“And he came the third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.’” Mark 14:41-42
It’s Easter week. Good Friday, as we call it, is tomorrow. For the saved Christian who knows the mercy of God at the cross of Christ there’s a great lesson to learn. It’s not always obvious, but it’s crucial.
When trials come, we’re surprised, but the Lord is not. We’re surprised because we have a false view of life based usually on faulty humanistic premises. We confuse comfort with righteousness. We confuse ease with holiness. We think our struggle is financial or vocational rather than against sin. But the highest goal, that which we’re moving forward to achieve, is conformity to the image of Christ. Our circumstances here on earth don’t define us. They refine us.
In Christ, through faith alone, not by any of our personal merit, God sees Christ in us. Yes, you! Remember that Jesus asked Saul on Damascus Road why he was persecuting Him. Him! Oh, the blessedness that proceeds from this majestic and mysterious fact of Christian life. If you are in Christ, your life and struggles matter infinitely more than you can fathom. You aren’t alone in this.
Are you suffering? Are you facing persecution? Do you worry? Does anxiety, regret, and fear stalk your sleep and at times rob you of confidence and peace?
We can take solace in two things, though.
First, we see that the disciples, despite having our Lord with them, able to touch Him and speak with Him, were still unable to discern the moments. Life’s tumult still took them by surprise and, like us, they fretted and worried that circumstances would turn against them at any instant. Remember them in the boat, rocked by a storm, taking on water in the black of the night, and how they feared for their lives. Aren’t they like us? Don’t we succumb to dread in our life’s storms too? But they go and get Jesus. So should we. The storm took them by surprise precisely because they expected all to be well – always – and this isn’t a logical – or Biblical – expectation. We share this irrational expectation. That’s like a boxer who doesn’t train for the fight, who’s out of shape. Who’s lazy. We should always stay dressed for action (Luke 12:35).
Being off-guard is the sign of a heart that wrongly thinks Christian life is a vacation. But we aren’t saved for life on a cruise ship. Christ puts us on His battleship. Man your station, Christian! You’re in a spiritual war. They hated Him and now they’ll hate you. Weren’t the disciples sleeping instead of staying on guard that night in the garden? The Bible never promises Christians an absence of trouble here under the sun. Where does this stupid notion come from but the devil and the flesh? Yes, all things will work together for our good but this isn’t to say that all things will always be comfortable. Evil days and unhappy events will at different times catch us. But, still, God promises that we will never be broken by them.
So, we struggle with our worries and anxieties. So did the disciples and they lived with Jesus for three earthly years. The truth is that it simply isn’t given to us to know times and seasons and we should altogether stop trying. If they (the disciples) didn’t know, we won’t know either.
This brings us to our second joyous consideration: Jesus isn’t surprised.
Look at Him in the garden. He says, “see, my betrayer is at hand.” He isn’t blindsided by the events. What can calm our souls, quiet our fears, and extinguish the fires of worry more surely than knowing and trusting God’s sovereignty? Jesus is unlike any you will ever know. Not once do we see Him taken up by life’s events. He knows fully well the path at every step and is prepared to meet every situation. This is the antidote to the overly emotional Christian who swings to and fro; Christ knows all, is above all, and is never off His glorious throne. When a storm arises out of the dark, you have Him to run to and you know, like Jesus in the garden, that whatever God chooses for you will be ultimately good.
Though He might slay us, still we are to praise and trust Him. This is faith; this is true peace. And we know that our circumstances, though they might master us for the moment, have met their match in our Lord. Though we might lose here and now, we revel in the knowledge that Christ went willingly to the cross and triumphed over it. He didn’t go against His will for none could have prevailed against Him. No, He went for the joy set before Him – so that He might be the firstborn among all who believe and put their trust in Him. That He was raised from the dead should forever quiet us in moments of pain, rejection, and fear. God hasn’t momentarily taken a coffee break and lost track of us. He doesn’t need a Plan B because His plan is never frustrated no matter how it looks to us.
And, still, look again at this sequence of events. Jesus is bold even in the face of his betrayer and pending execution because He’s been in prayer and taken His petitions to the Father. If we are ever to find true solace as Christians we must be praying Christians that know the Word. If we pray but don’t know His Word then we pray in blindness to a God we don’t know. Remember: the disciples ran to Him when they were scared and we should run to the Scriptures. There’s a great mistake we ought to steer clear of: seeking the blessings of the Lord but not the Lord Himself. Indeed, the Lord is our portion; knowing and following Him is blessedness. Too often, though, we end up relying on things and experiences rather than God. In such cases hardships are sure to abound since He disciplines those He loves and hardship is meant in many cases to wean the Christian off of reliance on the world.
The man or woman of the Lord, though, rests assured in the storms; they can say, “my heart isn’t troubled or afraid.” And this isn’t their own doing, by their own power; this isn’t human grit or effort but simple and beautiful faith in the Lord. We’ll have no rest and no peace until and unless we have Him and His life-giving word. So, are you hurting? Are you scared? Throw yourself upon Him! Go in prayer. Cry if you need to…cry to Him and praise Him that He endured all for you, so that you’d be saved. Don’t ever forget that before the glory of the empty tomb on Sunday, there was all that darkness on Thursday night. God brought redemption to us in the most astonishing way. The only truly evil thing that ever happened on earth, insofar as justice is concerned, was the unlawful arrest and murder of the sinless Son of God. And He endured all that for you. So, in your pains, in your confusion, keep this in mind. These Thursday nights will come for us too. So, stay dressed for action.
A great mistake is for a boxer to think he’ll win every fight with one punch…he isn’t ready for a struggle. It’s like that for Christians too. Be ready. But know…always know…that Sunday morning is on the horizon. And that tomb is empty.
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