The Invitation - Day 5

31 Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. 32 He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. 33 They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day, he will rise again.”

34 But they didn’t understand any of this. The significance of his words was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about.

Why was this even included in the text? It was an exercise in the disciples needing help understanding what he was saying. While he gives them an affirmation of everything that is displayed in scripture about the Messiah, if his words were trying to be comforting, it seems that those words did just the opposite. They seemed to fail to grasp any of it. 

Does that ever happen to you? You read scripture and then have difficulty applying it to your life, or you can’t understand it. 

We have all felt this way at times. We don’t always know what God is talking about in scripture, and we have to study a little deeper, with a little more intention, to get to the core of what is being talked about. 

Jesus is reminding them, and ultimately us, that what he is about to go through has long been discussed in the Old Testament scriptures. His being taken, mocked, and ultimately killed was not news to Jesus, but it was pretty challenging to understand for the disciples. Why? Did they not know the scriptures? 

They did, but it is hard to realize that history is talking about the person in front of you. This is what the disciples had to wrestle with over and over again. Jesus took them to Caesarea Philippi to ask who they thought he was. When they finally figured it out, everything changed for them, and honestly, everything changed for all of us. But it takes a long time to understand who Jesus is. 

If you were to teach this passage, what essential points would you help someone understand? 

If it were me, I think I would emphasize two points in particular: 

1. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Prophecy. He didn’t show up and do random things. He fulfilled all those things said about him. Things in Daniel, things in Isaiah, and things found other places about the Messiah. Jesus moved in a manner that made you see his fulfillment of prophecy with what seemed like every step. 
2. I would tell them how hard it was for the disciples to discern who Jesus was. They traveled with him exclusively for years, and they still struggled to securely understand who he was and what he was trying to do. If their journey is full of doubts, they are not alone, but they are in a great company of faithful heroes who took a long time to recognize Jesus as God, as one who fulfills prophecy and law, and as the only one they need for salvation!

Some questions for today:

1. When did you finally really recognize who Jesus was? 
2. What made the difference for you? 
3. How can you help someone along that journey?