“Did They Understand or Not…”


BIBLE READING: Luke 17-21
DISCUSSION                                               
                As we prepare to enter next week’s reading of the impending death of Jesus on the cross, I think it important to mention something Jesus noted in Luke 18.31-34.  This is the third time in Luke’s account that Jesus has specifically warned His disciples about His upcoming death.  It is also interesting to note that He is very specific concerning the events that are about to take place, yet they still do not understand why?  How is it possible for these men to soak up everything that Jesus tells them and shows them as He goes about His daily ministry, yet totally ignore the words He mentions about His death.  The text also says that “they understood none of these things.  This saying was hidden form them, and they did not grasp what He said” (Luke 18.34).  I guess it is possible that they just didn’t understand, or that they chose to not understand.  However, maybe this passage means that God blinded them so that they would not understand.  Just imagine, if they did understand Him, don’t you think they might have sought to start a riot or a coup to ensure that they would not take Jesus into custody?  Or maybe that night in the garden when Judas betrays Jesus, would it not seem more reasonable that Peter would not be the only one that tried to fight them.  Maybe God did hide it from them until after the fact so that they would not have tried to stop it?  Maybe His revealing of what was about to happen was more for us today to show His divine knowledge of what was about to take place before it happens to further prove that Jesus was the Messiah?  The truth is, we will never know on this side of eternity.  What we do know is that Jesus was taken, arrested, abused and killed, exactly as He said He would be.  And for the believer, all that does is solidify what makes Christ the one True Son of God.  I pray that we do more trusting in Him, than we do of questioning His followers.


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