In our Bible story today (Acts 1) Peter is saying that the disciples ought to figure out who might replace Judas, and they end up with Matthias.
Did you ever think about how hard it must have been for them to have lost Judas? Sure, sure, they had much bigger things going on: their master arrested and tortured and killed, their denying Him, the resurrection and their initial disbelief of it, and the whole thing of "What now?" and waiting.
But think about what it would be like if it were you; y'know, they lived with Judas for three years. They traipsed around the countryside with him. They'd been through a lot together. And then he turned away. That's a scary thought. When we see faithful Christians turn away, we wonder why. We question whether God screwed up. We wonder if we will be the next to reject God's love. Maybe the disciples needed some comfort in these matters. Peter points out that Judas's betrayal was foretold in the scriptures, and it happened just as surely as did Jesus' death and resurrection (which were likewise foretold).
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"But think about what it would be like if it were you; y'know, they lived with Judas for three years. They traipsed around the countryside with him. They'd been through a lot together. And then he turned away."
ReplyDeleteWow. And not only was there the losing of Judas on a spiritual level but there was also the losing of him on the human level, as a friend, someone who, as you point out, they had been through so very much with together. I never really thought about that before. But how it must have hurt to lose one of their own at a time when they were pretty much all they had. Again, wow.
You know that I agree Susan. Never got to see your Passion of Christ post. IT disappeared....:/
ReplyDeleteKarin, that was the couple of days when blogger was shut down to read-only with no comments, no posting, no editing. In their attempts to fix the problem they even went back and yanked everybody's posts from the previous 24 hours or so.
ReplyDeleteOnce blogger was working again, I reposted. It's there. Scroll down a bit. :-)
Cheryl, one of the things that comes up again and again in Bible class here is the veracity of God's word.
ReplyDeleteNathan told David (after the incident with Bathsheba and Uriah) that
1) the child would die,
2) the sword would never leave his house,
3) God had put away David's sin.
So the first two of those came to pass, sad as they were. But those grievous things also gave testimony that God's word is sure and certain. In other words, if God said it, it's a done deal. So then, the forgiveness too is a sure thing and as good as accomplished.
Same thing for what Jesus told the disciples. You will be delivered up for My sake. You will be persecuted. Yikes -- who wants that? But He also said that He would die and rise again. He also said that He'd meet them in Galilee. Those historical events came to pass, and so would the persecution that was yet to come, and (more importantly) so also would He be faithful to keep His promise to save them and bring them to His mansions.
I guess I'm seeing the same thing with Peter's preaching about Judas. Yes, Judas fell away. But God knew beforehand that he would. When they recognize that --even as much as the loss would have hurt-- the disciples are once again reminded of the complete accuracy of the scriptures. And if God is always right, that means He's right about the stuff He said when He was ascending: about their being witnesses, and that He would be with them always, and that they would receive the Holy Spirit in a few days.
Susan, thank you. Just wanted to let you know I saw your response. Which reminds me--I have noticed a difference between your blog and mine--and some others--in that there isn't an option to subscribe to comments on yours. That means that I have to check back to see if there have been any comments. I don't mind doing that, but sometimes my brain fails me and I forget and then I don't see the comment as quickly as I otherwise might. I'm wondering if that is an option that gets toggled on or off in Blogger--I can't remember--and you have specifically decided to leave it toggled off? Or maybe it's a default that could be changed? I for one, would vote for the option to subscribe to comments on your blog. Just in case you want to consider my opinion. ;-)
ReplyDeleteDuh. Now I'm seeing at bottom right a "subscribe by email" option I never saw before. Double duh. That seems different from what I see on my blog. Or has Blogger changed its subscribe apparatus? Or am I just going crazy? Probably that last one.
ReplyDeleteCheryl, I went and checked my settings. I don't see anything that would cause the comment-subscription to show up the way it does here, instead of as the little checkbox you see on most blogs. I don't know why. But, yeah, I guess the little line just below the comment-box is the only way.
ReplyDelete