Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: The human mind is a tricky device, full of cunning to honor and glorify itself. We hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see, so often. If you have ever read a part of the Bible that disagreed with something you hold dear, or disproved some theory you had about God, or forbade conduct dear to your heart, you will have recognized this phenomenon in yourself. Your mind twists and turns to find a way around whatever it is you don't like, as resourceful as a teenager avoiding his homework. Painting of Christ crucified, by Sieger Koder The disciples were men like us; and actually, less educated. Almost certainly the majority of them were illiterate. Nor had they, by this time, fully received the Holy Spirit. Christ did tell them, flat out and with no room for misunderstanding, that He would be killed and would be raised up afterwards. How could they not grasp what He was telling them? Yet that is exactly what happened. Their only reaction is “exceeding” sorrow,Our emotions when we consider the murder of Christ are a complex subject, and I am not trying to say that feeling some degree of sorrow is wrong, or sinful. which bespeaks an incomplete grasp of Christ's purpose and ignores completely the “raised up” part. To love Christ truly is to accept his gift of salvation. To obey God is to accept his means of saving us. Jesus has picked this moment to inform them more fully of God's plan, because Peter has recognized that He is, indeed, the Messiah. The problem is that He is not the Messiah that they have in mind. They have the same great difficulty all of us have in accepting God's word, when it conflicts with their pre-existing beliefs. The apostles' confusion will continue, in fact, until ten days after Christ's ascension, when God sends the Holy Spirit to them. The Gospel of John is especially strong in discussing this; the question of full knowledge of salvation takes up many of the late chapters of John. To see the apostles' inability to understand, compare today's Scripture with their mindset on the very eve of the Crucifixion: Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.” (John 16:17-18) How could they possibly be so stupid, we might wonder; but we gain wisdom when we understand the reason. Christ actually tells the apostles, and by extension us, that it is impossible to understand his teaching fully until one has fully accepted the Holy Spirit: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; . . .” (John 16:12-13)