Scripture
“For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
~Mark 14:21, LSB
Quote
Who among us, at one time or the other, has not suffered betrayal? Who among us, at one time or the other, has been the betrayer?
~Calvin Miller
The first question above does not bother me so much. I am sure that I have been betrayed perhaps once or twice, maybe more, but nothing in comparison to Jesus or to those who have heard their mate say, “I don’t love you anymore. I have found someone else and I want a divorce.” It is the second question that bothers me: have I been the betrayer? No one names their boys Judas. No civilization in history honors a traitor. Pagans do not honor traitors or cowards. Benedict Arnold discovered this truth the hard way. We know what Judas did and it was despicable, but what about the other eleven? Are they squeaky clean? What about you and I? The disciples were Jesus friends; not His only friends and perhaps not His best friends, nevertheless, they were friends and should have defended Him to the death. They did not defend Him; they ran like scared rabbits.
Denial is paramount to betrayal and when Peter was questioned, he pretended not to know Jesus. I don’t think he was ashamed but he was frightened. In fear and weakness, he did what he thought he could never do, deny his LORD and Savior. I am fairly certain we have all done the same thing and for some of us, we have done it more than once. Yet there is a message here that I found shocking. Let’s suppose all of the disciples were courageous and that all eleven fought to the death and that we have twelve deaths to memorialize instead of one. I don’t believe Calvary was ever intended to be a story about courageous disciples. The bottom line is: God uses weakness to accomplish His purposes and by doing so, He gets all the glory. When we celebrate the atonement, we are not celebrating the heroic death of eleven brave disciples but the death of One Savior. Weakness is humiliating. No one knows this more than Jesus who made Himself weak in order to save us. We may not like it, but God uses our weakness.
The greatest conversion story in my 55 years of ministry came as a result of my weakness. I was afraid, I was stammering, I had cotton in my mouth and it seemed that nothing came out right. After my pitiful presentation of the gospel on the porch of a little lady who was barely five feet tall, I pulled under a grove of trees, before leaving the mobil home park, and cried. I remember telling the LORD that I had failed. She came the very next Sunday and gave her heart to Jesus. There have been times when I made a slick presentation, every verse I wanted to quote came to mind and I left thinking, what I just said is going to be life changing for that dear person. Then, to my knowledge, nothing every came from it. I can say the same about sermons. I don’t like it, but God uses our weakness. When we are weak, He is strong in us.
Extra
Nice and cool this morning. You can’t beat this weather with a stick. PTL for fall. It will not be long until we have some stew weather. Two people I want to highlight today; asking you to remember them in prayer. Melanie Mitchelle is having the stem-cell procedure today in Houston, I think. Lift Melanie and Brent up. God bless you. I hope you have a great week. Also prayer for my friend Lincoln Kallas. Lincoln is a 16 year old student at Brewer and he is going to have to have a couple of surgeries. Lincoln has been in and out of St. Jude’s for the pass two years. He is a good kid who attends every youth meeting he can. If he is home and able, it comes.
Extra/Extra
I saw something Saturday morning that broke my heart and I have not been able to get it off my mind since. I hope someday to be able to share it in it’s fullness but I can’t do it at present. It was a child in a wheel chair and that is about all I can state. I suppose it was his dad or granddad pushing him. I have prayed for the little fellow a dozen time since and I pray for his family too. I told my grandkids at lunch yesterday: we don’t know how thankful we should be. Concerning God’s goodness to me: the lyrics of the songs yesterday spoke to me. Carol began our service by singing “WITHOUT HIM I COULD DO NOTHING.” She was a personal friend with the author of this song. Before the message, Mary song THE ANCHOR HOLDS and boy did I need to hear that song. This old ship {my body} is battered and my sails {get up and go} is tattered but the ANCHOR HOLDS. Any time we sing JESUS IS MY LORD, MY MASTER AND SAVIOR, it is a good day. My grandson Landon told me at lunch, “Doug sang my favorite song,” then Landon sang a bar or two. Then at lunch, our grand children served us: I think it was grand parents day. Folks, I don’t have one reason to complain about anything and yet I do. At least, I am afraid I do. I complained about the officiating Friday night and the the play calling in the Alabama game. I should be ashamed and I am. It is amazing: I have two friends my age battling cancer and neither one has complained one time. The man pushing the wheel chair Saturday wasn’t complaining either.