LISTENING TO IT ALL
Today's reading: Mark 9-10

"When we get to Jerusalem, he told them, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. They will mock him, spit on him, beat him with their whips and kill him, but after three days, he will rise again." Mark 10:33-34 NLT

So very like the disciples, we get hung up on part of what Jesus said--completely oblivious to His entire thought.

Jesus said He would be betrayed, they worried among themselves which of them would be doing it.

Jesus said He would be sentenced to die and handed over to the Romans, they wondered how He would remove Himself from that pickle.

Jesus said He would be mocked, spit on and beaten, his followers thought long and hard about at which point the fighting Messiah would step in and not allow it.

Jesus said He would be killed, the disciples heard it and immediately thought of themselves--would they be killed? What would happen to them? Was He really the One sent to rescue them from themselves?

Jesus said He would rise again after three days. Did they even hear Him say it? Did it cross their minds that He really meant 'rise again'? Did what He said even register in their heads as they worried over all the other statements Jesus had made?

We do the same thing.

We fret and fear over the statement that this world is not our home and that while here we will have trials and tribulations...but He has also said that at the right time and in the right way, we will be with Him.

Which part of that do we focus on?