Anticipation. It’s an oft-used word this time of year, whether it is the blossoming excitement of a child opening up presents long settled under the tree or the hope of new beginnings by the turn of the calendar from one year to the next. Truly, I’ve yet to meet a teen who doesn’t live with some sense of anticipation, perhaps hopeful for that school test grade to come back or to perform well in that upcoming game on their sports schedule. And anticipation doesn’t stop with the teen years, evidenced by the hopes of a newly married couple who anticipate going into lifelong marital bliss or the employee who has growing dreams of what they consider a well-deserved promotion at work. All that to say…we anticipate early in life, and often through life.
Now for the portion of this blog that will hit us squarely upside the head and perhaps step on toes. When we think of anticipation it’s usually thought positively, but in this present world broken by sin we certainly should anticipate that it will not ALWAYS work out the way we planned or hoped. The gift under the tree is not ALWAYS what you were excited to receive, so you are left perhaps with unmet expectation. The turn of the calendar finds you in the same old ruts, leaving you perhaps feeling frustrated or discouraged. The teen who hoped to perform well in the game may actually miss the game-winning shot, leaving a series of “what ifs” playing through the mind (been there and done that). The young married couple who expected relative ease (because isn’t that how the dating relationship went?) finds that marriage is hard, perhaps being left with sincere feelings of inadequacy. Anticipation…a word that can stir up the deepest of our human emotions, some good and some not so much.
There is a God, who out of an overflow of His love made you. And not just made, but made with specificity and intentionality, with precision and purpose, to bear His image unlike any other item in the created order.
As a preacher of the Gospel, this is the portion of the blog where I hope your heart is stirred and your feet are lifted onto a rock where you CAN ALWAYS hope. There is a God, who out of an overflow of His love made you. And not just made, but made with specificity and intentionality, with precision and purpose, to bear His image unlike any other item in the created order. We anticipate reading Genesis 1 and 2 that surely the man and woman in the Garden would be faithful to such a good God who loves them so, only to have our anticipations dashed just mere pages into the story (Genesis 3). Not to minimize your unmet expectations in school or in your place of employment…but here to me is the ultimate and supreme frustration I have. How could we humans, loved by this kind of God, willfully step outside of His bounds to go our own way? Genesis 3 just seems so out of step with what I hope to read…and yet there it is. And we, with all of the created order, are just left to groan.
So what then are we to anticipate from God post-rebellion? Surely, in His justice and holiness, only condemnation and judgment would flow from His throne room, correct? And yet there He is in the Garden, giving a promise to the now stained human couple who personally transgressed Him that there will come one who will crush the head of all wickedness, with a cost attached (Genesis 3:15). We now can read onward in anticipation, knowing why the state of this world is as it is (thanks Adam) yet with anticipation that something is coming! From Abraham to Joseph, Moses to the Prophets we are reminded throughout the Old Testament to be an anticipatory people as we wait on our God. You can feel the drama building until…
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”. (John 1:14)
God became man! God pursued us! The infinite took on finiteness, the glory of God contained in literal flesh! Move over “Casablanca” (#1 rated love story movie in my Google search)…you’ve got nothing on this story of love in the pages of Scripture! And surely, we would anticipate God to immediately wipe away evil once and for all upon His arrival, to clean the slate and deservedly crush all of us sinners. And yet, perhaps shattering our expectations what we would anticipate, we hear these words toward a tax collector…
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)
Here we see what we wouldn’t naturally expect…grace. The very term grace implies an expectation unmet, in this case, salvation for sinners. And how should we expect our God to save us? Will it be through military conquering or political maneuverings, as we’ve come to expect from our human leaders? No, here again our anticipations are shattered. God will save man by…death. His life for our sins, His blood for our debts, His suffering for our joy. The cross of Christ to bring us life.
But of course, shouldn’t we anticipate He stayed dead, the body enclosed still by the grave? We expect that because humanly that’s all we’ve known. People die, and we see them no more. But our God once more shatters our expectations, erupts our anticipations. The once lifeless body of Jesus of Nazareth, after three days of stillness in the grave, begins to breathe once more. The tomb once occupied by a carpenter’s son sees the God-Man rise in victory, clinching the salvation of His people! Death is dealt a death blow!
And then we’re told this in the last book of the Bible, as if to whet our appetite for something more, to increase our anticipation…
“Jesus Christ…the firstborn of the dead…” (Revelation 1:5)
We have risen with Him in a spiritual sense, but one day will rise with Him, both in body and soul. He is with us now, but one day we will see Him!
Did you see the anticipatory statement? The firstborn…implying He’s the first of many! Though we can’t anticipate with certainty many things in this lifetime, we in Christ can anticipate several things ahead. We have risen with Him in a spiritual sense, but one day will rise with Him, both in body and soul. He is with us now, but one day we will see Him! He is now King of glory, yet one day we will reign with Him in the heavenly abode that is our home!
The anticipations of this earthly life remind us that God has made us humans to be people who hope, who anticipate, and who expect. And though our expectations and anticipations may not always come to fruition here and now, we anticipate one day to rest fully with our God.
And that, as they say, is the Gospel truth.
“To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5b-6)
