Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.” They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
Time with the
guysEvery now and then it is nice to just hang out with the people who are your closest friends. The guys who you don’t have to explain everything to, the ones you can let your hair down with and they are OK with it. These times of just hanging out are some of the most formative times in a man’s life. It is where he can wrestle with the issues facing him without facing the scathing criticism of those affected by his decisions. He knows the guys will be honest with him, not allowing him to revel in self-pity, but also supportive cheering him on to things that once seemed impossible. I imagine ladies do the same thing when they get together.
Jesus is no different. He wants to be alone with his disciples. He wants to share with them who he really is, and receive their affirmation and support. He also wants to encourage them and to assure them of his love and support.
I wonder what it was like sitting there together with Jesus sharing his heart. The disciples did not provide the best support for Jesus, but at least they listened as he talked about the future. For Jesus it must have been lonely. To never be fully understood, even by those closest to him, must have been painful.
Ministry can be like that. I know many pastors who struggle to make close friends even with other pastors. Petty jealousy and loose lips keep many pastors from sharing their deepest hurts and pains. It is almost impossible to do this with people in the church. There are always a few people a pastor will get close to but they are still always the pastor, never just one of the guys. Too bad, for even Jesus wanted that time to be just one of the guys with his disciples.
Jesus, help me to be honest before you and to see my relationship with you as one of complete trust and openness. Give me wisdom not to shut myself off from other people, but discernment with whom I open to as well. - Dan Jones
Fishy Disciples
Out of the box thinking confuses boxed fish.
I’m told that some species of fish that get accustomed to aquarium life will continue to exist within those same parameters even if they are set free into a lake. Image that. Existing within a 4’x 2’x 2’ boundary with a thirty mile lake to explore!
Many Jesus-followers are boxed fish.
Jesus talked plainly about his coming death. He explained that he would follow it by resurrection. How could the disciples not understand? It’s the power of the box. They knew only one kind of Messiah. Descriptors like king, ruler, Prince of Peace, the government will rest upon his shoulders, all acted like aquarium glass that prevented them from grasping what Jesus plainly discussed.
We are all that way. We become so defined by our own presuppositions about religion, our own entrenched understanding of life, our own prejudices, that we cannot swim beyond the box. We march through life, like an army on parade, in lockstep with everyone else in our culture or sub-culture, seldom, if ever, questioning the direction or why we take it; often oblivious to our slavish reality.
It took a radical event that shook them to their core to break free the first disciples. Staring at their decimated and disgraced Messiah limp on a Roman cross, and their glass box shattered. Sitting around an early morning shoreline fire, eating breakfast with the resurrected Jesus, they began to swim into fresh waters.
Perhaps that is another reason a cross must be at the center of deeply spiritual living. We need an event profound and radical enough to both break our boxes and reprogram the lockstep march. Jesus came to set us free by his reality. But we will only break free from our own myopic reality when we embrace his death and resurrection.
No wonder those disciples where willing to die in order to get the message of Jesus to the world.
God of broken boxes, set me free. Forgive me when I swim in the small spaces of my mind rather than the open spaces of yours. Forbid that I travel further into the Christian life only to find my mind getting smaller and smaller. - Mike Leamon
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