When was the last time you acted like a three-year-old?  Not the giggling, toddling, laughing, come up and give you a great big hug three-year-old.  I mean the three-year-old who is in the “no” phase, the one who pouts when they don’t get their way, the one who hides under the bed when you ask them to clean up their toys.  That three-year-old!

Oh, you haven’t acted like that since you were three years old.  Interesting?

When was the last time you asked God to do something, and he didn’t deliver the results that you specifically requested or in the time frame you set up for him?  When was the last time you were “passed over” for a promotion or a position or a spot on the vocal team?  When was the last time you thought you deserved praise or acknowledgment for the effort or a simple thank you and gift card for your random act of kindness and no one even noticed you were selflessly serving the Lord?

Did you find yourself in some adult display of three-year-old behavior?  Yeah, me too!

I imagine Jesus standing on the shore watching his disciples half-heartedly throwing out their nets and bringing them back in as a parent watches their three-year-old work out their disappointment by kicking a rock down the sidewalk or sitting in the middle of their toys not really playing with any of them.  They were dejected, mopey, fishing, just to take their mind off their troubles.

After watching a while, Jesus calls out, “Hey kid, catching anything?” (seriously, the Greek word Jesus uses is paidia which means “children” or “little boys.” ) They respond in a low, hangdog mumble, “No.”

The rest of the passage is familiar, with Peter jumping in the water and swimming to shore, then they eat breakfast with Jesus, and Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” three times.

Jesus always shows up. Remember the last verse in the Gospel of Matthew, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (NLT, Matt 28:20).  Three-year-olds, 30-year-olds, and 60-year-olds do not like to be told , “No” or “Not now” or “Wait” or “Do this first, then…”  Like Three-year-olds, we want what we want, the way we want it….right now.

This is God’s Kingdom, and we are just living in it.  Thankfully, He loves us and has promised to deliver us from whatever momentary struggle we face and to provide us with hope and a future (Jer 29:11).  So the next time circumstances occur, and you begin to go into “three-year-old” mode, remember: Jesus is on the shore looking at us, knowing what he has in store for us next, and maybe just waiting for us to get over it and trust him.

When was the last time you were disappointed because you didn’t get what you wanted, but God delivered something so much better than you could have ever imagined?  Yep, it made me want to jump in and swim to shore too!

I don’t often drink pop, but when I do I prefer Pepsi.  I look forward to treating myself to one at holidays or on vacations.  A few years ago on one such holiday, I found the perfect opportunity to enjoy one of these tasty beverages:  an afternoon football game on TV, a “fresh can” of the three assorted popcorns they sell at Walmart (oh, yes, another holiday favorite), the lazy boy to myself, and a can of cold Pepsi.   Ahhhhh.

Settled in, the tape off the popcorn tin finally released, game on, can opened…first drink….what?  Bleck, gag, yuck!!  It was flat?  Are you kidding me?  How does that even happen?  How in  the  whole of North America did I end up with the one can of non-carbonated Pepsi?  I was bummed to say the least.

I sense that Peter and the assorted other disciples who found themselves on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in John 21 were feeling the same emotion: bummed out.  OK, they had an exponentially better reason to be bummed, dejected, lost, doubtful, even rejected.  Then Peter, like every good country boy, decides that some time fishing would be good for his soul.  Although the whole rowing the boat, throwing the net in an out, and hauling up the catch seems like a bunch more work than grabbing your pole and a box of worms, it is still a great way to release the tension and stress of the day:  2,000 years ago and today.

Have you ever been on “top of the world?”  Or “sitting on a rainbow?” Or “on a mountain top experience?”  Isn’t it a wonderful place?  A moment that you want to last forever.  A feeling you cherish.  A natural high.

How long did it last?

Then what?  The mountain top experience is gone.  You come home from the retreat, vacation, or conference and you have to mow the lawn, take out the trash, do 5^th grade math, go to work, blah, blah, blah.  The disciples were right there.  Their mountain top experience had been murdered, buried, yet somehow raised from the dead, and was now showing up randomly, but making sense of it all was still very confusing.

