Rise and Follow Him

45Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

Matthew 26: 45-46

The disciples were an ordinary lot. Not particularly bright and not particularly strong. Just average guys who were minding their own business when Jesus came along. So, imagine their reaction when Jesus asked them to do extraordinary things. Their response wasn’t necessarily amazement at these requests; generally it was a yawn. Such as on that night in Gethsemane when Jesus prayed, knowing the gathering storm that would soon fulfill prophecy. All he asked was that they stay awake with him. Their response? They slept. Just an ordinary group of guys.

If I’m Jesus I might be tempted to smite them just a bit for abandoning me emotionally on the most intense night of my life. I know that Judas is bringing an armed crowd to arrest me and deliver me to the authorities. My own guys, the ones I have poured into, can’t even stay awake with me. And finally, I have to wake them so they don’t miss the dramatic encounter when mankind arrests its own savior.

Of course, Jesus doesn’t smite them, or even bring just a little heat and smoke them. He simply says, “Rise, let us go,” just as he probably had said many, many times before during his active ministry. And the disciples, knowing the sound of his voice, obeyed, more than a little ashamed at their abandonment of their Lord earlier.