Puzzled, Confused & Bewildered

Jesus: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Disciples: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel.”  Acts 1:4-6

Last week I was definitely puzzled, confused and bewildered. Someone told me something and in my context it made no sense to me. But thinking I understood what they meant I continued on with certain plans. It wasn’t until a day later that I learned that what they were saying, which made sense in their context, was very different from what I thought.


Have you had that same experience? Perhaps you were to meet someone at 9:00 but you thought it was morning and they meant it was at night. Or maybe the prof said a 10-page paper and you struggle to fill 8 pages single spaced when he meant double-spaced. There are lots of times when communication breaks down because we have one perspective and the other person has a different idea in mind. And it is usually only in hind-sight when things become clear.


That is what is happening in this conversation between Jesus and the disciples. Forty days earlier Jesus was resurrected and now he is ready to go to his Father. He tells them they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It was necessary for the Spirit to come to empower the disciples for the work of God’s Kingdom. That’s Jesus’ context.


But the disciples were living a different context. They are still expecting the gift they were to receive was the overthrow the Roman government. Isn’t that why the Messiah has come? Now that he has come back to life they were ready for the kingdom to be re-established in Israel, for God’s chosen people.


But you can see the difficulty arise in the references to time. Jesus says, “Wait,” and “in a few days”; the disciples ask “at this time.”


The disciples thought they had a grand plan but in fact were thinking small, a narrow strip of land for a relatively tiny number of people. Jesus was thinking immense, all the nations across the whole earth.


Are there times when the circumstances are perfect, when everything is in place to move ahead on a project, a relationship, a position? There seems to be no reason why it shouldn’t. We are ready and our context makes it seems like this is the time. But nothing happens. And we can become puzzled and confused and bewildered. Why is it not happening like I thought it should?


My confusion last week was changed to abundant gratitude as I saw again God working out his plan for his glory. Are you being limited by your context? Seeing only from your perspective? Wait. And God will reveal his astonishing plan in his time..