FOCUS: Stay the course

Thursday’s Reading: Matthew 26:17-46, Mark 14:12-42, Luke 22:7-46, John 13-17

“Then all the disciples left Him and fled.” (Matt 26:56)

~

“It’s like I had my head down, running hard, thinking I was surrounded by all these other people running with me. But then I opened my eyes and they were all gone.”

A dear friend was recently sharing an alone feeling. I know that feeling. Thankfully, I don’t have it now, I am surrounded by an amazing group of God-seeking women who challenge and inspire me every single day. I have to work hard just to keep up! And that’s just it, that’s how it should be. It’s way easier to keep running when you’ve got your friends by your side pushing you by their presence.

I’ve often thought about how much togetherness can give you courage for whatever’s ahead. Surrounded by my nearest and dearest I can scale a wall and move mountains (or that’s how I feel!). But it’s also remarkable how someone walking away, quitting the race, leaving your side, for whatever reason, can leave you feeling alone, abandoned, weary …

and completely overwhelmed for whatever’s ahead.

In just a few short hours my family gets to gather with a few others for the Passover meal, remembering that long-ago Passover meal Jesus shared with His disciples, the Last Supper, right before He is betrayed and goes to the cross. It’s a super fun meal. Heidi and I just mixed up the Haroset and Dutch made the Tzibzle potatoes. I can smell the onions carmelizing as I type this.

But when I think back to Jesus’ last supper, I can’t help but think how lonely He must have felt. Here he is, enjoying a supposed celebratory meal, surrounded by his closest friends, fully knowing that in just a few hours they would ALL leave Him.

Wouldn’t His heart be breaking even as He broke the bread?

Just hours before Jesus will take on the sins of the world, hang on a cross, and receive the full weight of His Father’s wrath, just hours before this, as he gears up for the most unthinkably torturous event in the history of mankind, he experiences this:

First, Peter, James & John can’t even stay awake. They’re snoozing while Jesus is praying (Matt 26:40).

Then, one of his friends, one of the 12, Judas Iscariot, betrays Jesus with a kiss (Matt 26:49).

But then, as if this weren’t enough. With a matter of minutes, we read a short verse that nearly knocks the wind out of me:

“Then all the disciples left him and fled.” (v.56)

All His disciples.

All His friends.

All His faithful followers.

Every last one.

Gone.

After spending years pouring into them and loving them and giving His life for them. In a matter of moments, every last one of them is gone.

And He is alone. In every sense.

I can only imagine in Jesus’ humanity, in a point of weariness, utter fatigue and exhaustion (he’d been up all night praying) the abandonment would have made it even more overwhelming to face what was ahead.

I still remember, years ago, in a moment of pain and feeling utterly alone, I bowed down on the floor and poured my heart out for God, I heard this:

“You’re in the middle of something revolutionary. Don’t give up.”

(Not saying my life is a big deal, but I believe that in my little tiny corner of the world, the work He’s doing is revolutionary.)

Perhaps Jesus heard something similar when He cried out to the Father.

“You’re in the middle of something revolutionary. Don’t give up.”

I don’t mean to draw too close of a parallel here. Little lonelinesses we experience are nothing compared to what Jesus endured, being forsaken by God and man as He hung on the cross and bore the sins of the world.

But if you have ever felt alone, forgotten, abandoned, left …

you can identify with Jesus.

You can enter into His story today and experience a droplet of the ocean of grief He bore. 

You can let that experience lead you to worship, gratitude, overwhelming thanks to Jesus that He didn’t give up.

He stayed the course. 

You can too.

{You’re in the middle of something revolutionary. Don’t give up. Stay the course. Thanks for reading.}