Disappointment With God

Disappointment with God comes from unmet expectations.

He didn’t do what they thought He was going to do—that’s all there was to it. They had expected Him to sit on a throne, but He let Himself be buried in a tomb.

While He was dying, they had stood nearby, watching and waiting. Any minute now, they thought, He will show them! He will call for His angel army to pull those nasty spikes from His hands and feet; then He will climb down from that cross, annihilate His enemies, and set up His kingdom right here in Jerusalem. Goodbye, nasty Romans! Take that, mean old Pharisees!

But then—it seemed so sudden—He said, “It is finished,” bowed His head, and breathed out His spirit. A soldier jabbed a spear into His side. Somebody yanked out those spikes and carried His body away. It was over.

And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned (Luke 23:48).

Nothing to do but shuffle back into the city to gather in groups and relive the events of the last few horrible days. What now? The Master is dead.

But is He? Just after dawn on the third morning, the women who had gone to the tomb with fresh spices to do Jesus the final service of anointing His body rushed in crying that He was alive! Feminine hysteria, wishful imaginings? Must be. But they kept insisting they had heard the news from angels, so Peter and John ran to check it out, and . . . Jesus wasn’t there. Not in the tomb. Not anywhere.

For two of the disciples, it was just too much. Too much to absorb, too hard to believe. Exhausted and drained, Cleopas and his friend decided to go home, get some rest, and figure this thing out. They left for the 6½ mile hike to Emmaus.

As they walked, they talked together of all these things which had happened. . . . They conversed and reasoned (Luke 24:14-15).

He said He was the Messiah we have waited for.

We saw His miracles and believed.

How could we be so wrong?

How could He let them do those things to Him?

How can He be a king if He’s dead?

Or is He alive like the women said?

This doesn’t make sense.

This is not the way it was supposed to be.

I don’t know if the road to Emmaus had gutters, but if it did, that is where they were—two disciples in the same ditch, neither able to help the other one out.

Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him (Luke 24:15-16).

Another traveler, a stranger, joined them on the road. He saw their long faces and asked why they were so sad. They couldn’t believe He had not heard the news from Jerusalem, and they flooded Him with the details of their pain and confusion.

But we were hoping . . . (Luke 24:21).

He listened gently, gladly. When their words were exhausted, He reminded them of what they knew but had forgotten to remember: the Messiah had to suffer. From the law to the prophets, the scriptures said so. Words of truth gradually lifted them from the pit of their own faulty expectations.

Too soon, they were home. Please don’t leave. Stay and tell us more. The living Bread stayed to break bread with them, and as He did, they realized why their hearts had burned as He spoke. This was Jesus! He had been there all along, walking with them all the way home.

Suddenly, Jesus vanished, and so did their discouragement. Set on fire, they jumped up from the table and ran the 6½ miles back to Jerusalem, where they burst in on the cowering disciples. “He’s alive! He’s alive! He’s alive!”

Immediately, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you" (Luke 24:36).

I have been on my own Emmaus Road, so let down by circumstances that all I can see or feel or think about is my own disappointment. So discouraged by the contrast between what I planned and expected and what God allowed that I cannot see Him at work and certainly cannot believe He could possibly have a bigger, better plan than mine.

But He does. The day those two disciples left Jerusalem was the greatest day ever, the turning point of history. On that resurrection day, the power of sin was broken, the work of redemption completed, the plan of the ages accomplished. God was working out His will in a spectacular way, but they had been too preoccupied with their own disappointment to notice.

It happens to all of us when life does not go the way we think it should. Crushed expectations are hard to handle; broken dreams and dashed hopes are painful.

But they are good, for when our own vision dies, we look for Jesus. When our own thoughts are too painful to hear, we listen to His words. When we come to the end of our own way, we find Him there beside us, listening and loving, waiting to remind us of what we already knew but forgot to remember: He has a plan, and He is working it out for our good.

Disappointment can come from unmet expectations. The Lord allows this so we can learn that peace and fulfillment are found not in getting what we want but in the presence of Jesus, the loving, living Lord Who walks with us all the way Home.