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"And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer
many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests,
and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
And he spake that saying openly."
burial and coming resurrection. No–
tice further: "And he (Jesus] began
to teach them, that the Son of man
must suffer many things, and be re–
jected of the elders, and of the chief
priests, and scribes, and be killed,
and
after three days rise again"
(verse 31).
Poor, presumptuous Peter simply
could not stifte his immediate reac–
tion. "And Peter took him (Jesus],
and began to rebuke him" (verse
32). This couldn't happen to his
Master- not while "good old Peter"
was still around. Peter's actions
prove that he had no idea of what
Christ was really talking about.
The disciples just couldn't get it
straight in their minds that Jesus
Christ did
not
come to set up the
Kingdom of God right then and
there. They were
not
psychologically
conditioned to a suffering Re–
deemer. Always in the hidden re–
cesses of their minds was the
thought of throwing off the yoke of
Roman oppression - a concept
deeply enmeshed in the mentality of
their age.
After Jesus fed the five thousand
with five loaves and two fishes- a
great, incomprehensible miracle–
the people could only envision mak–
ing Him a king by force (see John
6:5- 15). After al!, with such miracu–
lous power behind Him, He could
accomplish wonders with a small
army and a few swords.
The d isciples' understa nding
failed to improve with time and the
chronological scheme of things.
Even Jesus' continua! repetition of
the grim events that lay in the im–
mediate offing could not convince or
convict them. Severa! days later, fol–
lowing the transfiguration, Jesus
emphatically told them to tell no
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1977
one about it " ... till the Son of man
were risen from the dead. And they
kept that saying with themselves,
questioning one with another
what
the rising from the dead should
mean" (Mark 9:9-10).
Sorne time later they all passed
through Galilee where Jesus contin–
ued to repeat it to His disciples:
"... The Son of man is [will be] de–
livered into the hands of men, and
they shall kili him; and after that he
is killed, he shall rise the third day.
But
they understood not that saying,
and were afraid to ask him (about
it]" (verses 31-32).
Constant Reminders
As time rushed by, Jesus became
increasingly aware of the imme–
diacy of His last great tria!. He had
told His disciples: "Let these sayings
sink down into your ears:
for the Son
of man shall be delivered into the
hands of men" (Luke 9:44). Jesus
really wanted, with all of His being,
for these men-His closest friends–
to deeply understand what He was
about to go through. Humanly, He
wanted them to share the terrible
agony of anticipation. "But they un–
derstood not this saying, and
it was
hidfrom them,
that they perceived it
not .. ."(verse 45).
Faceto face with the greatest tria!
of His life, He didn' t even have the
comfort and loyalty of His very clos–
est friends. They understood pre–
cious little of what was going on.
Yet Jesus kept reminding them of it,
repeating it almost incessantly, as if
He were urging them to somehow
react to His words.
On His final trip to Jerusalem the
disciples finaJly began to be afraid,
but they still didn't "get it" (Mark
10:32). So Jesus repeated it yet once
more: "And he took
again
the
twelve, and began to tell them what
things should happen unto him."
And then He repeated the whole
scenario in its entirety once again
(verses 33-34). But their minds were
on who among them was to be the
greatest, who would sit on Christ's
right and left hand, who was going
to have the most authority (verses
35-45). That their leader was going
to die a horribly excruciating death,
be buried for three days and three
nights, and then rise again from the
dead, simply escaped them until
every last detail of those events had
been performed and accomplished.
"They All Forsook Hlm And Fled"
Shortly after Jesus and His disciples
partook of the New Testament Pass–
over symbols of bread and wine, He
sternly told them:
"A 11
ye shall be
offended because of me this night:
for it is written, 1 will smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be
scattered" (Mark 14:27).
Then Jesus again repeated His
previous assertions that He would
be resurrected back to life: "But af–
ter tha t
1 am risen,
I will go before
you into Galilee" (verse 28).
Then Peter impetuously issued his
renowned statement of "undying
loyalty" : "Although all shall be
o~
fended , yet will not
1."
Yet, as Jesus
predicted, Peter was to deny that he
even knew Christ three times before
the dawning of the next day. That is
how much faith he had in Christ's
future resurrect ion when all the
chips were down.
Finally, when a mob of soldiers
arrived to secure Jesus' arrest, the
disciples
"al/
forsook him, and fl.ed"
(verse 50). It had been a good thing
whileit !asted, but nowthejigwas up.
15