Growing Together – Day 13: Patience
READ: Matthew 16: 21-28
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
If you the time to read all of Matthew 16 you see that it contains multiple stories of Jesus’ frustration. First, the Pharisees and Sadducees, then the disciples, then the ‘Who do you say I am’ question that only Peter gets right. And it is followed quickly by Peter’s failure (included above). Clearly even Peter did not understand the true significance of his words.
REFLECT: On God’s patience and the day when His patience will end.
How frustrating must it have been for Jesus! Those disciples saw so much, and understood so little. I hope we see them as bumblers and bunglers because we need to be able to place ourselves among them, to feel at home with them, and to be comforted that Christ chose them, and loved them.
We also need to remember that those disciples did not stay bumblers after the resurrection and Pentecost. They learned, they grew, they received the Spirit, they got bold – and so must we - because God’s patience has an expiration date.
SING ALONG/READ ALONG: As you watch this video and sing this song. Hold these two truths in tension – Thankfulness for being loved and chosen by Jesus, and also the grief that many (if not most) of the people who are pictured in this video, going about their daily lives, do not know His love or His patience.
PRAY: That God’s patience would lead them repentance. And for the people living, working, and walking in our lives – “Here am I, Lord, send me.”