It never ceases to amaze me how many times Jesus has to correct his disciples. I mean, these guys spend all their time with Jesus, yet it takes them forever to understand something. There are a few times, three or four I think, where Jesus basically tells them he will die and be raised three days later. He does use kind of cryptic wording, but still, it sounds pretty clear. And every time the disciples are like, “Huh? this again? I don’t get it…” So we shouldn’t feel too bad if it seemingly takes forever to “get it.” At least that’s what I tell myself…
I also like how the disciples think they have some kind of exclusive right to Jesus-type things. They must feel pretty special, traveling around with this holy celebrity. I wonder if that danger bleeds into modern day church culture. I can think of a couple examples of people who seem to think they’re something special. Even though Jesus isn’t physically with us, the idea is that we’re still walking with him, learning. So it’s kind of a direct lesson for us too. It would be like if someone trained at a Bible college saw some untrained yuppie trying tell people about the Bible and what it means. (Untrained yuppie, that’s me.) So to any trained theologians out there, Jesus says leave me alone. =p
Thanks for reading,
Jared
Funny Jared. The diciples were only human but I agree that it took them a long time to “get it”. Actually, for most, it wasw after Jesus’ death. They argued over who was the greatest and who held Jesus’s affection, etc. We learn at a very young age to be competitive and this sets us up for a world far from the one Jesus would want us to have.
Oh, and the trained theologians are trying to sort it all out just like the rest of us, but maybe we admit we don’t know anything!!!