They Didn't Understand
April 5, 2009
With the start today of Major League Baseball play and the reigning World Champion Phillies, I want to reach back and share a football story with you this Palm/Easter Sunday.
The story is about a college football team in a close game against their archrival. As the game seesawed back and forth, this team found themselves at their own goal line. Running a quarterback sneak, the quarterback was not only stopped at the 3-yard line but was injured on the play. The second string quarterback was sick and hadn’t even dressed for the game. The only possible player to quarterback was their punter, a freshman. The coach called him over and hoping to get enough yardage to give the team room to get off a decent punt, told this 3rd string quarterback, “On the next 2 plays give the ball to the fullback Kowaski, and then punt the ball.” The young quarterback with the coach’s word ringing in his ear ran onto the field excited about playing but scared to death. The handoff went perfect. Kowaski hit the line hard, broke a tackle, cut left and ran for 50 yards. The crowd was ecstatic. On the next play Kowaski again ran off tackle, shook off 2 defenders, and raced 45 yards to the 2 yard line. The stadium erupted in pandemonium. It was first and goal. For the 3rd time the young quarterback took the snap, dropped back, and then punted the ball into the stands! The crowd was eerily silent, the players were stunned, and the announcers were dazed. Running to the sidelines, the young quarterback encountered an angry coach who grabbed him by the shoulder pads, got in his face and shouted, “What in the world were you thinking about on that last play?” Sheepishly he responded, “I was thinking what a dumb coach we have!”
Football is not just about the ability to play the game, but to also make good and sound decisions. Successful Christian living is not simply believing the right things, but having the ability to make sound and correct decisions in life. Unlike college and professional quarterbacks, God lets us call the plays of our lives, to make decisions and choices about how to play the game of life, including what we do with Jesus. When God created us in His own image, He gave us the ability to reason, to understand, and to choose.
Even before the triumphal ride into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday and all the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus had warned His disciples what was to happen. We read about it in Luke 18:31-34.
Stop and think a moment. Did you understand these words? They are pretty straightforward with no hidden meaning or innuendo. We understand words like mock, insult, spit, flog, kill and rise again. The Apostle Paul once said, (1 Cor. 1:23), “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power and wisdom of God.” The Easter event is the very heart of the message about Jesus, both the cross of death and the resurrection to new life.
That is why Jesus warned His disciples in advance of what He would endure. He didn’t tell them just once but over and over again. We see this in Matthew 16, 17, and 20 and just as clearly as he does here in Luke’s gospel. But look at verse 34, “The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them and they did not know what he was talking about.” That doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? It is almost as if they weren’t supposed to understand.
At first glance we wonder, “What’s up with the disciples? How could they not understand what Jesus was telling them? It’s pretty clear to us!” Sometimes things don’t make sense until we look back and only then realize and are amazed that we didn’t learn sooner. We look back and all the dumb things we said and did and wished we knew then what we know now! How much better life would have been if…..
It’s also amazing that every generation it seems has to learn these same lessons for themselves. We don’t seem to learn from our parents and our kids don’s seem to learn from us. Bill Cosby once wrote a book entitled, Fatherhood. In it he suggests that the first parents were not Adam and Eve, but God and Adam and Eve were the first kids. God has the typical parent talk to the kids and tells them, “You have the run of the Garden. It’s all yours and you can do anything you want, only over there, in that field, is the tree with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Don’t eat that fruit. In fact stay out of that field!” And just like kids today Adam and Eve soon ask, “Dad, where is that tree with the forbidden fruit?” Cosby says that about this time God may have wished he had stopped his creating at the elephants. Adam and Eve, just like kids of every generation, found the forbidden luring and they just had to have some of that forbidden fruit. When God found out, he asked, “Why did you do that?” And just like kids, they answered, “I don’t know.” Cosby then makes an interesting suggestion. When God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden, it was then that God told them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Here it is: children were a part of the curse. It was as if God was saying, “I’ll show you what it is like to have kids who eat forbidden fruit. I’m going to give you kids, too!”
In some ways these disciples of Jesus were just like kids. Jesus told them what was going to happen and it didn’t sink it.
Maybe they didn’t understand because as we read in 1 Cor. 2:8, “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” Did you get that? That means the Governor Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas the High Priest, the members of the Sanhedrin, the Roman soldiers if they had understood who Jesus was, they would never have killed Him. Please note that when Paul refers to the cross of Jesus he calls it “a mystery.” The Greek word Paul uses is a military word for strategy and plans that is kept secret from the enemy. If the enemy found out the plan, then the plan would fail. If Satan, the great enemy, found out then the plan would fail. And indeed it seemed the plan had failed. While the soldiers are driving the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet and Jesus is writhing in pain with His blood dripping to the ground, Satan is dancing with glee saying, “I’ve won. Finally I have beaten God Himself. Evil is triumphant. Goodness and righteousness are defeated.” But Satan didn’t know God’s plan. Because three days later when Jesus rose from the dead, Satan realized that he had partied too soon. God had the last laugh as God snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. In fact Satan had played right into God’s perfect plans because God used want Satan meant for evil, the destruction of God’s Son, as the very means by which we are redeemed and saved from our sins. Jesus told the disciples ahead of time but it went right over their heads. They did not understand.
Here’s the question for us this Easter season. The early disciples didn’t understand, but do we understand? We all know the basic story of Easter, but do we really understand what Easter means? It was only after the resurrection of Jesus that the disciples understood. Their eyes were opened. The senseless made sense. The incomprehensible became comprehensible. The mystery was revealed.
But what of us? Is it foolishness to you? Is it a myth, just a nice story? To many people the Easter event is a myth only to perpetuate just another religion foisted on unsuspecting people. It is absurd and foolish. But remember what the Psalmist wrote: “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” In John 9 Jesus healed a man blind since birth. When the Jewish leaders heard of this, they brought the man in and asked who had healed him. When he told them it was Jesus, the religious leaders would have none of it and decried Jesus as a false prophet and a sinner. The healed man replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see.”
When Jesus intersects with us and touches our lives in some way. When the Holy Spirit locks into our hearts, we begin to realize the truth and reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. What used to be darkness is now light. What was once foolishness is now wisdom. What was defeat is now victory. What used to be weakness is now strength. Isn’t just like God to change and transform things? And when He does, it all begins to make sense. Here is the power to change the way we think and look at things. Here is the power to change the way we act—to overcome our sins and brokenness, to give us victory over the curse of alcohol and drugs and pornography: and whatever sin enslaves you. Here is the power to heal our broken hearts and to repair our twisted minds and distorted worldview. Here is the power to mend broken marriages, to reunite families, to bring hope into our grief, to lift the downtrodden and to give relief to the heavy-laden, and to replace our frowns with smiles. It is God’s power to transform us, to make us new. We don’t have to live defeated lives anymore because Jesus gives us the victory.
Now there are some things that we will never understand this side of eternity. We will never fully know the extent of God’s love nor why He should love us so much. We will never understand the depth of the pain and misery and loneliness that Jesus experienced on the cross. We’ll never understand death, until we die! But the Bible tells us that Jesus died for our sins—the little ones and the big ones. He took it all upon Himself. How? We will never understand that in this life.
We’ll never understand what went on in heaven the day Jesus died. Those words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are a haunting mystery. How can God forsake Himself? How can God take on human flesh and live among us? How can God die?
But this one thing we do know: God loves us. Jesus died in our place. When we put our faith in Jesus and live under His control, He saves us from an eternity of hell and from the power of sin in our lives here and now. If all this is foolishness to you, then you are perishing. If all this is wisdom to you, then it is God’s power in your life.
This Easter Sunday, do you understand?