Hopeless Is As Hopeless Does - SQOTW

yeah i fell asleep when you needed a friend
you were sweating blood and talking about violent ends
ah we're pulling swords talking real loud
pledging allegiance yes us a bunch of cowards

-- Hopeless Is As Hopeless Does, VOL from the CD V.O.L.

This verse, sang from the POV of one of Jesus' Inner Circle of disciples, relates the story of what happened with the Lord's chosen crew just before and at Jesus' arrest. Jesus had taken John, James, and Peter with Him into the Garden at Gethsamane. After many days of travel through Israel and, finally, a week of unrest, the Lord's death is near. He knows that and has taken His three closest friends into the garden to keep watch as He prays. In His hour of need, the worn out disciples fall asleep. A couple times Jesus comes back and rebukes them -- and they see Him, albeit weary-eyed, in His sweat and in His bad condition -- but the flesh is weak, and they continue to fall asleep.
Well, before that at the Last Supper, Jesus had foretold of His coming death, and Peter started the bravado with his statements that he would never leave Christ's side, not even for the sake of his own life. Following suit, the rest of the disciples claimed the same. They bragged how they'd never leave Him.

Now, as His prayer time ends and those who seek Jesus' life have come for Him with Judas, His betrayer, He awakens the three and they get the others of the twelve, now eleven. The mixture of soldiers, priests, servants, and Judas confront Jesus and the disciples. The betrayer steps forward and has an exchange with Jesus. Then, he ends the encounter with a kiss. The soldiers and servants step forward to bind the Lord. In the heat of it, Peter (and maybe one or two others) whip out swords. Peter, the most brash of the disciples, starts the fight, slinging a blow that rips off the ear of the high priest's servant. Almost instantly, Jesus turns to Peter and tells him to holster his weapon.

Then, the soldiers step forward, this time perhaps not just to take Jesus but to get the disciples as well. And what do they do? Peter. James. John. Andrew. Philip. Thomas. Nathanael. James (the lesser). Matthew. Jude. Simon. Every last one of them that offered Christ their allegiance takes off for the hills. They run like cowards. Later, as we know, Peter denies Christ the three times.

In His love, Christ forgives them, and after the Resurrection, He restores every one of them. Deep in the depths of me, that is sooooooooo hard to believe. I know it's Christ and have the knowledge of His love (and the story in retrospect) -- but who can hurt a person the worst? Those closest to that person. And in His time of need, his "friends" abandoned Him, seeking life for themselves. Still, Christ forgave them, and that should be a lesson to me forever.

After the crucifxion, knowing what generally happened to the followers of false Messiahs, the disciples huddled together in secret for protection. I wonder about the conversations they had together during that day and a half. And all their self-esteems had to have been shot. I bet it was one depressed place.

The last thing I'll mention is that I've often wondered if I would have run. Or would I run now faced with death or renouncing my beliefs. Prophetically, I think the Psalms tell that everyone was going to abandon the Lord at that point. But more appropriate is what I would do now. There's a lot of Christians in the world right now having to make that exact decision. Same thing historically. And I don't think any Christian should ever think themselves too insulated to believe that decision might not happen to them (sorry for the double negative) someday.

Let's try and make our hearts ready and then keep them ready.