Read: Luke 18:31–34
But the disciples understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what Jesus said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Luke 18:34
Often times we don’t hear what we don’t want to hear. We can be deaf to news that would be too troubling for us to bear. This is likely what happened to Jesus’ disciples. This scripture represents the third time in the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus spoke of his impending death and resurrection. And yet, the disciples were entirely unable to grasp what He was saying. The only explanation for this is that they did not want to hear it, they did not want to believe it, and so they conveniently chose to ignore it.
Jesus’ message was, of course, that He was going to have to die to live. And that is so much of the message He tried to impart to the world. We might have to die to truly live. Our lust and longings, our dreams and desires, our initiative and identity might need to die before we can live more fully as the people God intends us to be. That is a scary proposition for many of us. It is a message most of us might choose to ignore. But our ignorance does not make the teaching less true or less relevant today. If you want to live, you just might have to die.
Do we listen to what Jesus has to say, or do we tune Him out so that we can keep doing things are own way?
Lord, I do my best to ignore You. In fact, I am so used to tuning You out, it doesn’t take much effort to accomplish any more. You tell me time and time again what is necessary for a meaningful life, and I plug my fingers in my ears and start humming as loud as I can to cover Your speech. I don’t want to hear You tell me that death might have to precede real life. I don’t want to hear it, but, oddly, my soul longs for it. Help me to listen more closely to my soul and to my Savior. In Your name, I pray. AMEN.