In this passage, we learn that on the way down the mountain, Jesus spoke to the disciples of the fact that he would rise from the dead. But we also know from biblical context that the disciples did not understand all that Jesus foretold about his death and resurrection in the days leading up to his crucifixion.

We know this because when it actually happened, they wandered on roads at night in great disorientation and distress, and they locked themselves away for fear of the repercussions of having followed Jesus. They grieved the loss of Jesus, and they were utterly amazed when he appeared again among them.

And so we are challenged to ask ourselves: Will we believe in a God who says things we don’t understand? Will we trust that the royal order of reality puts God’s knowledge far above our own, that God can proclaim as true things we cannot fathom at all and those things can still be true anyway?

Jesus told the disciples he would rise from the dead. God told Abraham, a man one hundred years old, that he would be made into nations and that kings would come from him. The psalmist wrote that every person in all existence will one day worship God, even as history and the news of our times would have us believe otherwise.

What will we choose to believe, a royal order designed and set in motion by a God whose knowledge and capacity is beyond our reckoning, or our own human sight and understanding? The invitation is clear. We’re invited to follow it today.