David Bahn – Reflections

I wonder if we miss more about God’s promises than we realize. We are so zoned in to our own understanding of how things work, what is good, and what blessings are supposed to look like. We define these things. We think we know good and evil. We believe that we can determine what are and are not blessings. In Matthew 16:21 Jesus tells his disciples about his impending suffering, death, and resurrection, and of his resurrection. But Peter seems to miss the part about the resurrection and even rebukes Jesus for thinking such things.

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. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” ²³But 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.”

A childrens’ book, That’s Good! That’s Bad!, tell of a trip to the zoo. At the zoo a boy is lifted into the sky by his balloon. “Oh, that’s good. No, that’s bad! “–because the balloon pops when it hits a tree deep in the jungle. “Oh, that’s bad. No, that’s good! “–because the wide-eyed lad falls into a river and climbs onto a hippo, who takes him to shore. And so the story goes. Incidents that appear to be positive turn out to be negative (and vice-versa) throughout the book.

Our challenge with the good/bad scenario go deeper than finding silver linings in clouds of despair; our challenge is understanding what truly is good and what truly is bad. And it’s beyond what we enjoy, desire, and sometimes even deeply yearn for. For who would ever deeply yearn for Jesus to suffer so? Who would ever yearn for him to die?

If we are to set our minds on the things of God, we will need to be instructed by him. We need to allow him to define good and evil. Indeed, the very first sin was that of seeking to know and determine good and evil for themselves and not from God.