Can You Predict the Future?

Can you predict the future? Think about the last time you made plans for an outdoor event or activity. Did the weather work out the way you hoped it would?

No matter how hard we may try, we cannot predict the future accurately. Sometimes we get it right, but just as often we get it wrong. This can leave us with a sense of dread.

Instead, it should push us towards faith – faith in the One who can predict the future. We should acknowledge our limits and lean on the one Person who knows our past, our present, and our future. We should trust Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ’s ability to predict the future was highlighted during the weeks that led up to His death, burial and resurrection in Jerusalem. Just before approaching the capital city, He took His followers aside and explained to them that He was about to die. He told them He would mocked, scourged, and crucified, but on the third day he would be raised back up to life (Matthew 20:17-19).

Jesus had made many other hints and declarations of His death and resurrection; this was just the most direct. Not only does it underscore His dedication to God’s plan for redemption, it also helps to explains why He made it a point to tell His follows about His death and resurrection before it ever happened (Matthew 16:21-23, 17:22-23, 27:63, 28:6).

This last prediction was meant to help His followers find their part in God’s plan for redemption. In Matthew 20:18, Jesus said, “We are going up to Jerusalem.” The rest of His statement implies that He was sharing more than travel instructions. He was sharing how His followers would be involved in and affected by the coming events. The Jewish officials would condemn Him to death. The Roman authorities would carry out that sentence. And His followers would have a front row seat to what happened next.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a historical fact, it’s the focal point of God’s plan to redeem the world. The clues that the Savior dropped along the way to Jerusalem were shared as request for all His followers, past and present. They were meant as an invitation to share in His death and His resurrection.

Easter is a reminder that “He has risen, just as He said” (Matthew 28:6). It is also an invitation to put our faith in the Savior who defeated sin and death on our behalf. It’s an opportunity to follow the One who knows our past, our present, and our future.