Maybe God allows the “mountain top” experience so that we get a taste of the “really good stuff” and will desire to drink of it again. Maybe the experience helps to keep our eyes and hearts focused in the right direction instead of being distracted by the everyday things here in the flatlands.

How do you stay focused on what you gained on the mountain?

“Mary.”

When Mary goes to the tomb looking for Jesus for the second time, she runs into a man who she thinks is the gardener.  Why she didn’t recognize Jesus at first, we don’t know.  And then He addresses her by her name:  “Mary.”

And she immediately recognizes Jesus.

We do not serve an impersonal god, made of stone or gold.  We do not serve a god who passively sits and watches his creation.  We do not serve a god who is too important, high, or lofty to notice the riff-raff.  We do not serve a god who is too powerful to mingle with the powerless.  No.

We serve a God who knows us by name. I’m not sure that I always fully grasp that.  It’s easy for my mind (and heart) to settle on a view of God which relegates Him to a nearly unapproachable place.  Well, maybe not quite that – I believe God is approachable.  I just usually think that God wouldn’t really be all that interested in me, certainly not to the extent of fully knowing me.

Maybe that thought grows out of my experience with prayer, that all too often my prayers feel heavy and burdensome, and I don’t really know if God is hearing them, or is interested.  Or maybe it grows out of my own insecurities.  Or maybe I just can’t get past the fact that I can’t see God.

Whatever the case, I find it very hard putting myself in Mary’s shoes, and believing that Jesus would, and could, do the same thing with me – actually look at me, and call me by my name.  But He did, and He does.  He can, and He will.

“Mary.”

When was the last time Jesus showed up for you?  He showed up for Mary, by the tomb.  His appearance was so unexpected that Mary mistook him for the gardener.  By the end of their short conversation, she knew that Jesus had shown up for her.

Think about that, of all the of the places Jesus could have shown up after his resurrection, he chose this simple, devoted woman.  By the tomb, a woman weeping, distraught.  And he shows up for her.

When was the last time Jesus showed up for you?  I’ve had unmistakable moments.  On a high Sierra mountain.  Looking out the front window of our house down the driveway in Florida.  Jumping on a trampoline with an orphan girl in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.  Running the last mile of the Chicago Marathon down Michigan Avenue.  Seeing my son use his gifts in a church musical.  Presenting gold medals around the necks of 60 special needs campers in the special Olympics for Good Mansion Camp in Zhytomir, Ukraine.  Weeding between our lettuce early in the morning in our backyard.

My moments are probably very different than your moments with Jesus.  And our moments were different than Mary’s moments.  But Jesus does show up.  You know he does.

Have you ever noticed how much Mary Magdalene loved Jesus?  Just take a look at John 20, for example:

• Mary goes to the tomb to check on Jesus’ grave and body.
• She sees the stone rolled away.
• Mary runs to the disciples to tell them Jesus’ body has been stolen.
• She runs after Peter and John back to the tomb.
• Mary weeps at the tomb.
• Mary tells the angels, “They have taken my Lord away.”
• She weeps some more.
• She tells Jesus (whom she mistakes for the gardener through her tears) that she will get Jesus’ body if she knows where they took him.
• When she recognizes Jesus, she cries out, “Rabboni!”
• Mary clearly moves to hug or hold onto Jesus.
• Mary goes back to the disciples to tell them the good news, and consequently becomes the first person in history to tell the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.

Mary is perhaps THE central figure besides Jesus at his resurrection.  We can dwell on a number of messages this underscores for us, not the least of which is the elevation of the role of women in Jesus’ Kingdom.

However, I know I need to dwell on the devotion and love Mary showed for Jesus, not even knowing what ultimately Jesus could and would provide for her.  She loved Jesus, pure and simple.  That is abundantly clear.

Yesterday I mentioned the words of Jesus in Luke 24.

