds it off with a prayer (1). What Jeremiah is saying is that while there appears to be chaos, God has a plan that is at work. “There is a plan, a form, underneath it all” (2). Jeremiah would have to wait for God to reveal His plan; and as we know, he did not see it.
Today is known as Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowds. How quickly attitudes change! By Thursday, He was segregated with His disciples in an upper room. The next day He was tried and executed by both Jewish and Roman authorities. Again, we have the rest of the story but the disciples didn’t. They were living it one moment at a time. They didn’t have the view of the old Negro preacher who said, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’.” For them, Friday was not good, it was dark and ugly. They feared for their lives and went into hiding. All their hopes and expectations went down the drain when Jesus died. The two on the road to Emmaus stated that it was Jesus who they had hope was the one who would redeem Israel (Luke 24:21). Despair, depression and fear were now the outlook of the followers of Jesus.
Their expectations had deceived them. They wanted Jesus, with all His power, to lead them in the overthrow of the Romans and the reestablishing of the kingdom of David. He would be King and they would be in the best positions in government. How many times do we see our expectation disappoint us? The job is not all that it is cracked up to be. The sports team failed to make the playoffs. People who claim to be Christians act and behave in ways that are ungodly, causing disappointment and discouragement. Rather than pay out retirement benefits, they let an older worker go. Contracts change. Promises are broken. People put on a pedestal fall off. All this and a host of emotions faced the disciples on Friday. The Passover meal of joy has turned into a nightmare. For them, it was time to go home.
But they did not immediately flea. Saturday was a special holy day, a Sabbath of rest. Travel was prohibited. So they had to stay put in Jerusalem and mourn. And wait. That is the hard part. What did God have in mind and why hasn’t it worked out? So now they have a Sabbath rest, as best they can. It would be a time of reflection for the followers but what would they reflect on?
“On the seventh day God rested in the darkness of the tomb,
Having finished on the sixth day all his work of joy and doom;
Now the Word has fallen silent, and the water had run dry,
The bread had all been broken, and the light had left the sky;
The flock had lost its shepherd, and the seed was sadly sown,
The courtiers had betrayed their king, and nailed him to his throne.
O sabbath rest by Calvary, O calm of tomb below,
Where the grave-clothes and the spices cradle him we did not know!
Rest you well, beloved Jesus; Caesar’s Lord and Israel’s King,
In the brooding of the Spirit, in darkness of the spring” (3).
“It is finished,” said Jesus; the last saying from the cross. Completed, done, all has been accomplished. Then He died. One could hear that word and say that He finished all He came to do and now it is time to go home. Again, if we were standing there at that moment, what would we have thought? Then there is that seventh day, that Saturday where all is quiet and at rest. Sound familiar? Where would we see a silent Saturday, a seventh day of the week?
God created His creation and saw that it was very good (Genesis 1). Then God rested having “finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work” (Genesis 2:2). In Christ, God complete His redemptive work at the cross and rested. He had finished what He was doing, what Jeremiah was looking forward to yet did not see. Now came the waiting on that quiet Saturday. But “Sunday’s comin.” The new day, the first day of the week, the resurrection day was coming. They had to wait through those long hours of Saturday, not knowing what would happen on Sunday. Jesus was raised by the power of God, the unexpected until Jesus opened their eyes to see what scripture had to say (Luke 24:13-49).
Of course, we have the rest of the story, don’t we? We know the joy that they had when it finally sank in that Jesus was raised from the dead. For them, that is all well and good, but what about us? We go through those difficult times, struggling, depressed, discouraged, filled with grief. What is happening? We identify with Jeremiah in his lamenting; he understands. Resurrection seems so far away. Maybe another thought from scripture can aid us.
Think of the Passover. The Lord passed over Israel yet the firstborn of all in Egypt, animals and humans, died. That was a long night as well. The next day began a journey out of Egypt to the Promised Land. It would take time and there would be many conflicts and difficulties along the way. We have left on our journey based on the resurrection day and are headed for, or better, waiting for the resurrection day of our lives. It will be a time when the Lord will come and join us in the Eden that He had intended from the beginning. Right now though, we live in between, on Saturday as it were, waiting for God in His time to complete His redemptive process (see Romans 8:18-25)(4). Waiting is difficult. We can’t wait at times like children at Christmas, but wait we must. And we do not understand it all but trust that God will fulfill what He promised to do. We join the creation that “waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:19).
With David and others we ask, “How long, O Lord?’ And we wait. Enjoy the wait and keep our eyes on Jesus!
George B. Mearns
(1) N.T. Wright, Christians at the Cross, The Word Among Us Press, 2007, p. 64. Thoughts for this article come from this book.
(2) ibid.
(3) ibid., p. 67-68.
(4) see N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, for more on eternity.