We are in the middle of watching two different TV crime drama series. It’s fair to say that we don’t completely understand what’s going on. Maybe in the last episode we shall. We may at least know whodunnit or who’s doing it and what it is they’re doing. Or maybe we shan’t. Our comprehension may be limited, even if there is a helpful glossary to explain what a CHIS is.
In Sunday’s Lectionary, the writer of John’s gospel tells us, “His 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.” One takeaway from that is that it may sometimes be for us like it was for the disciples – the things we don’t understand now, we will understand later. And yes, it really does work like that sometimes – “Cheer up, my sister, walk in the sunshine, we’ll understand it all by and by”, as the song goes. But you can’t insist on the truth of this, especially to someone whose life has been ruined. And common experience also tells us that we sometimes never understand what has happened to us, this side of the grave. May God give us grace to keep on living even through the dark valley.
Also, what was it that the disciples understood? It was a fearful thing. Jesus’ agonising death was essential to his ‘glory’, lifted up, but on an instrument of torture. In this suffering, Jesus comes close to us in our predicament. He is the friend who walks with us through the valley of shadows.