The disciples proved inept, but the opposition was quite competent. After Judas handed Jesus over to the leaders of Jerusalem's aristocracy, they quickly came to their expected conclusion and sent him off to the Roman governor for execution; before evening he was dead. If we did not know the end of the story, would we have had any confidence at this point that God was executing his own purposes? But like the first disciples, we should have: by this point in the Gospel, both they and we have seen who Jesus is. Is any opposition severe enough to make us doubt that in the end God really has everything under control though we do not? The disciples doubted, but they should have known better.