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Some of the disciples said to one another, “What does He mean… We don’t understand what He is saying” …  Jesus saw that they wanted to ask Him about this... (John 16:17a, 18b, 19a).

Children embrace their lack of understanding. Maybe this is one reason Jesus says we must become like little children to enter the kingdom. Children don’t understand, but they assume Mommy and Daddy do. So they ask. And ask. And ask.

So we must give credit to the disciples here. After all, they flat out said, “We don’t understand.” And even though they said it to one another, they were within earshot of Jesus.

There was so much they didn’t understand during that most perplexing of weeks. People have been trying to understand those events for centuries now, so imagine how at a loss the disciples were in the midst of it all.

They had one major thing going for them, though. They had Jesus. Granted, His words and demeanor were what was causing their confusion. But their three-year long relationship with Him had grounded them. They had witnessed Him being sure of who He was, who His Father was, and what He was doing. 

That grounding would shake, of course. But only from their side. From Jesus’ side the relationship was rock-solid through it all.

This shows us that relationship with Jesus is The Thing that makes even not-understanding safe. It also means we have someone who will listen when we say, “We don’t understand.” But we do need to say it, or to at least think it, or better yet, to pray it.

You may say, “Yes, but Jesus doesn’t live in the neighborhood anymore. We can’t just go knock on His door and tell Him we don’t understand.”

Ah, but listen to this: “…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, He will speak only what He hears…He will bring glory to Me (Jesus) by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you” (John 16:13a,14).

Doesn’t that remind you of when Jesus said He could say and do only what the Father said or did?

Some people debate about whether we should pray to the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit. I believe the answer to that is “Yes!” There will be not one jot of difference in their response to us. Speaking to the Holy Spirit is exactly like speaking to Jesus is exactly like speaking to the Father. So let’s just ask! And then walk on into what God will unfold before us.

Do you have a current “I don’t know” question?  Ask God about it now. 

It is wise to follow up our question with a prayer for patience as we wait for God’s answer to unfold. 

CCC is entering an exciting new season. Through it all, let’s pray for one another’s “We don’t understand” to draw us nearer to Jesus and one another; never away from Jesus and one another.