Jesus often said and did the unexpected.
He turned things upside down and left people perplexed.
When the rich young ruler approached Jesus, he was confident that he was in good standing with God. The prevailing thought of the day was that riches proved that God was pleased with you. Add that to his rule-keeping, and he was practically guaranteed to inherit eternal life, right?
This man was trusting in what his religious culture said about his wealth.
And then Jesus asked him to give away the very thing that his trust was wrapped up in to the poor- the very people that he was certain God was not pleased with.
In one simple conversation “Jesus exposed in that man the thing that he treasured more than he treasured God.”
Jesus turned things upside down.
Nicodemus wasn’t confident he was in good standing with God, but he knew he was on the right path. He was, after all, a respected Pharisee.
And yet something in Jesus’ teachings led him to go to Jesus in secret.
In one statement, Jesus rocked the world Nicodemus had carefully built during a lifetime of serving the Lord.
Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The despair in his response leaps off the page. How can a man be born when he is old?
Seeing the kingdom of God was the focus of Nicodemus’ entire life.
“What if Jesus had told Nicodemus,’You need to work harder and trust God more’? Nicodemus could have gone home and tried to do better. But Jesus was emptying Nicodemus of any hope he had of fixing himself.
One sentence emptied Nicodemus of all of his self-centered schemes for rightness with God.”
He spent his life seeking God, but his trust was in the seeking, not in God.
Jesus turned things upside down.
The Samaritan woman at the well knew she wasn’t favored by God. She definitely knew she didn’t have a chance of being right with God.
After all, she had messed up way too much, searching for a relationship that would make her feel loved. Everyone, including her, knew that for a fact.
And yet, when Jesus revealed that her hope in relationships would always leave her thirsty and pointed her toward Himself, she recognized her need for Him.
When Jesus turned things upside down for her, she saw that things were finally right.
Jesus turned things upside down for these three to reveal that what they were trusting in could never fully satisfy. He poked holes in their false hopes so they could see that their need of Him, the source of lasting Hope.
And He does the same for us.
Sometimes we are the young ruler trusting in social status or rule-keeping.
Other times we are Nicodemus, hoping that our service to God, our sacrifice, our theological knowledge will make us complete.
And, more often than not, we are the Samaritan woman, hoping to find love and a sense of worth through relationships.
Jesus loves us too much to let us keep searching for fulfillment in things and people. He turns things upside down so that we can see Him clearly, run to Him readily, and find what we are searching for in Him.
Words in italics are from the workbook Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically by John Snyder. Used with permission.