This morning's devotion from Epiphany

John 12. ¹⁶His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. (NRSV)

They say that hindsight is always 20/20 and our common experiences would probably confirm that. I have always been jealous of those who got to spend quality time with the flesh and blood Jesus. Similarly, I have always wondered how dense they were to who he really was. Yet, in hindsight…

Unfortunately, I fear that I would have been no better. All too often, I fail to recognize Jesus when he comes to me in human form. Of course, as Mother Teresa reminded us, he often wears such “distressing disguises.” Still, there is a really big part of me that believes I would have appreciated him the first time around.

I suppose that, for many, Jesus was in distressing disguises even then. He didn’t fit their preconceived notions, he didn’t measure up. They looked for ways, for excuses, to ignore the reality in front of their noses and, in the end, they killed him because they just didn’t understand.

I am hard pressed to think of a time when the Pharisees got things right. If the world had truly gone after Jesus, things would be a lot different. If people today actually went after Jesus, things would be different today.

Forgive our stubbornness and our facility in creating you in our own images. Show yourself to us, dear Lord, that we might finally, once and for all, understand these things. Amen