Transitions II: Band of Brothers

I have a passion for the Lord Jesus the Christ.  This passion is the fuel and sustenance of why I get up early in the morning to write, commune with Him during the day, and meditate on His Word at night.  He is the One and Only,¹ the Almighty God,² Sovereign and Lord,³ Faithful and True.⁴  It is Christ that gives me strength, abundantly prospers me, and consistently lifts me up when I fall.  

     The mighty warrior and king, David, relied on Christ’s strength to overcome his enemies, the same forces of this world that come against us to trip us in our walk of faith.  A psalmist wrote this passage that symbolizes David’s example as a leader of faith, a man of God, and a man after God’s own heart:⁵

Though hostile nations surrounded me,

I destroyed them all in the name of the LORD.

Yes, they surrounded and attacked me,

but I destroyed them all in the name of the LORD.

They swarmed around me like bees;

they blazed against me like a roaring flame.

But I destroyed them in the name of the LORD.

You did your best to kill me, O my enemy,

but the LORD helped me.

The LORD is my strength and my song;

he has become my victory.⁶

Back in the garden on the night of Jesus’ Last Supper with the men He chose to pass the baton,⁷ 
with the men He predicted would stumble because of Him and scatter to their separate ways,⁸ 

with the men He promised to give another Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would teach them all things, bring to remembrance all things He had taught them and anoint them with power,⁹

a great transition was about to unfold.

What is the catalyst that begins a transition?  What breaks the mold created by past behaviors and experiences?  What upsets the cart, rocks the boat, turns over the tables?  First, Jesus took aside His top three disciples, Peter, James, and John.  These three men were granted privileged time in Jesus’ presences on several occasions: during the healing of Jairus’ daughter,¹⁰ during the Transfiguration of Elijah and Moses on the mountaintop,¹¹ and now here in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus prepares to pray to His Father:

And they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, “Sit here while I go and pray.”  He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress.  He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.  Stay here and watch with me.”¹²

In the upstairs room where the disciples had last supped with Jesus, all of them had just expressed their allegiance to Him, even to death as a retort to Jesus’ prophetic words that they would stumble and scatter:

Peter said to Him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.”

“Peter,” Jesus replied, “the truth is, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

“No!” Peter insisted.  “Not even if I have to die with you!  I will never deny you!”  And all the others vowed the same.¹³

“And all the others vowed the same.”  This band of brothers stood before their King as armor bearers to die for Him.  Yet Jesus knew of His Father’s other plans.¹⁴

1. John 1:14,18 NIV
2. Genesis 17:1, 35:11 NIV
3. Jude 1:4 NIV
4. Revelations 19:11 NIV
5. 1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22
6. Psalm 118:10-14 
7. Luke 6:12-16, John 15:16, 19, 26-27, 17:18, Matthew 28:19
8. Zechariah 13:7, Matthew 26:31, 56
9. John 14:26, Acts 1:8
10. Luke 8:49-56
11. Matthew 17:1-2
12. Mark14:32-34 
13. Mark 14:29-31
14. John 18:4

Excerpt from A Spiritual Diary, “Transitions,” part 2 of a 6 part series. Copyright © August 5, 2004 by Jeff Cambridge