“’This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”  Luke 24:44-45

If we keep reading, you find the following two verses:

He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

The disciples of Jesus’ day were direct witnesses.  They saw with their very own eyes.  What amazes me today is that God is still opening eyes to the reality of the repentance and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.  Jesus even went so far as to say that those who believe in him and yet have not seen him directly will be blessed (John 20:27-29). We have been having baptisms every week at Grace since Easter.  What a fitting and telling story of the reality that we are all invited to participate…that Jesus open eyes, that he opens minds, and he brings us to repentance and forgiveness.

In what circumstance are you praying that God would open your eyes to the fullness of the reality of what he is doing around you? My prayer is that God would indeed, in this Pentecost season, open our hearts and minds to the fullness of himself.

One of my favorite Bible stories as a kid was of the prophet Elisha.  Elisha kept telling the king what his enemy, the King of Aram, was going to do BEFORE he did it.  God would tell Elisha, Elisha would tell the king of Israel, and the plans were ruined.  As you can imagine, this made the King of Aram extremely mad, so he sent an army to kill Elisha.

When Elisha’s servant got up the next morning and saw the city surrounded by horses and chariots, he began to freak out (my translation).  But Elisha simply says:

“Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.  And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”  Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”  2 Kings 6:16-17.

Fast forward.

Jesus has died, has risen from the dead, and has now appeared to His disciples.  They are a little freaked out.  So Jesus says to them:

“This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”  Luke 24:44-45

There is so much more going on in the pages of scriptures than meets the eye.  And God, on occasion, will open eyes and minds to see what is really happening.  REALLY SEE.

For Elisha’s servant through Elisha.  For the disciples through Jesus.

But does God still do this today?

Did you happen to catch the Kony video when it was going viral?  It hit something like 30 million views in a matter of days.  Currently, it has been viewed close to 89 million times.  At the time the video was going viral, I was in New York City with our partner, New York City Relief, and I sat in their relief center watching the video with five interns from Grace Community Church.  I am sure there were a myriad of reactions, but my mind was blown.

And it wasn’t because of the substance of the video.

Regardless of what you think of Kony or the organization that put together the video, the medium of the message blew my mind.  Was it even possible to reach 30 million people with your message just 10 years ago, in three days, all over the world?  Everyone self-selected to watch the video.  Youtube is driven by viewer choice…people chose to tune in.  I was freaking out about this new reality of the world.

You could say my vision was expanded about what could be in our world today.

God has a way of doing this very thing when He shows up – expanding our vision of what could be that is.  God does it many times in the Old Testament; Jesus did this numerous times during His time on earth after His death, before His ascension into heaven.

This week we will look at a couple of stories of God expanding our vision!

What would be the most likely way you could encounter Jesus this week?  Think about it.

Jesus made it crystal clear that the most important thing in the universe is the mission of God: the redemption of the whole creation.  While Jesus lived on earth, his focus was doing the will of God, his Father.  The Good News. God wants His creation restored.  People healed.  Loving, authentic relationships.  Peace.  Justice and righteousness and mercy.  Walking in the garden, God and man, unencumbered by guilt and shame.

Whenever we serve in God’s Kingdom, living out the mission of God, there is a high likelihood that Jesus will show up in some way. Because that’s Jesus mission.  The thing he cares about the most.  He is our captain.  And if we look carefully, more than likely we’ll recognize him somewhere in that moment.  Don’t be surprised.

• Serving little children, and telling them about Jesus’ love for them.
• Helping a teen navigate the tricky relationships with her parents.
• Taking in a homeless family.
• Going on a short-term trip to love orphans.
• Playing a game with a homeless man.
• Praying for a neighbor going through a divorce.

If you would like to see Jesus, then daily, actively, plan to be part of his mission, his Kingdom.

Luke 24:35-38

³⁵ Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. ³⁶ While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ³⁸ He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?”

Why were the disciples startled by Jesus?  Didn’t the two disciples just get finished telling the others about Jesus showing up on the road to walk with them?  In that moment as they were talking, Jesus stood among them, and they still were surprised, and doubted.

But Jesus’ question to the disciples is just as applicable today as it was 2000 years ago.  “Why do doubts rise in your minds?”  Why do they?