The 18th century poet Alexander Pope once wrote: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” How do you deal with disappointment? As we live in this world, we develop expectations for life and we constantly approach God to fulfill those expectations; disappointment is the grief that we feel when those hopes and expectations go unfulfilled. In our passage this morning, the first thing Jesus wants to tell us is that the Kingdom of God has now come very near to where we are, and that the coming kingdom of God is going to change our expectations of how life works. What is the kingdom of God? A kingdom is simply all of the places where the king reigns. The kingdom of this world has been a place where sin, Satan and death reign; they are the temporary kings, usurpers to the throne, until the true king of this world returns. So the kingdom we live in now is characterized by shattered families, dead dreams, miserable work, and suffering and trials that turn our hearts and minds against the goodness of the true king rather than point us to Him. And now, Jesus says, the true king has come down. The king has set foot on the shores of this kingdom and is beginning to take it back; the first beachhead of the Kingdom of God has been established. But, surprisingly, the announcement of the kingdom comes mingled with disappointing circumstances.
