In this passage, the primary focus is on Jesus directly telling His disciples what would happen. Jesus tells them plainly that He will “be delivered into the hands of men.” Mark and Matthew’s account tells us that Jesus finishes the sentence, “and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” (Mark 9:31; Matthew 17:23)
Here in Luke we see an interesting idea that Mark and Matthew don’t bring up, and that is the significance of this prediction was concealed (hidden) from them so they would not understand it. This brings up an interesting idea: “Sometimes God hides truth from us until we are ready to receive it.”
We have 3 or 4 events recorded where Jesus directly tells the disciples that He will be crucified, but they don’t seem to understand. One time Peter thinks He understands and tries to challenge Jesus saying this idea, which doesn’t go so well for Peter, but overall, it seems that only after Jesus has died and shattered their preconceived ideas about the role of the Messiah do they finally understand what Jesus came to accomplish.
I must ask myself: If God hid truth from the disciples, is it possible that He is hiding truth from me – at least until I am ready to receive it? If so, will I trust God enough to accept His timing and not try and push my own?
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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