A Night To Remember

Mark 14:43-52

Judas: The Betrayer
Gave up Jesus with the kiss of friendship.
We know this as, "The Kiss of Death" through the ages.
One of the twelve.
He had inside access to Jesus.
For three years - he should have figured it out.
But for greed ...

Peter: The Impulsive
A show of force against Jesus in his arrest.
Peter reacts.
He keeps his promise to Jesus to lay down his life for Him.
And Jesus must step in, heal the servant injured and tell Peter to put the sword away.

Jesus: The One At Peace
He knew God is in control.
He was in the center of God's will.
He understood the temporary nature of "life".
He was ready for the next step.

The Unknown One
The one fleeing away naked.
Someone whom had tagged along with Jesus that night.
Well, Jesus had been at Mark's grandmother's home for the Sabbath.
Was this Mark?
Was this his way of saying, "I was there, I fled too ..."?

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Dutchman, Swede, Edvard and I used to contemplate this passage ... how could anyone have done differently?  Of course, there is no way - this was God's desire - He foreordained this - He was the one in control.  Jesus must be betrayed, He must be abandoned by all, Jesus must die.

There is just the sense of hopelessness in the coming loss to the disciples.  Their paths were about to change dramatically - in spite of themselves!  And the Roman world was about to be overturned.

And we would think about the price those men paid ... for what was to become "Christianity" today.  No comparison to what God wanted, what Jesus and all of the disciples gave their lives for ...  Today we have this useless mush called a religion, there are few whom understand the cost of what they have been given.  There are few whom are willing to live their lives on the edge, never being completely sure their direction - much less God's perfect will.  Just stumbling along, making mistakes, never giving up, always trying to be what we are called to be and do.

And the four of us would then sigh ... not knowing our futures, only our interests and desires and not knowing how God could or would use them or us.  Certainly, in my estimate, we stayed the course - with bumps along the way.  Nothing could have surprised us more than Edvard's death, the bets were literally Swede or I dying first.  Edvard the rock you could always count on.  And years later, we still do not understand why.

Just like the disciples, we are so clueless, so not understanding, so confused, so close to the cusp of the future ...