As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. 

"Listen," he said, 

"we're going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. 

They will sentence him to die.

Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, 

flogged with a whip, 

and crucified. 

But on the third day he will be raised from the dead."

Matthew 20:17-20 NLT

Jesus wanted his team, those closest to him, to know what was going to happen next. 

It seems he wanted them to be prepared. 

To be able to hold the hope of what's at the end as they go through the watching him be betrayed, sentenced, mocked, abused, and killed. 

I wonder if Jesus needed to tell them, to let those he knew best what was ahead because he needed them with him. Jesus wanted community in the most difficult of times.

It's no wonder that we do too. 

We're in this life together. 

In our struggles, we can invite others in, and we can be prepared to enter in to the struggles of others. Because that's what love does. When we zoom out on this picture we have God entering The Story, joining the human struggle, and making a way, becoming the way, to make things OK again.

And when we zoom back in we see Jesus needing his team with him in this, with him in what he's facing.

What a wild story!

A story we're part of, that we belong in too.

#wordsofJesus 

#redletterBible 

#wearepartofthestorytoo

#thisisourGod 

#holdontohope