In and through every hurt, every suffering, every hardship, he is unfolding his purposes for your everlasting good. He is working this — even this — for your final joy. God gives us glimpses into his peculiarly loving ways throughout the Bible, but he does so with particular power at the very turning point of Jesus’s own ministry.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” –Isaiah 55:8–9

God doesn’t promise to protect you from all harm here and now. He loves you too much for that. He cares too much to guard you from every pain and trial. But in and through every hurt, every suffering, every hardship, he is unfolding his purposes for your everlasting good. He is working this — even this — for your final joy.

God gives us glimpses into his peculiarly loving ways throughout the Bible, but he does so with particular power at the very turning point of Jesus’s own ministry (Matthew 16:15; Mark 8:27; Luke 9:20).

Human Expectations

Having asked his disciples for a briefing on who others thought he was, Jesus now asks for their opinion. “Who do you say that I am?” From here, he will pivot toward Jerusalem to fulfill his surprising calling, and along the way he will brace his men for the coming shock.

In response, Peter steps forward as spokesman for the twelve. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). He has answered rightly. But this is not to his own credit, but a gift from God. “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,” Jesus says, “but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

At long last, Peter and the rest of the disciples are catching on, and yet they still have a major obstacle ahead of them. They still need to be turned upside down. They have human expectations, that the Christ will conquer his foes and come directly into his glory. So, Jesus must begin to dispel their man-made ways and thoughts. He announces he must “go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21).

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