Good Intentions
Then Jesus told them, “This very
night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:
“‘I
will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But
after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I
never will.” “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night,
before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”
But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I
will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.” Matthew
26:31-35 NIV
Well,
we have made it to Good Friday.
The very day on which Jesus Christ was hung on a cross and died, all to
make sure we have a relationship with God. That’s a very simplistic way to put
it, but you get the idea. It is a
good Friday, only because we know about Sunday. If we were living during the actual events, it may not have
been such a good Friday. It would
have been awful, actually. It
would have been the day that you watched your teacher, mentor, friend and Lord
get beaten, bloodied, bruised and nailed to a tree for all to see and treated
like a criminal. All the while, you know that he did nothing wrong. You watched him love people in a way
that was amazing. You saw him perform
miracles that blew your mind. You
watched as he stood up to the bully religious leaders in the towns and put them
in their place. This is your
homie. Your friend. Your confidant. And to top it off, you are one of the
ones that he chose to spend the last three years of his life with. He chose you. Such an honor.
This is the man you think you would give your life for, basically
because you know he would do the same.
As a matter of fact, he is going to give his life for you. But at this moment, you are not ready
to do the same. You just think you
are.
When
Jesus held the Passover meal with his disciples, he knew them better than they
knew themselves. He knew that when
the time to be crucified was to come, his buddies would be nowhere to be
found. He knew that he was going
to be lonely. He knew that this
was something he had to do alone.
But the disciples didn’t know that. I think maybe it is because they could not fathom what Jesus
was talking about when he kept telling them that he was going to die. Maybe they figured that Jesus could
escape death, like he did when he was about to be stoned before and just
slipped through the crowd. Maybe
they figured that nobody could get past their entourage of disciples who
thought they were pretty tough.
Maybe they thought they were so down for the cause that they could take
a stoning like a champ. But could
they have ever imagined that the man who walked on water, gave sight to the
blind and cast out demons could ever be taken down by anybody? I don’t think they were ready to see
that. It’s hard to watch someone
you admire, love and respect go through a completely vulnerable moment. Sometimes it’s too much. You can’t bear to watch. And this is what happened to the
disciples. They couldn’t bear to
watch. So they abandoned Jesus in
his final hours, just like he knew they would.
I
don’t think any of them would have thought that they would leave Jesus for any
reason. They had no reason to. They
had stuck with him through so much already. What could have possibly made them abandon him
now? In our minds, we are a lot
tougher than we are in reality. In
my mind I can take a lot. I can
gear myself up to handle anything I can imagine. But then the rubber meets the road, and the truth of who I
am comes out. And I’m not as tough
as I think I am. I’m not as loyal
as I think I am. I’m not as
committed as I think I am. Even
though I want to be. I have every
intention of being the best everything I can be in life. Even the best Christian. In my head, if there was ever a time
when I would have to defend my faith before a firing squad or under severe
persecution, I think I’d be all about it.
I love Jesus. I could not
see myself denying my faith in Him.
But I’ve never been in that situation before, so the truth is I don’t
know. Even though I have seen
Jesus’ miracles in my life, the power of believing in him, I don’t know if I
would ever deny him. I just hope I
wouldn’t. But there is no guarantee.
I
think we need to approach our faith with a little more humility than we
do. I hear people talk all the
time about not being ashamed of Jesus and standing up for the Word. But truthfully, what I normally see is
people standing up for their own ideas of morality, not for Jesus. The person of Jesus, when the rubber
meets the road, is what we need to be able to stand for. Not just our ideas of
what that means. I mean the man
Jesus, who was innocent of any crime and is being persecuted for you. The one who is your hero, but is
completely vulnerable right now.
Can you even look at that?
Can you just be there for him in this moment? His original disciples couldn’t. What makes you think you are any better? Why are you so tough? You haven’t even seen what they saw and
somehow you think you won’t abandon Jesus when times get tough? I hope I’m not that arrogant. I know it’s in me to walk away. But I also know that it’s in Jesus to
forgive me for it. Walking away
won’t destroy me, but it will make me feel bad. But I can’t let it keep me from
moving forward. All of the
disciples, with the exception of John walked away from the cross. But they all came back to Jesus. I find it interesting that John was the
only disciple not to be martyred.
I wonder if his ability to see the cross up close and personal gave him
a pass on being martyred later.
I’m just speculating. Don’t preach that. But have some humility when it comes to saying that you won't deny Jesus. Jesus already knows if you will or not. Peter was adamant about his commitment. But he was also recorded as having denied Jesus three times. I wouldn't be so adamant if I were you. Just say, "Lord, you know." And in time, I'm sure you'll have a chance to really prove it.
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