Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration and heads towards Jerusalem. But first he stops and heals a man’s son as we read yesterday. He then continues but is focusing on teaching his disciples. The Father spoke from the cloud on the mountain and told Peter to “listen.” We read today that Jesus is speaking, the disciples are listening, but they are not understanding.
31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. (Mark 9: 31-32)
We who live in 21st century USA, read these words and wonder what the problem was. For the second time in Mark, Jesus is predicting his death. We know what happened but they did not. It seems to me that life and faith are like that. We want to believe but often we just don’t understand. Jesus tells us not to worry about death because it is the doorway to eternity — but we don’t understand. Jesus tells us not to worry about what we are going to eat or drink — but we don’t understand and we do worry. Jesus tells us to forgive, to share, to rejoice in trials, to love our enemy and it just does not make sense in our world. We don’t understand and we are afraid of how it will work out if our worst fears take place.
Lent is a time when we intensify our spiritual disciplines to help ourselves listen. So often, though, we are afraid to ask God to explain what we hear. I once was challenged to read the same passage of scripture every day for a period, say 40 days. One possibility for Lent is to read a favorite psalm, like Psalm 51, a psalm of repentance, or even Mark chapters 9-16 that focus on the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Read the same passage every day for the next 40 days. Perhaps keep track of what words jump out to you daily. Then spend 5 minutes closing our eyes and listening for the Spirit to speak into our context. Blessings as you give it a try. Lord, help us understand — that’s our word for today!
On the Way to Wonder 