We Will Understand it Better

Scripture Reading: John 13:1-11

Peter was taken back by Jesus rising from the table and assuming the servant's role of washing feet. Jesus didn’t try to resolve all of Peter’s questions at that moment. Instead, He told him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

There are profound truths embedded, concealed, and revealed in the actions of Jesus here. What He did speaks about His redemptive work in the incarnation and crucifixion. It shows us His ongoing work of sanctification of the saints. It speaks to us about our need to forgive one another in love. In other words, a lot is going on here besides the actual act of foot washing.

No wonder, then, that Jesus didn’t try to explain it all to Peter that night. He could not have understood it all. But he would later.

In principle, what Jesus said to Peter could be applied to many of our own experiences. We aren’t going to be able to fully understand everything that God is doing or has done in our lives here. As Moses wrote, there are secret things that belong to the Lord. There are also things that God is doing that we aren’t capable of comprehending the scope of.

As the song says, “We will understand it better by and by.”

Until then, rest in the wisdom, love, and goodness of God. You don’t have to understand everything now. You can’t understand everything now.