Everything Only Makes Sense In Retrospect

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John 12:16-19

16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

 
 

It is only after Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection that the disciples really understand what Palm Sunday meant. The crowd hailed Jesus as the deliverer of Israel—and He was—but the way Jesus defeated His enemies was not through killing them, but by dying for them.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Our lives will only make sense in light of the cross and resurrection, and ultimately only in retrospect. The things that seem so painful and puzzling now will one day be revealed as a part of God’s gracious plan.

P.S. V. 18 is a specific reference to Jesus’s sixth sign, the raising of Lazarus.