Be careful what you wish for …

Something common with most people is the wish that what we wish for would come true.

Admit it, we think we would love it if all the things we wished for in life would instantly come true. That’s a wish reflected in this story told by Tim White:

When I was a boy, my dad asked me if I could have one wish be granted, what would it be? We played that game as a family, and every time my brother or one of my sisters thought of a better wish than I thought about, I would change my wish. Then my dad unplugged all the fun by coming up with what we determined to be the greatest wish ever. He said, “I wish that every wish that I wish would come true.”

The unending wish! One wish that grants all other wishes! That would be it.

Sometimes, we actually get what we wish for, but often those wishes are little more than selfish desires. If we were honest, most of us have learned it’s an expression of God’s grace that we don’t always get what we wish for!

For a very long time, the ancient Jewish people had a great and passionate wish — they wished for a Messiah. Not the the kind of Savior and Lord we know, but a quasi military-political leader that would free their nation and restore the “kingdom” of Israel. That was the great wish of the people when Jesus arrived on the scene (and because He wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted, they were willing to dispense of Him).

It was a wish at least some of the disciples of Jesus shared. They wrestled mightily with much of what Jesus taught because His descriptions of what the kingdom of God is like was radically different from the kingdom, and the Messiah, they wished for. Even after the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples still did not understand the kind of kingdom Jesus had ushered in. Yes, they were still thinking revolution and earthly kind of kingdom:

“During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, ‘Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?'” Acts 1:3-6.

They wanted a kingdom?

Be careful what you wish for!

In this case, Jesus would partly grant their wish for a kingdom just before He would leave to ascend back to heaven. But instead of receiving a “restored” kingdom of Israel, they would now receive — and be commissioned with the work — of the kingdom of God:

“Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Matthew 28:18-20.

Jesus didn’t grant their wish for a restored kingdom of Israel, He commissioned them with the work of a kingdom far greater than they ever thought to wish for. Their puny wish for a restored earthly kingdom would be immeasurably eclipsed by the kingdom work that would soon become the focus of the rest of their lives.

Imagine if they had received what they had wished for instead of the kingdom Jesus commissioned them to serve in!

Be careful what you wish for.

Scotty