Following Along the Path of Jesus

While they were all amazed at his every deed,
Jesus said to his disciples,
"Pay attention to what I am telling you.
The Son of Man is to be handed over to men." 
But they did not understand this saying;
its meaning was hidden from them
so that they should not understand it,
and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Can you imagine being there with Jesus, following Him as he went about day by day?   You would point at this man and relate how Jesus expelled a demon from him or point at another and explain how that child was raised from the dead by Jesus.  You might share the story of how He fed the five thousand with just a few fish and some barley loaves and how there were twelve baskets left over.  Your heart would skip a beat as you observed all of these things.  Then He goes and spoils it all by telling you one day He would be handed over to the authorities and they would kill Him by putting Him on a tree. What could these spoken words mean and why was he saying them?  He was a man that did wondrous deeds what did this talk about being crucified mean? 

As human beings, we are always ready to believe what our eyes can see.  But when what we see with our eyes does not compare favorably with what we have heard we get confused.  The people in our reading saw all of the good and amazing things Jesus did but they did not understand the true mission of Jesus and they were afraid to ask him what His words meant.  Jesus was here to serve us and He did by curing the sick, casting out demons, telling us with authority about the Kingdom of Heaven but He also told us what His ultimate service to us was going to be, death, death on a cross.  We could marvel at the good things but we could protest like Peter when Jesus revealed His ultimate goal. 

Today, in our lives, we can clearly see the good things God has provided for us.  We have all of the things that the world can give us at our fingertips and we marvel at the goodness of the Lord.  Most of us are appropriately thankful for all of these goods but we sometimes fail to hear what Jesus says our obligations are.  He is delighted to provide for us but we have to read what He wants us to do.  He wants us to share for we reap what we did not sow and we drink water that we did not carry.  We experienced the sweetness of the Lord but we have shied away from the bitterness of accepting our cross and following along the Via Dela Rosa with our Lord, walking in his bloodstained footsteps as He gives His all for us. To know Christ is to be a cross-carrier and follower of the One who has shown us the way.

The gifts that God has given you are yours and you can do one of two things with them.  These gifts can be kept hidden and locked away or they can be shared.  If we share them, they will not run out but if we hide them away, rust and moth will change them to the dust that they were made of in the first place.