Ignorance in Prayers
Mark 10:38
But Jesus said to them, You know not what you ask: can you drink of the cup that I drink of?…


A beautiful instance of this in the life of the great Church father, , has often given both consolation and light. He wished to leave Carthage, where he had become deeply entangled in the snares of sin, and to visit Rome, then the metropolis of the world; but his pious mother, , restrained him with her tears, and would not let him go, being afraid that he would encounter still more dangerous snares in the great city. He promised to her to remain; but, forgetful of his duty, he embarked in a vessel under the cloud of night, and in that very Italy to which her affection was afraid to let him go, he found salvation and was converted. Pondering in his mind how the Eternal Love had conducted him to where he himself had thought of going only in the forwardness of his heart, he says, in his "Confessions," "But thou, my God, listening in Thy high and heavenly counsels to what was the scope of my mother's wishes, refused her what she prayed for, at that time, that Thou mightest grant her what was at all times the subject of her prayers."

(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

WEB: But Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"




Christ's Cup of Suffering
Top of Page
Top of Page