URC Daily Devotion Tuesday 18th March 2025

St Luke 18: 31 – 34

Then Jesus took the twelve aside and 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 handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon.  After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.’  But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Reflection

This is the third time in Luke’s gospel that Jesus predicts his Passion. It will be in accordance with what ‘the prophets’ have said (Jeremiah? Isaiah?). Despite this, Jesus’ disciples fail to grasp the awful reality of what he is saying. Why? Perhaps Jesus’ previous warnings had had more effect; but having put them to the back of their minds, they were inured to them. Or did they not want to believe him? Things really wouldn’t turn out that badly. Or did they simply not want to process this piece of news, knowing that they couldn’t function as disciples if they had to live with it? ‘There are none so blind as those who will not see’

Luke says that they heard Jesus, but the true significance of what he was saying was hidden from them. Perhaps the hint here is that God’s way of acting was beyond them. The great drama of salvation was to be played out in ways beyond their ken. It could not be imagined, it was a mystery. Luke’s view of the disciples is kinder than Mark’s.

Luke reports Jesus saying that he will be handed over to the Gentiles, probably a reference to the Roman authorities – whose way of public execution was crucifixion, after torture, if deemed appropriate.

Judith Lieu comments: ‘sight can be given to those who cannot see, and Luke follows this declaration of [the disciples’] ‘blindness’ with healing of the blind man’.  

We, Jesus’ latter day disciples, should pray for our eyes to be opened to see the work the church needs to do, in our day and age.

Prayer

Gracious God we would be the faithful disciples
of Jesus in our day and age.
We need your Spirit’s guidance so that we can see, hear, and understand
your great plan of salvation, and be part of it.
Amen