Matthew 27:61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.
Where were the twelve disciples? I mean, at the tomb we have two behind-the-scenes disciples (Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus) and the two Mary’s, but the closest disciples to Jesus are conspicuously missing. Go just a few verses back to Matthew 26 … there we find what seems to be a resigned Peter, who was already defeated before he even denied Jesus.
Matthew 26:58 But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest’s courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end.
When we mash up all of the gospels together into one account, they record that Jesus had told them at least six times about His coming death and resurrection. The disciples spent a lot of time with Jesus and yet, after His crucifixion, the Bible says they had forgotten what He said about resurrection.
An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, “Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.” The gentleman replied, “Oh, I haven’t told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I’ve changed my will three times!”
There is a phenomenon among husbands and children commonly referred to as selective hearing. Selective hearing is hearing only what you want to hear and brushing aside what you don’t want to hear. It usually occurs in the presence of dirty diapers or curfews. But we can also be selective about our seeing, allowing problems to draw our attention away from God. How often do we focus on difficulties and become defeatist when our Lord Jesus has already made us victorious?
Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Around the south, we have this saying “your creating a mountain out of a mole hill,” meaning that you are so focused on the obstacle that it’s become bigger than it actually is. God is bigger than any obstacle you can every encounter. We can say, “Those silly disciples.” Yet the disciples had not seen the resurrection yet, they didn’t have the Holy Spirit and they didn’t have the New Testament. What’s our excuse? How many of us say, “it’s too hard” or “it’s too much” or “it’s too difficult” … “it’s out of reach”… “it’s impossible?”
I can’t do this ministry because it requires too much commitment … I can’t serve in that ministry because I’m not gifted in cleaning toilets. I can’t tithe, the bills are too much. I can’t find a job. I can’t climb that hill. I can’t find peace!
Yet there is the reality of God.
When you find yourself freaking out about the mountain in your path, take your eyes off of the mountain and place them on God and that mountain will become the molehill that it has always been.
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