Looking at Jesus with our success-oriented eyes, we tend to see the miracle-performing, world-changing Son of God. Not the typical modern-day celebrity type, it's true, but nonetheless, a super-hero up there with the very best of them.
I suggest the view at the time might have been rather different.
Just after his birth he and his family became refugees as they fled Herod’s persecutions. We know almost nothing about his life before he started his mission - he was a carpenter living a life of obscurity in a nowhere town. At the age of about 30, having achieved nothing so far of particular note, he set out on his God-given mission - to bring God’s plan for salvation to the whole of mankind!
It went well to start with, with great crowds flocking to hear him and see his miracles. But quickly it began to go wrong: he was rejected in his home town and narrowly escaped being murdered. Not long after, the great majority of his followers fell away when the going got tough, leaving just the 12. And then one of these twelve betrayed him into the hands of his armed enemies. The others deserted when he was arrested and Peter, his most loyal supporter, denied he even knew him. Following an illegal trial on trumped-up charges, he was put to death with common criminals.
Hanging there on the cross with his life flashing before his eyes: what was there to show for all his work? Where was the fruit of his great mission? Where was the evidence of salvation for the world? In fact, where were his disciples?
No thriving congregation, no recognition, no books published, no possessions apart from the clothes he was wearing, no children. Misunderstood, rejected, dead at 33 and no memorial service with warm words. Apart from a handful, no-one cared. There were just a few frightened and disillusioned disciples who had lost hope and scattered!
As he was dying, nothing remained - except his faith in his Father. The salvation of the world, hanging by the merest of threads - in the faith of one dying man!
He dies, not seeing any evidence for what he trusts is to come. As the world judges things, his life was a catastrophic failure. (Don't let the fact that you know the end of the story blind you to the crisis at this moment in history...)
Imagine, as you look back on your life when you are dying: everything you have worked hard for and cared about - come to absolutely nothing!
So was Jesus really a such a success?
He was successful only in having lived a life of total obedience to his Father. He trusted his Father to fulfil his promise, even when all appeared to have gone wrong.
We, too, have a choice: work to be a success - and perhaps gain some possessions and achieve a modicum of recognition. Or choose to be obedient - most likely being seen as a failure in the eyes of the world - but leaving room for God to work in whatever way he wishes.
Remembered for the car or house you owned? Or remembered for being the hands of God?
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