Mark 9:30-32 (NIV): They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
Even though Jesus clearly told His disciples (several times) exactly what was going to happen to Him just a short time in the future, they never got it – at least not until after the resurrection.
This problem in their ability to understand came from several sources:
- Even though they knew that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law were out to get Jesus, they could not imagine how they could act against the rising public opinion that seemed to be continually growing around Him.
- They couldn’t imagine who would “betray” Jesus. The inner circle of 12 had been with Jesus for a couple of years, and all seemed deeply committed to Him.
- The idea of Jesus being killed ran completely against their expectations and their theology. They knew that Jesus was the Messiah beyond a shadow of a doubt. But to them, that meant that Jesus would soon take control of the government, and set up a whole new theocracy that would launch Israel to the top of the world scene, and that would last forever. The death of the Messiah did not fit into any picture they had of this future.
- Even if they could have accepted the idea of Jesus’ death, they could not understand the concept of Jesus rising from the dead on the third day. There had been resurrections in the deep recesses of biblical history, and Jesus himself had raised a few people from the dead. But if Jesus was dead, who would be there to raise Him up!?
Every time Jesus talked about these things, these same issues perplexed the disciples. They didn’t understand them at all. (Maybe it was another parable that they weren’t quite getting?) But He always seemed so earnest and so deadly serious when He talked about them, that they never dared to ask for an explanation.
After the resurrection, of course, it all became perfectly clear. This was no parable, but a clear foretelling of events exactly as they would happen. They also quickly realized that the problem was not with God’s plan, but with their own misunderstandings of what the Scriptures really said. When Jesus opened their eyes and showed them what the prophets had actually written, it changed everything and helped them to see more clearly how every piece of the puzzle contributed to the finished picture of the Father’s love and salvation for all mankind.
Father, it is easy to shake our heads at the disciples, and maybe even sneer at them a bit. But we can easily fall into the same trap. We can allow the theology we have been taught to obscure the truths that are clearly and repeatedly expressed in Your word. We can end up skipping over passages of the Bible that we find disturbing or hard to understand, instead of asking and listening carefully until we get it. Help us, Lord, to rely on You and Your Spirit to guide us into all truth, even truth that will challenge us, and change what we believe. Amen.