Once More, Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Monday August 05, 2024}

Matthew 17:22-23, Mark 9:30-32, Luke 9:43-45

Father, help me not to let my human emotions get in the way of my doing the work You have assigned for me to do to build Your Kingdom. Help me also to uphold the truth, regardless of the resistance I will encounter from those who don't want to hear it. Father, I understand there are many things that have been hidden from me. There are many mysteries that I will not understand until the time is right. However, I do ask that You will not withhold understanding from me because of my lack of faith and commitment to You. Please help me to be a man of God, strong in faith and surrendered to You, so that You will reveal more things to me than You would if I was not so. Amen.
Father, the crowd was still marveling at how Jesus had cast the demon out of the boy. Jesus was able to depart from the scene with His disciples. Jesus carefully led His disciples on a journey through Galilee so as to avoid being noticed by crowds. He wanted a time to be alone with His disciples and to teach them.
Upon arrival in Galilee, Jesus once again told His disciples that He is going to be delivered into the hands of men. He will be killed but on the third day He will be rise again. The last time Jesus had spoken about His destiny He had encountered resistance from Peter and the other disciples. However, Jesus was a true leader, and He was not afraid to tell the truth regardless of how the disciples will respond to it. The feelings of His disciples will not change the course that Jesus is on. It is not Jesus who needs to adjust His mission for the sake of His disciple’s feelings. It is the disciples who need to adjust their feelings for the sake of Jesus’ mission. Wokism it is not.
The disciples were filled with grief once more. They were confused and couldn’t make sense of what Jesus had said. Who on earth makes plans to be crucified by Roman soldiers? It made no sense to the disciples. However, this time they were afraid to challenge Jesus.  It is likely that this time the leaders of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, having witnessed the transfiguration, did not challenge Jesus about His destiny. The other disciples followed their lead.
This passage includes a challenging text. In Luke 9:45, we read:
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. (NIV)
Father, for reasons that are not explained in the text, somebody is intentionally blocking (hiding) Jesus’ disciples from understanding Jesus’ mission and destiny. Who could that be?

• Satan. The more objections that Jesus’ disciples raise to Jesus’ death and resurrection, the more obstacles that will stand in the way of Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophecy and crushing Satan’s head. (Genesis 3:15)
• Jesus. The more aware the disciples are of the horrors of the last week of Jesus’ life, the more likely they will abandon Jesus and the faith. If they truly understood what that week would be like, the Lord’s supper may have had only a few men in attendance and the church would not have started in Acts with the full complement of disciples (the original eleven, minus Judas Iscariot and plus Matthias).

Amen.