32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
The title of these few verses reads, "Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time". By this point in his ministry, Jesus has performed a lot of miracles to the point where it says in verse 32 that people were amazed and afraid, so by this point you would expect most people, especially his disciples, would pay attention when he says he will be condemned to death but will rise again after three days. A bit of a spoiler, it all happens exactly how Jesus foretells it. Jesus is delivered over to the priests and scribes that kill him and three days later, Jesus rises. When this does happen, the disciples are still as shocked as anyone else and don't see it coming, one even doubting that its true.
The disciples have had a front row seat to all the miracles Jesus has been performing and to all the sermons he's preached. The disciples however for some reason, whether it's forgetfulness, disbelief, or just not listening, don't realize it when Jesus reveals his true purpose for being on earth. Not once, twice, but three times Jesus foretells that all this will occur but when Jesus actually dies, no one said, "Don't worry, Jesus said he'll rise the third day, don't be sad, just wait three days, you'll see, he said so himself. Didn't you hear him? He even repeated himself three times".
Jesus knows the hearts and minds of his disciples so he knows that the truth he is speaking isn't quite sinking into the disciples. You would think that anyone would get frustrated when they have to repeat something over and over and yet have no one understand it. In hindsight we can see how silly it the disciples must've been to not have realized the truth when Jesus was speaking it again and again, but all of us make the same mistake.
There are some things that we are told over and over, pretend we hear it but are somehow still surprised when it happens the way we were told. "Don't touch that, you'll hurt yourself", "If you trust him, you'll only get burned in the end", "if you go down that path you'll end up regretting it later". We hear these things but we don't really hear them. In a lot of ways we end up being just like the disciples and turn a blind eye to the truth being presented right in front of us.
But God is good and He extends grace towards us. He understands that sometimes we need to hear things again and again, repeating himself yet not getting frustrated but is patient with us. We have the truth of the gospel in front of us with so many of its beautiful truths being presented straight towards us just like Jesus did with his disciples, yet just like them we don't always understands what it means.
Know this about God, there's so much He wants to tell you. He is just waiting for you to finally listen. It'll be told to you a first time, second, third, and even more but He doesn't change what He's saying, He's patient with us.
So when we do finally realize whatever He's been trying to tell you, look back and thank and praise God for continuing to speak His unchanging truth to you and don't beat yourself up for not realizing it sooner. Even the disciples who would later become the leaders of the church didn't realize what Jesus was telling them until it finally happened. Thank God praise for His patience and for speaking his truth constantly in your prayers and also pray that you would be able to hear the truth He is speaking to you.
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