Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Every verse of today’s passage is very meaningful, but this verse is the one that came to mind when I started working on a Scripture list for the Easter season. The point that caught my attention was that Jesus began to show His disciples what He was going to go through. Even that was enough to gain a very negative response from Peter, who of course was the one disciple who explicitly denied he even knew Jesus, when push came to shove. I am regularly struck by how God loves us even in spite of knowing every detail of our weaknesses! Regardless, Jesus did let His disciples know what was going to happen, but it didn’t really sink in. It was only after He was resurrected that they remembered it all, and then it took angels reminding them! (Luke 24:8) To me this shows how dense we can be, and how we need to ask and allow the Holy Spirit to explain things to us in ways we can really grasp them, both in terms of understanding and in knowing how we are to respond and act. We don’t know how limited our own frame of reference is, and so don’t know what we don’t know. However, God in His grace will help us, if our hearts are open to Him, and as He told Jeremiah, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3) We certainly don’t have the “mental horsepower” to figure things out on our own, but He will indeed show us all we need to know to flow with His Spirit in His plans for His glory.

The issue of a framework to be able to understand what you’re hearing is something I deal with constantly in ministering to Japanese. As I have mentioned before, some of the most basic elements of the Gospel are outside of their culture. It’s not at all that they can’t learn them, but I have to teach them the elements before it can begin to fit together in their hearts and minds. Chief among those are love, sin, and forgiveness. The Japanese “field” needs a lot of cultivation before the seed of the Gospel can bear much fruit! However, nothing is impossible for God, so I’m never to give up, whether my function is plowing, adding fertilizer, or simply removing rocks. That image is very clear to me at the moment, because I’m getting to work on our garden plot. There’s enough work to be done that I know I can’t do it alone, but I had some help yesterday and I should not hesitate to ask for help as things progress. Only then will I get the harvest I desire!

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for the very timely metaphor. Thank You for the “deep cultivation” You enabled me to do with one man yesterday morning, and for the lighter cultivation I could do with the man who helped me in the afternoon. May I not be impatient, but do each thing, both in the garden and in ministry, as You direct on Your schedule, to gain the harvest You desire, in vegetables and in souls, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!