Surprised

I don’t know about you, but most movie plots don’t surprise me. I’m not talking about fine details but the overall plot. For example, within the last year, we watched the movie “Shutter Island,” and within a few minutes, I was pretty sure some kind of dream sequence or alternate reality was involved.

The movies where the plot totally surprised me are noteworthy. For example, the plot of “The Sixth Sense” totally had me confused when it was sprung on the audience at the end.

Since it’s Holy Week at the time I’m writing this, I’ve been reading devotions regarding the activities leading up to Jesus’ sacrifice. One devotion described how saddened the disciples must have been to hear Jesus foretell his crucifixion. This seemed reasonable to me at the time.

“And taking the twelve, he said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.’ But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” -  Luke 18:31-34 ESV

In fact, my own dad, in the year before his death, made comments like “he wasn’t going to be around forever.” At the time, I dismissed them as him starting to feel the natural decline that comes with age. After he passed away, I started wondering if he intuitively knew the end of his earthly life was near. But before his death, I completely dismissed those comments.

I believe Jesus’ disciples didn’t have any more than an inkling as to what was really going to happen.  In fact, the passage from Luke clearly states they didn’t understand and couldn’t grasp what Jesus told them for the third time.

““These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.” - John 14:25-31

I can’t begin to understand why Jesus had to come to the world being 100% man and 100% God and die to save me from my sins. I can praise God that the Holy Spirit indwells in me and I am an heir with Christ. The “why” is the surprise I hope to someday understand.