Articles
You Do Not Realize Now-
“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:7)
As we read the story about Jesus washing His disciples' feet, (John 13:1-17) we need to understand the context, and we need to likewise learn what Jesus was teaching those who walked with Him every single day. If they had trouble understanding, surely we need the same lesson almost 2000 years later. Like Peter on that day, sometimes we miss the bigger picture.
Jesus had to explain to His chosen exactly what He was doing when He, the one who should have been receiving a foot washing, was the one doing it. He was teaching them to be humble and serve and not be too proud to kneel down and get dirty in doing so. He was also helping them understand His overall purpose, His mission that brought Him to earth, and that would culminate in His necessary death. Yet even with his explanation, they didn't have a complete understanding. That would only come in time as they grew to put all the pieces together after His resurrection. Remember, they were still full of fear and uncertainty as He was arrested before his crucifixion, and even after the tomb was found empty, they were lacking in a full understanding.
But back to the foot washing, when Christ had explained to them the purpose of washing their feet, He said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." (vs-17)
We too will be blessed if we do them for all the same reasons.
But knowing and trusting Jesus as we do, let's look one more time at what He said in vs-7. “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
If we trust Him as we ought, that verse might well cover a multitude of concerns we have in our lives. If we love and trust Him, we are letting Him lead the way, even if we don't fully understand why things are as they are, and why certain things happen. We may not know this side of Heaven why some things transpire as they do in our own lives, yet at the same time, many things in life are those we can look back on, and see what He was doing at the time that we absolutely didn't understand. BUT, if we are following Him as we ought, we are content to not know everything now. We can cling to Him in our faith without knowing the end result ahead of time, or having all the answers to all of life's issues. We know He loves and cares for us, and that's enough.
“You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Remember the context when Jesus said it, but also remember that He knows all, and because we trust Him completely, we can trust that one day, if He so chooses, we will know the reasons why life happened as it did, although I fully expect on that day, we won't care anymore!
