{"id":7164,"date":"2015-12-03T00:05:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T08:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7164"},"modified":"2015-12-02T11:29:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T19:29:24","slug":"whos-on-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/12\/03\/whos-on-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s On First"},"content":{"rendered":"

They went through Galilee. He didn\u2019t want anyone to know their whereabouts, for he wanted to teach his disciples. He told them, \u201cThe Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him. Three days after his murder, he will rise, alive.\u201d They didn\u2019t know what he was talking about, but were afraid to ask him about it.<\/p>\n

\tThey came to Capernaum. When he was safe at home, he asked them, \u201cWhat were you discussing on the road?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe silence was deafening\u2014they had been arguing with one another over who among them was greatest.<\/p>\n

\tHe sat down and summoned the Twelve. \u201cSo you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, \u201cWhoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me\u2014God who sent me.\u201d (Mark 9:30-37)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tIt\u2019s the standard nightmare. You get to school, and not only are you unprepared for the test you didn\u2019t know you were having, you suddenly realize you forgot to ever attend a class. Jesus\u2019 disciples must have felt like that on a regular basis when they were with Jesus. <\/p>\n

\tJesus tried to teach his disciples what his mission on Earth was all about. But all his talk about death and resurrection made no sense to them. And they were afraid to ask for clarification. Instead, they only wanted to think about what they thought they did understand. Since Jesus was the Messiah, they knew that meant he\u2019d be king. So what sort of position in his kingdom would they, his closest confidants, have? They focused all their energy on that issue, instead of on what it was that Jesus really wanted them to know about.<\/p>\n

\tSo Jesus pulled that distraction away. He showed them that what they thought about the kingdom of God was all wrong. Once more, even a topic they thought they understood, became completely confusing.<\/p>\n

\tBut they didn\u2019t ask Jesus any questions about his correction, either. Why? Because they preferred their delusions to reality. The disciples failed to understand that their confused day dreams were pale shadows compared to glorious reality that Jesus was trying to tell them about. Clarity came to them only with the coming of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They went through Galilee. He didn\u2019t want anyone to know their whereabouts, for he wanted to teach his disciples. He told them, \u201cThe Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7164"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7164"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7167,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7164\/revisions\/7167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}