Mark 9:32 (NRSV)
Read Mark 9:32 on biblegateway.com
Verse 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
Devotion
Shortly after some physicians departed from Jim’s (not his real name) room, I entered unaware of the purpose of their visit. It became rapidly evident. Jim was alone, alert, and sitting up speechless. He had been existentially blindsided and was reeling as he was told that no other restorative treatments were available to halt his aggressively terminal cancer. The physicians told him he would probably die in less than three months. The longer I serve as a chaplain the more I sense we instinctively repress this kind of information rather than deny it. We can’t take it in and understand it. When the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask him, I sense they had no choice but to speechlessly repress it. Before leaving Jim we prayed Psalm 40: that God lift him from his pit and put a new song in his mouth.
Prayer
As the One who knows a word before it is on our tongue and who intercedes with sighs and groans too deep for words, we pray also that in the midst of our hardship you put a new song in our mouth. Amen.