Today's Devotional Thought
October 17, 2014 by Rachel Piferi
Where's Your Focus?
I just love when something new pops right off the page when I am reading a familiar passage in the Bible. And today, I cannot wait to share something with you that I think can change each one of our daily lives.
At the beginning of the year, our pastor challenged us to read through the Gospels (one chapter per day) for the entire year. Doing this, we will end up having read the Gospels 4 times by the end of the year. We have just begun our final trip through and are at the end of Matthew for a 4th time this year!
I have absolutely loved doing this mostly because I have enjoyed the repetition and each time I sit down to read, I ask the Lord to show me something new. I find myself yearning each morning for something fresh in verses & stories that we are reading repeatedly throughout the year.
And God never disappoints.
Recently, we were in the 17th chapter of Matthew. In this chapter, you see the Transfiguration and the healing of a demon possessed boy. And, in just two verses midway through the chapter, you also read about Jesus telling his disciples (again) about his upcoming death.
And as I read these two verses recently, I stopped and noticed something I never had before.
Verses 22 and 23 of Chapter 17 read this way:
And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day." And they were deeply grieved.
As I read these verses, I paused on the sentence: And they were deeply grieved.
The English Standard Version says, They were greatly distressed.
The King James Bible says, They were exceeding sorry.
And as I read how the disciples responded, I thought to myself, Did they hear him?
I mean, did they hear what he said? He said he will be raised on the third day. I mean, sure he said he was going to be delivered into the hands of men and that they would kill him. But, he didn't end there...he also said, he was going to be raised! Did they hear that part?
While I know Scripture tells us other places that the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant as he prophesized his death, as I read these verses I couldn't help but wonder how they missed the part about being raised on the third day. In this very conversation with them, he gave them hope. He gave them a promise of what was going to happen after the horror.
And the missed it.
And at a very minimum, shouldn't they have been conflicted? Like, sad he was going to die, but over the moon excited and awed and bewildered at the thought that he was going to "raise again?" He even told them when...on the third day.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible writes this about this passage and the disciple's reaction:
"They seem to have overlooked, and to have taken no notice of his rising again from the dead; which might have administered comfort to them, and have relieved them under their melancholy apprehensions of things; but this they understood not, nor indeed truly any part of what he had said; so Mark and Luke intimate: but then it may be said, how came they to be so very sorrowful, if they did not know what was said? To which may be replied, that this might be the reason of their sorrow, because they did not understand what he said, and they were afraid to ask; they could not tell how to reconcile the betraying of him into the hands of men, and his sufferings and death, with their notions, that the Messiah should abide for ever, and should set up a temporal kingdom, in great splendour and magnificence; and what he meant by rising again from the dead, they could not devise; they could not tell whether all this was to be understood in a literal, or mystical sense."
As I thought about their reaction and I studied commentary on this verse (like the commentary above) and I read the other Gospel accounts of Jesus' telling his disciples of his future death and resurrection, it is very clear that they did not understand. Even though he was plainly telling them, they could not see it. They could not see how this was all going to work out.
So they focused on what they could understand: their beloved teacher, friend, Savior, and Lord was going to die.
That they understood. And as it says in verses 23, they deeply grieved.
They didn't focus on, understand, or live in the promise that Jesus made that glory and goodness and hope would be coming 3 days later.
They focused on the death.
Not the victory over death which they could not understand.
And as I sat on that, I wondered how many times have I focused on the "death" in a situation and not the hope that Jesus promises in it? How many times have I focused on the loss or uncertainty or pain in a situation and not focused on what God promises me he will do with such loss? Have I failed to see God's promise of comfort and goodness and purpose and hope because I focused on the pain and because I just couldn't "reconcile" how good could come out of this bad thing?
And then, have I spend more time grieving than celebrating what God promises to do after the pain?
As I read these two brief verses in Matthew recently, I was so convicted to focus on the resurrection and not the death in any situation. To focus on the good that God can bring, the growth in my character or endurance that can come, and the opportunities to serve him better that come from all I endure in life. Even if I can't possibly understand how victory can come in a situation and even when I think something looks impossible, shouldn't I believe Jesus' promise that all things are possible? And in doing so, won't I find hope and that joy in all trials that James talks about (James 1:2)? Won't I then celebrate what God will do and not grieve what has been done?
What are you going through right now that needs you to change your focus? Are you focusing on the loss and not on God's resurrection glory in it? Ask the Lord to help you see the good that can come from your situation and not the loss. Focus on the resurrection and not the death in every situation. And then live in celebratory victory, fully aware of him and his power over all things!
Happy Friday beloved friends. Live in victory out there today, okay? Boldly. Confidently. And full of hope!
November