Mark 14:1-72
After three years of walking with Christ, eating with Him, watching Him do countless miracles and listening to all of His teaching; when in came down to the end the disciples ran. Their fear of the consequences of being associated with Christ outweighed their loyalty to Him and their love of Him. My question is why? What led to this downfall in their lives? More importantly, what can we learn from their mistakes when we face similar circumstances. There are three attitudes that stick out to me that I believe we would all do well to avoid as we strive to walk with Christ.
THE DISCIPLES WERE CRITICAL: The woman who anointed Christ's head with the costly perfume, did so as an act of love and worship. Christ praised her actions and promised that she would be remembered wherever the Gospel was preached (like we are remembering her now). The disciples were not so kind. They criticized her act of worship as wasteful and frivolous. They could not imagine pouring out such a costly perfume. Selling it and using the money for a more useful purpose would have been much more practical. The point is that this was not their perfume, it was hers and she loved Jesus so much, that this is the way that was in her heart to express her love. We must be very careful of the attitudes that we have towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. We might not always understand the way that they choose to worship our Lord, but it is dangerous to cultivate a critical spirit towards them. It does not mean that we have to go out and do what they do. It just means that we do them, ourselves and the Lord a disservice when we are critical. I wonder if they would have faced temptation more effectively had they celebrated their love for the Lord with this woman instead of calling her on the carpet.
THE DISCIPLES WERE CONCEITED: Pride is one of the most dangerous sins we can allow to fester in our hearts. We see that it was there aplenty in the lives of the disciples. We see it in their attitudes towards the woman. We see it at the Lord's table when they are clearly told that they will abandon and deny Christ. We see it again when they fall asleep instead of praying. All of these actions and reactions are indicative of their conceit. When Christ warned them, they should have humbly recognized their own weakness and asked Christ how they might be victorious. Believing that we are too strong to fall is a sure fire way to fail. One of the greatest demonstrations of spiritual pride on our part is prayerlessness. When we neglect prayer we are, in essence, saying that we are strong enough to handle whatever comes our way without God's help. This is pride. Jesus told the disciples to pray so that they would not enter into temptation. They thought they had it all covered without prayer. If we are going to be successful at warding off temptation in our lives, we must humbly recognize our own frailty and faithfully seek the Lord's face in prayer that He might empower and equip us to stand firm.
THE DISCIPLES WERE COWARDS: Talk is easy and the disciples were quick to talk big, but when the mob showed up to capture Christ, they took cover. Had they not seen Him calm the sea? Had they not watched Him perform miracle after miracle? Did they not know that the safest place in the world is to be at the side of Jesus? They were out numbered and out armed in every since except for the fact that Christ was by their side. The problem was that Jesus did not seem to be doing much about His, and their, circumstances. When one disciple did jump forward to defend Christ with a sword and cut off a member of the mobs ear, Jesus just "fixed it." So, when it looked like Christ was determined to let this play out, they got moving. It is always a danger for us to allow cowardice to overcome our hearts when it appears that Christ is inactive. Most of us don't have the audacity to doubt God's power, but when He does not respond the way that we think He should, that is when we run the risk of allowing our doubts to turn into fear. We will do much better to stand firm in faith no matter what the circumstances may be and how inattentive God might appear. It is precisely in those desperate moments that God forges courage in our character. May God grant us the grace to flee from cowardice and may He faithfully fill us with courageousness.
THE DISCIPLES WERE CRITICAL: The woman who anointed Christ's head with the costly perfume, did so as an act of love and worship. Christ praised her actions and promised that she would be remembered wherever the Gospel was preached (like we are remembering her now). The disciples were not so kind. They criticized her act of worship as wasteful and frivolous. They could not imagine pouring out such a costly perfume. Selling it and using the money for a more useful purpose would have been much more practical. The point is that this was not their perfume, it was hers and she loved Jesus so much, that this is the way that was in her heart to express her love. We must be very careful of the attitudes that we have towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. We might not always understand the way that they choose to worship our Lord, but it is dangerous to cultivate a critical spirit towards them. It does not mean that we have to go out and do what they do. It just means that we do them, ourselves and the Lord a disservice when we are critical. I wonder if they would have faced temptation more effectively had they celebrated their love for the Lord with this woman instead of calling her on the carpet.
THE DISCIPLES WERE CONCEITED: Pride is one of the most dangerous sins we can allow to fester in our hearts. We see that it was there aplenty in the lives of the disciples. We see it in their attitudes towards the woman. We see it at the Lord's table when they are clearly told that they will abandon and deny Christ. We see it again when they fall asleep instead of praying. All of these actions and reactions are indicative of their conceit. When Christ warned them, they should have humbly recognized their own weakness and asked Christ how they might be victorious. Believing that we are too strong to fall is a sure fire way to fail. One of the greatest demonstrations of spiritual pride on our part is prayerlessness. When we neglect prayer we are, in essence, saying that we are strong enough to handle whatever comes our way without God's help. This is pride. Jesus told the disciples to pray so that they would not enter into temptation. They thought they had it all covered without prayer. If we are going to be successful at warding off temptation in our lives, we must humbly recognize our own frailty and faithfully seek the Lord's face in prayer that He might empower and equip us to stand firm.
THE DISCIPLES WERE COWARDS: Talk is easy and the disciples were quick to talk big, but when the mob showed up to capture Christ, they took cover. Had they not seen Him calm the sea? Had they not watched Him perform miracle after miracle? Did they not know that the safest place in the world is to be at the side of Jesus? They were out numbered and out armed in every since except for the fact that Christ was by their side. The problem was that Jesus did not seem to be doing much about His, and their, circumstances. When one disciple did jump forward to defend Christ with a sword and cut off a member of the mobs ear, Jesus just "fixed it." So, when it looked like Christ was determined to let this play out, they got moving. It is always a danger for us to allow cowardice to overcome our hearts when it appears that Christ is inactive. Most of us don't have the audacity to doubt God's power, but when He does not respond the way that we think He should, that is when we run the risk of allowing our doubts to turn into fear. We will do much better to stand firm in faith no matter what the circumstances may be and how inattentive God might appear. It is precisely in those desperate moments that God forges courage in our character. May God grant us the grace to flee from cowardice and may He faithfully fill us with courageousness.
Comments
Post a Comment