Thoughts for the Day

Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer   Mark 8:31

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record how Jesus began to teach his disciples that he must suffer, be rejected, be killed and rise on the third day.  It signals a turning point in the gospels as he sets his sights towards the Cross.  But they did not grasp it and were devastated and scared as events unfolded after the Last Supper.

How many times, I wonder, did Jesus try to explain this to them?  Were they simply slow to understand?  Was he, after all, not such a good teacher?  I suspect these are the wrong questions!  In Jesus’ encounter with Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, we are told that ‘beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’.  After they had recognised him and he had disappeared they reflected on this, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’  This suggests Jesus’ followers were quite capable of understanding and that Jesus could unpack the Old Testament scriptures with breath-taking effectiveness.

Perhaps the prospect of what he was facing was so dreadful that Jesus could only hint at it briefly and occasionally.  I wouldn’t blame him for that.  But I suspect more likely it was some combination of Jesus intentionally limiting what he explained and God in some way closing the disciples’ minds. Why? My only explanation is so that the scriptures would be fulfilled.  Jesus knew they would betray and desert him … he told them so.  I find it a sobering thought that, perhaps, precisely because he knew it was God’s will and necessary that he be completely abandoned, he intentionally kept them enough in the dark that they would not be tempted to stay and support him.