There were several moments in The Lord’s experience where He was confronted with a ‘not so’. His actions and words were so extraordinary, so unexpected, so improper (to those around Him). We can join them in wondering at the pathway He took. A pathway of extraordinary obedience.
One such occasion took place early on in His public ministry.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
Matthew 3.13-14
Like John, we would hardly believe The Lord’s choosing here. What mixed messages it sends for the holy one to be baptised at all. And as worthy as John was to be baptising others, what place did he have baptising the Son of God? Theologians have their musings about all this but when all is said and done we are left amazed at the grace of The Saviour. He would start as He meant to carry on – ever doing whatever was necessary to satisfy divine intentions.
Then there was Nathaniel.
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
John 1.46
For Nathaniel, Nazareth was beneath the Messiah. It was the last place a devout Jew expected the Christ to have come from. It was a typical ‘not so’ moment, followed by its equally predictable riposte. For none of these ‘not so’s’ ever stopped or stalled The Saviour. Nothing ever would, and praise God for that!
Then there was Simon Peter. Ah Simon. How The Saviour perplexed him. How He baffled him. How contrary ran the Saviour’s thoughts to his. If John hindered Christ, Peter would rebuke Him.
Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Matthew 16.22
Would the Son of the Living God suffer many things, really? Killed – really? No. Suffering and dying were not on Peter’s agenda. Nor are they on ours. No wonder he rebuked the Lord. But if he was baffled before, how startled he must have been at The Lord’s response.
Again in John 13, in the upper room, Peter is found once more, tracking behind the Saviour’s thoughts and actions.
and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.
John 13.6b-8b
And it was Peter once more, in Joppa, on the housetop, who said:
Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
Acts 10.14
Like Peter, we often trace the pathway of the Saviour in reverent disbelief. We wonder at the course laid out for Him by divine persons. Had we been at the manger, we would probably have said ‘not so’. We would have organised a welcome home committee in Nazareth and got the DIY SOS team over for a makeover. We’d have taken him on exotic holidays and given him extravagant birthday parties. And in His public ministry, we would have sought to prevent The Lord time and time again, choreographing quite a different path for Him. A path more befitting The Son of God, more becoming, ‘The Christ’.
And each time, he would quietly explain that none of these things were consistent with His Father’s will. Each time we would slowly learn that our ways were not His ways, and our thoughts not his thoughts. And perhaps eventually, we would lay down our ‘not so Lord’ and choose Christ’s more suitable alternative, ‘not my will but thine be done’.
