Fear and Knowledge

 

For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.” But they did not understand this saying and were afraid to ask Him. – Mark 9:31-32

 Way back at the beginning of my IT career, I was sent to a conference in Evansville, Indiana.  I was so fresh into the IT world that I was still wet behind the ears! But I was eager to learn, and determined to take notes on everything, learn everything, and then …. “air message”.  The lecturer kept saying “air message”. 

In my mind I kept wondering what that was.  Was it a fault code from bad air in the room?  We were working with a mainframe at the time – one just a few weeks shy of using punch cards.  “Air message” he would say and regardless of what the remaining part of the sentence was – I stopped at those two words. 

Finally, we got a break, and I asked another lady who was attending what “air message” was.  She laughed hard!  Who knew that no further than from Cadiz to Evansville I’d run into a change in dialect. While I heard “air message” the speaker was saying “error message”.  I felt like a bubble headed ninny! But – because I asked – I got a lot out of the rest of the lecture.

Jesus’ disciples understood Jesus’  words.  Dialect was not their problem.  I think it was because of their pride they didn’t ask more questions about Jesus’ statement that He would die and be raised again on the third day. 

Mark wrote “they were afraid to ask Him”. Keep in mind, Jesus had  just overheard them trying to figure out who would be greatest as they walked through Galilee.  He had also just healed a boy from lifelong demon oppression – when they couldn’t.  No doubt their thoughts were the same as mine when OI didn’t want to ask, “what’s an air message?” – but should have – and would have understood more.

Sometimes we go through trials in our lives and we just don’t understand why.  Was it something we did, something we said? Are we being punished by God?  Is there something we’re supposed to learn from it? 

God welcomes all questions, and in His time reveals all answers.  Friends, it’s not like He doesn’t know our every thought!  Never be afraid to just ask. I’ve heard people say, “knowledge is power”, but honestly, knowledge is peace. It will uncloud your heart and head so you can move forward.