Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me
this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to
Galilee.” (Matthew 26:31-32)
The most common
scenario is when we are hit with something that feels like the darkest moment
of our lives and we can’t seem to see or hear God. We lose sight of our
Shepherd and do not know what to do or where to go to find him.
For the disciples,
this would mean facing the most crushing night of their lives. They were so
convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and they were so sure they
understood what the Messiah would do when he came, that Jesus’ crucifixion
never fit the work of God (as they understood it). His death meant everything
was OVER!
But that is exactly
how this applies to us. When people have decided to “scatter”, it is only their
“understanding” of what God was supposed to do that was shattered. It wasn’t
his word that was wrong. It was the part of his word they were isolating and exaggerating
as the only thing that applied that left them blind to what the rest of
Scripture said because they didn’t want to hear the other side of God’s story!
But what Jesus showed
in what he said was that “it is written”. And it was not only written that the
shepherd would be struck down on that night, but the prophet had also said that
the Messiah would be:
·
“despised and rejected by men”,
·
“a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”,
·
who would be “pierced for our transgressions”
and “crushed for our iniquities”,
·
it would be his “chastisement that brought us
peace” and it would be by “his wounds (that) we are healed”.
·
He would be “oppressed” and “afflicted”.
·
“By oppression and judgment” he would be “taken
away”.
·
He would be “stricken for the transgression of
my people”.
·
His “grave” would be “with the wicked”
·
And “yet it was the will of the LORD to crush
him” and “put him to grief” because by this “his soul makes an offering for
guilt” so that “he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days” and “the
will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
·
So, “because he poured out his soul to death and
was numbered with the transgressors… he bore the sin of many, and makes
intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53).
My point is that church
folk do not fall away because God does something contrary to his word, but
because they have never received what Paul called “the whole counsel of God”
about the Messiah. So, when things don’t go the way their “box” of theology demands,
they stop listening to God’s word and scatter back to the over-populated world
of lost sheep.
The key is to
always be “looking to Jesus” and “considering him” in what he did for us (see
Hebrews 12:1-3 below). Even if we see nothing else in our whole lives, what he
has already done is enough to keep us oriented to our Savior, listening to his
voice, and following where he leads, just like the “great cloud of witnesses”
has already testified by faith.
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:1-3).
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