Lenten Devotion for Wednesday, March 24

Today's lessons:

Psalm 20

Habakkuk 3:2-15

Luke 18:31-34

Author:

Rev. Suzanne Anderson-Hurdle

Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Romeoville

Chaplain, Romeoville Fire and Police Departments.

Theme verses:

Luke 18:34 - “But they didn’t understand a thing he said. Its significance was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about” (New Living Translation).

Meditation:

In our weekly Wednesday Bible Study, we’ve talked a lot about the disciples who followed, and were taught by, Jesus. Sometimes, we are too quick to judge them as being a little dense and for not understanding more clearly what Jesus tells them.

However, I try to remind our group that we have the benefit of knowing the whole story. Our brothers, the disciples, only had the knowledge they had, at that moment in time. True, they had witnessed countless miracles with Jesus and they had seen him challenge the religious authority. But, they still seemed a bit confused as to what Jesus’ words meant.

Here, in Luke 18, Jesus predicts his death for the third time. He gathers the twelve around him and tells them what will happen when they get to Jerusalem, how the Son of Man will be treated…and killed…and then rise again.

Luke then says, as is stated above, that the disciples didn’t understand and that they failed to grasp what Jesus was talking about. However, there is an important phrase in between those two statements. Luke says that the “significance [of what Jesus was saying] was hidden from them.” If it was hidden from them, then no wonder they couldn’t understand or grasp it.

Sometimes I wonder if God is keeping the significance of certain events hidden from me in my own life. I try to see the greater spiritual meaning and sometimes, I just can’t.

It can be extremely frustrating because I so want to see God in the midst of every portion of my life. But then I realize, as I think about the disciples, that maybe God knows I’m not ready to fully understand what it is that is happening at that given moment.

I’m not sure the disciples were fully ready to embrace and/or understand what Jesus was predicting. I think they kind of thought he was this miracle worker who told stories that most of them rarely understood. I think they found him to be someone who was charismatic enough to tick off the religious authorities while at the same time bringing the outcasts to the table to eat with him. I think they wanted to believe that he was the One who was going to bring God’s Kingdom to earth, even if they didn’t fully understand what that meant.

As you think about your own faith journey, have there been times when you wish God might have made things a little bit more clear for you?

Have there been situations in which you felt like you just couldn’t quite grasp what it was that you were supposed to be doing?

Take heart, brothers and sisters. I believe that when God knows we are ready to understand and grasp the deeper significance of these moments in our lives, He will reveal them, just as He ultimately revealed the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to the disciples. Be patient and God will make clear that which is now hidden to you, too.

Prayer:

Loving God, in the midst of this Lenten journey, we pray that You would open our hearts and minds.  Help us to better understand Your Word and to grasp its meaning for our lives.  Give us patience when we are in situations that don't make sense to us and help us to trust that You will reveal Yourself to us, just as You did to the disciples.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.