‘The Son of Man is going to be handed over to the power of men.’( Luke 9:44 )

Following this sentence, in both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark there is, ‘who will kill him; but three days later he will be raised to life.’( Matthew 17: 23; Mark 9:31 )

It is important that ‘He will be raised to death’.  However, his apostles found it hard to accept the first part of the message, which was ‘The Son of Man is going to be handed over to the power of men’.  Peter began to rebuke him and said, ‘God forbid it, Lord!  That must never happen to you!’

Jesus’ reply was also severe.  ‘Get away from me, Satan!  You are an obstacle in my way, because these thoughts of yours don’t come from God, but from man.’( Matthew 16:23 )
It was the Father’s will that Jesus must sacrifice His life for all people.  Jesus must obey the Father’s will.  ‘My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me!  Yet not what I want, but what you want.’( Matthew 26:39 )

‘He must be raised to life.’ What doe it mean to us? To follow Jesus does not mean only to follow His suffering and death, we also follow His resurrection.  In other words, we must live His ‘Mystery of Passover’, which means to suppress our own ego-trips and to live in accordance with God’s holy will.  In a nutshell, we should live well at this present moment and place all our sorrows and joys in Jesus’ hands.