Jesus pulls the 12 disciples aside and reminds them of where they are headed and what to expect. They still don't understand, they think he is still speaking in riddles or parable or literal, but that doesn't make sense does it? He's speaking in the Spirit, so its coming out in the third person? Pressure is building, they're trying to sort all this out and still not break fellowship and serve their master, follow their Rabbi...
This has got to be one of the biggest issues in listening to the words of Jesus, all of the Holy Scriptures for that matter. What's 'literal', 'parable', 'hyperbole','symbol', etc...some sects will argue that their literal interpretation is a strength, while others will argue that its a weakness and vice versa. These types of debates in the past have resulted in schism within fellowships, evil suspicions, quarrels about words and all sorts of unholiness. One of the things the emergent movement is bringing to the table is the ability to have fellowship and conversation over the scripture without fear of being burned at the stake, a willingness to be wrong and repent and new wave of people gathering together around Jesus. Now this may be, 'the Jesus of ones own understanding', never the less, people are gathering around a table of fellowship, centering in on Jesus and really trying to rediscover what it means to follow Jesus in the aftermath of modernist, romantic/enlightenment comprehension. Why are they doing this? Because people have seen through the 'Jesus' of the last 200 years. It's been said that God's purpose for post-modernism is to preach the fall to arrogant modernity. That can be clearly seen as true. One of the other blessings I've seen amongst the newer movements in Christendom is the willingness to have conversations that stretch back towards the roots, produce fruit in the present and reach forward through the mess to a hopeful future. Nothing less should ever be expected from a people who serve the God who was, is and is to come.
May we cry out to be healed of our blindness, saved from darkness and brought forward into His Glorious Light. Following the Word of God, glorifying God. Ourselves becoming a Light in the world, by which others come to see and give praise to the Most High. Amen
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