This week’s Gospel reading tells of Jesus surprising teaching to his disciples that the Messiah must suffer and die. He told them this just outside the gates of the seat of Roman power in the region, a place that the Hellenistic conquerers of Palestine used a cultural center to spread the Greek cult of Victory. It’s not surprising, given the context, that the disciples argued with him.

But God works in ways that we don’t always understand, and achieves victories that the World doesn’t always recognize. Jesus’ death was a crushing blow to his followers and supporters. We hear echos of their pain in the story of the two disciples walking the road to Emmaus. We see that pain and despair acted out by the disciples, who after the crucifixion hid themselves away in a locked room.

Yet when God’s Victory was revealed, it wasn’t revealed to everyone. Those who had eyes and ears to see and hear recognized something profound had happened, but they didn’t fully understand what it meant. We probably don’t fully understand it today either. But that reversal has changed everything – in spite of our not understand its meaning or its mechanism. 

There’s a lesson for each of us in this story today – when it seems that all we hear of is reversal and collapse of the things we thought were forever. Sometimes, even in the midst of failure, there’s another narrative at work, another hand shaping events. And if we have faith, sometimes we can even perceive it as it happens.

You can view the sermon directly at this link.