Letter: The Messiah will turn out better!

After being with her blind date all evening, the woman couldn't stand another minute with him and left to make a phone call.

Earlier, she had secretly arranged to have a friend call her so she would have an excuse to leave if something like this happened. When she returned to the table, she lowered her eyes, put on a grim expression and said: “I have some bad news. My grandfather just died.

“Thank goodness for that,” her date replied. “If yours hadn’t, mine would have had to”!

I am so glad that I don’t have to deal with the dating scene, worrying about making a good first impression so that I can meet her expectations and trying to deal with the awkwardness of the situation if she doesn’t meet mine.

That was a problem that Jesus faced when he came to this earth. He should have been greeted with open arms - after all, he was the long-awaited Messiah. The problem was that the Jews had expectations of what the Messiah would be like. None of the Jews could imagine a Messiah hanging on a cross. So the cross became a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Greeks. Jesus didn’t meet their expectations and they hurried to find a way to end the relationship. What’s important is that we allow the Gospels to define who Jesus was. I challenge you to read the Gospels in a fresh light. Remove all expectations and allow the word of God to define and shape who Jesus really was. I guarantee the Messiah will turn out to be better than you expected!

Canon Stephen Bradberry