Be Like John

Mark 9:31 "for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise."" ESV

 

Listen to Him…believe…pray…and now the tip off: "Men are going to grab Me and kill Me, but don't worry, three days later I will come back to life." If the disciples were going to listen to anything, this had to be it. If they were going to grasp any truth, this is one that they had to rely upon. Why? It was the heart of the Gospel. Jesus was going to die. He was telling them ahead of time what was going to happen. He was telling them so that they would not be surprised. He was telling them so that they could have assurance. They needed to listen to Him…they really needed to listen to Him. They needed to hear Him loud and clear and understand that His death was not going to be the end of everything. In fact it was going to be the beginning because He was going to rise three days later.

 

Did they listen? Did they understand? Did they apply this? Well one guy did. John hung in there and stood with Jesus at the cross, but the rest of the guys took off. In fact, two of the guys that were on the mountain with Him earlier, two of the guys that He told that He was going to rise from the dead as they were coming down the mountain, Peter and James, ran. Peter even betrayed Him.

 

Too many times I am like Peter, but I want to be like John. Too many times I do dumb things and say dumb things that may even betray who I claim to be. I don't want that. I want to really listen. I want to really hear. I want to really understand and hang in there, even when things look tough. Even when things are at their bleakest, even when there does not look like there is any hope I need to know that at the end there is life. There is resurrection. There is hope. So hang tough.

 

And when I act like Peter or when I run away I still need to realize the reality of the resurrection, the reality of forgiveness, the reality of starting over.

 

Listen…believe…pray…be like John.