Think back, if you will, to a time when you just couldn’t understand. Maybe it was recently or it was long ago. Maybe you were told you couldn’t have something or you couldn’t go somewhere and you couldn’t understand why. Or things didn’t make sense. Or, maybe you were in a class with difficult subject material. I think about chemistry class. I sat there all year not understanding any part of chemistry. I tried to solve equations. Something about an arrow and NaCl and H20. While my lab partners were working out covalent bonds my job was to get the Bunsen burner. I just couldn’t grasp what I was being taught…. couldn’t get it. I could never wrap my head around things.
Some things are hard for us to understand, and as we’ll soon see, the disciples, those closest to Jesus, also had difficulty understanding.
Our Gospel reading today is a terrific story, and we might appreciate it more if we read it as a story and had some background on it. Since we’ll be referring to it, you may want to pull out your bulletin and follow along.
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it. Why would he not want anyone to know it? Well, This journey that Jesus and the disciples make through Galilee onto Capernaum is the first part of Jesus’ trek to Jerusalem and the cross. And as their Rabbi, Jesus needed to teach his disciples, and if he is making his way to the cross, he probably feels some urgency to teach his disciples while he can. But, Jesus always had a lot of crowds gathered around him; everywhere he went people were coming to him looking for healing. It seems like if he needed to be alone with his disciples, he had to be very intentional about it. So Jesus finally has his disciples alone, which is good because he has something very important to teach them. He says, “ The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
And this is where they don’t understand. It is easier for us; we’ve heard the Good news. We know how the story ends. But for the disciples, what Jesus is telling them just doesn’t make sense. How could Jesus die? They’re just getting started. And even more, how could he rise from the dead? How could this be?
Have you ever been in a situation where something made no sense to you? Perhaps you weren’t aware of the whole story so you couldn’t piece things together? Maybe someone wasn’t in a position to reveal everything until later in time.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the disciples hear this information. Last week in our Gospel reading, it went fast so you may have missed it, but Jesus actually told his disciples the same thing: he predicted his death and resurrection, and we actually heard “And he said this openly.” So they heard this message before in words that were crystal clear. And they will hear it again (this is in Mark Chapter 10). They will struggle to fully understand then, as well.
Maybe it’s like getting a tough medical diagnosis. We hear some difficult news, and we try to absorb as much information as we can, but a lot what is being said, might be too much to take in. Maybe we just can’t process it all.
Going back to the Gospel reading, we hear that the disciples didn’t understand what he was saying and they were afraid to ask. We may question why would they be afraid to ask? Well, when we go back to the Gospel reading from last week Peter hears Jesus say that Jesus will suffer and be killed and then rise again, and Peter won’t accept this and takes Jesus aside and scolds Jesus. Jesus then rebukes Peter and says, “Get behind me Satan.” Perhaps the disciples in today’s Gospel reading didn’t want their Rabbi giving another harsh rebuke. This is yet another time that they didn’t understand.
The Gospel reading continues. Then they came to Capernaum; and when [Jesus] was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way? But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
Maybe you can even picture the scene en route to Capernaum, Jesus’ old stomping grounds…. all the disciples, walking along the narrow footpath, Jesus up front leading the way, everyone single file. The guys all have dirt inside their worn sandals. The twelve men are discussing who had the most experience, whose leadership would best suit the group.
So, if I were to ask you, what’s wrong here? Or, what don’t the disciples fully understand. I might get a few responses.
1) Didn’t Jesus just tell them he was going to be killed and now the disciples are concerned about themselves?
2) Why are they concerned about who is the greatest at this time?
3) Why are the disciples comfortable talking freely when Jesus supposedly can’t hear them but are silent when he is fully listening?
In their setting, in their time and place, the disciples, those closest to Jesus were unable to comprehend what Jesus, himself, was trying to tell them; they couldn’t get it; they couldn’t wrap their head around things. Jesus shared the information with the disciples straight to their face, multiple times, and they still didn’t understand. Imagine what they may have thought to themselves, “I’m one of Jesus’s disciples, and I don’t get half of what he’s saying some of the time.” But what Jesus said and did was always wrapped around God’s way, which was sometimes very different from the disciples’ understanding and reasoning, which would have been the world’s way.
As we reflect upon all this, we may be experiencing some very difficult realities that we don’t understand, and like the disciples, sometimes our worldview limits what we can fully grasp. So what’s the Good News? In spite of the fact that we don’t have it all figured out, and we may even be afraid, we can know that God has full wisdom and has it all under his sovereign control.
There is a beautiful passage from the Old Testament in Isaiah 55
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We may not understand; we don’t have to fear: Jesus comes to us with comfort, giving us love, covering us with grace, empowering us with strength and hope. Amen.
