It Aint Over Till You Give Up.

In my morning devotions, working through the gospel of Matthew, I am finally nearing the Crucifixion.  Today I was reading about the arrest. . . but something really stood out to me.  It was how ALL the disciples failed big time. One betrayed Jesus, one denied Jesus 3 times, but all left Jesus in His hour of need.

Matthew 26: 56 says ...

At that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled.

note the word ALL!

every single one of them!

in fact if you read the account in Mark, you can see how full of fear the disciples were. The one was only in a long shirt, when the mob grabbed at him, he left his shirt behind and ran away naked. Now you got to be really scared to do that.

They knew Jesus. They knew his power. They knew His promises. They knew His abilities. He had prewarned them of His death and resurection. But in this great moment, all that faith that had been developing suddenly dissipated and they hit the road running.

For some of us, when we turn away, turn back or fall, we see it as failure. Imagine how heartsore Peter must have been after denying Christ 3 times. He must have felt terrible, and possibly hated himself or carried a burden of guilt. We all do. We all miss the mark sometimes. but i noticed one difference among them.

1 didn't just fail, but he gave up completely. He eventually took his own life. its interesting to note that this happened before the crucifixion and resurection. the rest failed, but knew the love of Christ, and somehow reminded themselves [poetic licence] of his promises and the hope in him. . . they held on through the darkest however, even though they initally ran away and failed. They didnt give up completely. They saw the worst, followed by the most triumphant victory in History. And they were all restored.

We will all fail. . . but will we cling to hope and be raised up in Christ again, or will be give up completely and let our failure become permanent?