The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day raised.
Luke 9:22
Jesus was praying with the disciples when Peter professed his belief that Jesus was Christ. Immediately after this, Jesus hits the disciples with the biggest test of their belief and faith in Him, and prophesied that he would be rejected, killed, and raised from the dead on the third day. He advised the disciples to live selflessly and not be ashamed of following Him. What strikes us about this passages is that the same message is repeated verbatim in Matthew, Mark, and Luke—three times in their Gospels! We can conclude that the disciples were not getting Jesus' message of His death and resurrection because He repeated himself three times. In Matthew 16, Peter rebuked Jesus saying, "Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!" In turn, Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block for me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things." In our lives, we see denial every day. As high school students, we see our peers neglect "the right thing" and do what they see as fit. As adults, we make excuses, enable each other, and we set standards based on our own beliefs and values rather than God's. We need to turn our denial into listening to God. The disciples had three warnings of Jesus' treacherous death and resurrection. Let us direct our focus on "divine things" this Lenten season and listen to God when He is talking to us.
St. James' YAC Sunday School Class
Young Adults in the Church, grades 11-12 (2008)
