So… Judas was not the only follower of Christ to betray Him. Without question, to deny Christ, whom you have known, is to betray Him. As Christ had previously informed Peter, we read how Peter pretended not to know Christ, even going so far as to dispute the servant girl who recognized him as “one of the man’s disciples?”
I know there was not a lot in the five verses I asked you to read but, remember, I didn’t ask you to read. I asked you to “read, study, discuss, and pray,” and, to that end, there is a lot here. First, we actually have two disciples with Christ as He was taken before the high Priest to answer his charges. But the two disciples acted very differently. While Peter first stood outside the gate and then, when brought through the gate by the other disciple, went to stand with the servants and the soldiers who had arrested Christ, the other “went with Jesus.” Peter separated himself from being identified with Christ and even went and enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the fire, standing with the world that would see Christ killed.
So, as you went through this week considering and praying about what your Savior went through, did you step-up to the challenge I gave you last Sunday? Did you stand with Christ and pronounce your association to those around you, or did you hide outside the gate? Or worse, chat it up with the world who would deny Him? While Peter, after the events of this week/weekend, would become a great disciple, on this day he was no better than Judas. When faced with the price of being associated with that radical, Christ, where did you stand this week? Where and who will you be next week? Is your proclamation as a “follower” just as empty as Peter’s when he swore, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.”
If the world you are “In” is happy to stand around the fire with you, what world are you “Of”?
Today, as you choose to stand by the “fire” or by “Faith,” I leave you with Christ’s words to consider. (along with John 18:19-27)
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well…”
Post: “In” Not “Of” – 4/3/21
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© Scott A Caughel 4/02/2021