The Journal of a Disciple

Dearest Journal;
Jesus our lord, predicted his death; today with all the disciples that gathered. He began explaining to us that ‘He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life’ (Matthew 16:21)

Our reaction was shock; we were shocked I could not believe my ears. The Son of man, Jesus our Lord must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things at the hands of the elders and be killed. ‘No this is absurd this could not be’ I thought. Peter rebuked him and said “Never Lord, This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22) Jesus turned said to him “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)

Then Jesus turned to us with a calm look on his face and said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up the cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? For The Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angles. And then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste the death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:24-28)

We said no more then travelled back with Jesus normally for several days. Many days later he predicted his death once again he repeated “We are going up to Jerusalem” he said “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise” (Mark 10:33-34)

This time I listened again, I could not believe Jesus had said this. Would Jesus lie to us for this cannot be true? The Messiah could not possibly be crucified and raised to life, how can this be? For it is impossible. We traveled through Jerusalem, where Jesus began to teach to the public. On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, we prepared the Passover then in the evening Jesus gathered with all of the twelve disciples including myself. We while we were eating he said “I tell you the truth; one of you will betray me.” (Matthew 26:21)Oh Lord! First you say that you must be handed over to suffer many things, be killed and all what for? Now you say one of us will betray you but it certainly is not true.

Dearest Journal;
Today, the lord Jesus was arrested and then those who had arrested him took him away. They led him to Caiaphas; none of the other disciples saw what happened except for Peter, He followed them at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the highest priest. The whole of Sanhedrin were looking for counterfeit evidence against our Lord so that they could cruelly put him to death. However they did not find any. Peter watched from afar whilst he sat down with the guards. Two people come forth and declared “This fellow said ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’ ” The high priest looked to Jesus for an answer but Jesus remained silent, then the high priest said in a proud voice “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” (Matthew 26:63) “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”(Matthew 26:64)

Then the priest tore viscously at his clothing and announced “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look now you have the heard blasphemy. What do you think?” (Matthew 26:65- 66)
Then all the priests and teachers of law shouted “He is worthy of death!” (Matthew 26:66)

Early In the morning