SELECTIVE HEARING

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again He took the Twelve aside and told them what was to happen to Him.

‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ He said, ‘and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.’ (Mark 10: 32-34).

How many times had Jesus told the disciples that He was going to suffer and die in Jerusalem? Read his words again. Could He have been more explicit and given them more detail than this? Step by step He told them what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. Surely they would have remembered at least some of His words when it happened.

What was it in His words that either cancelled out what He told them or, alternatively, sparked faith that would not have been fazed by His death? “Three days later He will rise again.’ Every time He spoke of His death, He told them that He would rise again. Since the two events were tied together, they refused to listen to Him because rising again was outside their experience.

O yes, they were with Jesus when He raised a few people from the dead. They had seen it but His words still didn’t penetrate their reluctant brains. They could not process the idea that their Master would be ripped away from them by violent death. Why would anyone want to kill Him? People from all over followed Him. Even then, He had to take them aside from the crowd to remind them of His words to them. Surely their very presence would protect Him from anyone who had evil intent.

They knew that Jesus was not afraid to tell people the truth, even if it offended them, and offend the religious leaders He did. Sometimes they worried that He had gone too far. He seemed to provoke them deliberately, accusing them of being blind guides and whited sepulchres. That kind of talk would not win their favour. Why did He do it? Why didn’t He just leave them alone? These men were powerful and influential. They could turn the Roman authorities against Him in a heartbeat.

What offended the religious authorities even more was His claim to be the Son of God. They just could not stomach those words because to them it was blasphemy. How could a mere man claim to be God? Of course, any other man claiming to be God would have been written off as crazy, but Jesus gave no evidence of being crazy. In fact, just the opposite. Even His mother and brothers thought He had lost it but Jesus ignored them and refused to go home with them so that they could keep an eye on Him.

What was the difference between His claim and any other claim that did not even warrant consideration? Evidence! Jesus kept insisting, ‘Look at the evidence.’ There were at least three witnesses to authenticate His claim – John the Baptist, the Father and His works. For anyone to be proved guilty of a charge, there had to be two or three witnesses. Jesus produced three witnesses to prove that He was guilty of being the Son of God.

But the authorities still dismissed His claim and so did the disciples even though Peter had confessed his conviction, on behalf of the Twelve, that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. But, as far as Jesus was concerned, Peter might not have even bothered to make that confession because he had no idea what it meant.

The Holy Scriptures presented two streams of thought regarding the Messiah; He would be both a king and a Suffering Servant. Since the Suffering Servant did not fit their expectation of what Messiah would do, they dismissed it and refused to listen to His instruction about His impending death.

It was only after His resurrection that it began to make sense to them, and especially when the Holy Spirit fell on them at Pentecost and did what Jesus said He would do – lead them into all truth.

How often we are just like the disciples – uncomprehending and unbelieving until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth. It’s not just that we can’t understand. We actually don’t want to understand or believe because the truth is too painful to receive. But there is always “resurrection”, and understanding and faith come when we allow the Holy Spirit to interpret life, not according to our expectations but according to the truth.

The presence of Jesus in our pain makes all the difference because only He can make sense of it all. Even if nothing changes, He is there – Emmanuel – and that’s all that really matters.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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