Devastation

Lozanne and I recently celebrated forty-one years of marriage. Proverbs 5:18
offers some sage advice that I have followed. “…And rejoice with the wife of your youth”. We were indeed very young when we married. Yesterday, as a busy day was winding down, she really made me stop and think. Indeed I have been thinking about what she said most of the night. She asked the question, “How must the disciples have felt in the few days following the crucifixion of Jesus”?

The obvious answer of course is that they were in shock and grieving His death. When we started to discuss it and I have since thought about it further at length, the enormity of their emotion is understated in words like shock and grief.

The eleven remaining disciples had all been recruited literally off the water and off the street by this man Jesus. Each left that moment to follow Him without much thought other than those of instant admiration and trust. They had left their families, in some cases, and their livelihood in all cases in order to serve Him. For three years they had witnessed first hand His ministry on Earth. They had internalized His teachings, although some parts they still did not understand. They had witnessed His miracles and countless healings. They had been part of His revolutionary thoughts and actions regarding religion and those who led the Jewish people. Through all of this Jesus never sinned. He was a man without sin. They had been granted three years of life and training with God on earth. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah and would take over as an all powerful king. They did not realize that Jesus would promise to come again a second time to reign in power and glory.

Even if we suspend for a moment the idea of the Son of God who had come to Earth for our salvation, all believers and non-believers have to concede one thing. Never was a man in all of history so effective at making his mark on this world in thirty-three short years. Here was a poor, uneducated and seemingly ordinary man, who literally put the world on its end. No one in all of history is more famous than Jesus Christ. No one can deny the profound influence His life has had 2000 years into the future. Men still speak His name daily. Some speak His name with love and respect and some continue to revile Him and take His name in vain. The point is no one in all of history has had such a profound historical effect on the world. The disciples were personal witnesses to this historical greatness.

Unfortunately the disciples became unwilling witnesses to His very brutal and undignified death on a Roman cross. How must they have felt? Coupled with the guilt of feeling they had abandoned Jesus at His time of extreme need, their devastation must have been overwhelming. Their world and every promise for the future had come crashing down around them. They were unemployed, broke and had no idea what to do next. Their beloved teacher and hope for the future was dead…so they thought.

The good news was that they were not left to suffer this total devastation for more than three days. Jesus arose from the grave. He is risen indeed. Jesus had told them all of this before but for some reason they never allowed themselves to understand the enormity of what Jesus came to earth to accomplish. In Luke 24: 46-47, Jesus appears to the disciples after His death and tells them again.

46 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
47 "and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Why was it necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead? It was necessary that he should take the sin of the world upon His shoulders and do it all for us. That work is finished and all we have to do is to believe in Him and His work. Our work is to now preach “in His name to all nations”. Each and every one of us who believe is privileged to have a part, no matter how minor, in this great commission.

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