2020 Daily Devotion - Day 17
Often, we can become very forgetful, however here is the question – Is God forgetful too? After all, we are created in His Image, so did we get this trait from Him?
The disciples of Jesus were also forgetful and had a very difficult time learning. The disciples were also stuck in their training. As Jews, they were trained about the ways of God. They knew about the Messiah who had been promised, but they too, probably like those in the Streets in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, believed the Messiah would come and set them free from Rome – not sin, death or the power of the devil. They probably thought that the Messiah would be a mighty warrior who would come to lead them in battle, much like we see in the Middle East today.
So, from the perspective of someone who is stuck in their training and can’t really remember all that well, look at this passage from Matthew 16:21-23.
So, when Peter and the other Disciples, have their paradigm changed, their understanding of what should happen has now been changed. Jesus Himself told them His purpose in coming. He came to die and be raised again so that you and I can have forgiveness of our sins, and be given eternal life. Now, disciples, do you get it? Could Jesus be clearer? He rebukes Peter and tells him that his kind of thinking is at odds with God’s and he is not on God’s side. There, that ought to do it. Now, they should understand. This was a teaching moment the disciples and Peter would never forget.
However, they did not understand, and they did not remember, because in Matthew 26: 55-56 RSV, it says “all the disciples forsook him and fled” when He was being arrested.
When things got tough; when Jesus was arrested and on trial, they should have remembered what they had been taught, but they forgot. They all forgot. This is what often happens to us as well. Jesus has promised that He will not abandon us, He has come to bring forgiveness and He has come to give us eternal life. Yet we forget what He has taught us and done for us. We especially forget when life gets tough!
But there is Good News; God never forgets! He has not forgotten you. He hasn’t forgotten His promises to you. He never forgets to stand with us in trying times. The cross of Jesus is the proof. But, oh yeah, there is one thing more. There is one thing. The only thing God forgets on this Good Friday, is your sin. Because of Jesus; because of His cross, God forgets your sins now and forevermore.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, on this Good Friday, help us to remember what You have done for us. Strengthen us through Your cross. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
The disciples of Jesus were also forgetful and had a very difficult time learning. The disciples were also stuck in their training. As Jews, they were trained about the ways of God. They knew about the Messiah who had been promised, but they too, probably like those in the Streets in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, believed the Messiah would come and set them free from Rome – not sin, death or the power of the devil. They probably thought that the Messiah would be a mighty warrior who would come to lead them in battle, much like we see in the Middle East today.
So, from the perspective of someone who is stuck in their training and can’t really remember all that well, look at this passage from Matthew 16:21-23.
Matthew 16:21-23 NRSV
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
So, when Peter and the other Disciples, have their paradigm changed, their understanding of what should happen has now been changed. Jesus Himself told them His purpose in coming. He came to die and be raised again so that you and I can have forgiveness of our sins, and be given eternal life. Now, disciples, do you get it? Could Jesus be clearer? He rebukes Peter and tells him that his kind of thinking is at odds with God’s and he is not on God’s side. There, that ought to do it. Now, they should understand. This was a teaching moment the disciples and Peter would never forget.
However, they did not understand, and they did not remember, because in Matthew 26: 55-56 RSV, it says “all the disciples forsook him and fled” when He was being arrested.
When things got tough; when Jesus was arrested and on trial, they should have remembered what they had been taught, but they forgot. They all forgot. This is what often happens to us as well. Jesus has promised that He will not abandon us, He has come to bring forgiveness and He has come to give us eternal life. Yet we forget what He has taught us and done for us. We especially forget when life gets tough!
But there is Good News; God never forgets! He has not forgotten you. He hasn’t forgotten His promises to you. He never forgets to stand with us in trying times. The cross of Jesus is the proof. But, oh yeah, there is one thing more. There is one thing. The only thing God forgets on this Good Friday, is your sin. Because of Jesus; because of His cross, God forgets your sins now and forevermore.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, on this Good Friday, help us to remember what You have done for us. Strengthen us through Your cross. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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