Note from Jesus

Dear Child of God,

Sometimes the truth is simply hard to comprehend. I’m not talking about a truth that is intellectually tough to comprehend. Instead, I’m speaking about a truth that is hard to comprehend emotionally. This kind of truth is out of phase with what the world expects and understands.

On My way to the cross, I hinted, I taught, and I repeatedly made plain statements about My passion in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, this truth was hidden from My disciples. To put it bluntly, these facts were too gruesome for My disciples to imagine. It was too horrible for them to comprehend. They had seen Me restore sight to the blind. They had witnessed Me raise the dead back to life. They had watched as I restored to health those with leprosy. They viewed My work in amazement as I enabled the lame to walk. They marveled when I freed demon-possessed people. They were humbled when I stilled the storm with its wild winds and raging seas. They picked up twelve baskets of leftovers when I fed the multitude with a small amount of food. They joined in the joy as I tenderly restored broken folks to their families, to robust health, or to a productive place in society.

How could their Lord, the Savior, someone with such power, have to face such a grotesque and humiliating death? They couldn’t understand the truth about My upcoming crucifixion because there was simply no place in their thinking for it. Their Messiah should never have to endure such things.

Yet the great prophet Isaiah had spoken about Me as the Servant of the Lord — the great suffering Servant. This description was the great window of the prophets to the truth I was about to embrace. Below, I want you to read about My disciples’ inability to grasp My journey to the cross and to the resurrection. Then I want you to read one of Isaiah’s famous servant songs about My suffering.

I want you to realize that there will always be mysteries for you to uncover about Me. These are experiential mysteries for you yet to discover about My identity. You will come to understand some truths about Me because your life experiences and your time in the Scriptures intersect. In that intersection, you are suddenly able to unwrap new, deep, and powerful truths about Me that were hidden from you. Following Me brings a lifetime of discovery!

Verses to Live

Remember, My disciples would have quoted the servant songs from Isaiah as part of their earlier training in the synagogue. However, until the cross and My resurrection, they did not put those songs together with My ministry as Messiah. When they did put them together, what a powerful testimony they had to others. My story was written into the DNA of Scripture hundreds of years before I lived, yet only fully appreciated after My resurrection!

He [Jesus] took the twelve aside and spoke privately to them.

Jesus:

Look, my friends, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything the prophets have written about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the outsiders. They will mock Him, disgrace Him, and spit on Him; they will scourge Him, and they will kill Him. And on the third day, He will rise from death.

But they had no comprehension of what He was talking about. The meaning was hidden from them, and they couldn’t grasp it.

(Luke 18:31-34)

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

(Isaiah 53:1-12 NIV)

Response in Prayer

O Father, open my eyes so that I can clearly see Jesus. I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to remove what is hidden from me about my Savior. I want to know Him and to be conformed to Him. I want to be able to share Him with those around me who do not know His grace. I ask this in the name of my amazing and sacrificial Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware.

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.